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Abstract
The Moreno Question—or Subjective National Identity Scale (SNIS)—is frequently used to study ethno-territorial claims and conflicts. Its origin and development are not so well-known. The SNIS was first implemented in Spain, in the late 1960s, and scale data have been gathered regularly since then. While the relevant definition of ‘national’ has been a constant source of controversy, the SNIS measure has systematically found duality predominating across the country. Focussing on SNIS methodology and its impact on data and interpretation, this article investigates the scale’s psychometric and sociological features, including structure and wording. That the scale tends to inflate dual responses has already been noted elsewhere but the interpretation of this duality, in terms of individual national sentiments, is still too readily accepted. The scale’s identity adjectives and their use in social science are insufficiently analysed, especially as pertains to Spain. Further analysis could also be of relevance for other plurinational states and ethno-political contexts.
Acknowledgements
The authors are thankful to the journal’s editors and referees for their evaluations on earlier drafts.
Notes
1. The expression derives from the name of the sociologist, Luis Moreno, who popularised the scale internationally in the 1980s (Moreno, Citation2006).
2. This regime practised Castilian assimilationist policies as had the dictatorship of 1924–1931 (Cussó, Citation2013).
3. http://www.congreso.es/constitucion/ficheros/c78/cons_ingl.pdf. Note that the Constitution also states in article 8 that the mission of the Armed Forces ‘is to guarantee […] and to defend [Spain’s] territorial integrity’.
4. The first Catalan Statute was approved in 1932, and suspended in 1934.
5. Ley Orgánica de Armonización del Proceso Autonómico: http://e-spacio.uned.es/fez/eserv.php?pid=bibliuned:BFD-1983-09-10-10006&dsID=PDF.
6. See as well Iñaki Anasagasti’s analysis: http://blogs.deia.com/historiasdelosvascos/2012/04/03/a-30-anos-de-la-loapa/.
7. According to Payero-López (Citation2016), Spain could allow for a referendum in an AC—as have both Great Britain and Canada for Scotland and Quebec—under a liberal interpretation of the Constitution.
9. http://www.cis.es/cis/opencms/EN/8_cis/normativa/legislacion.html. The Catalan Centre d’Estudis d’Opinió also uses the SNIS in some of its surveys: http://www.ceo.gencat.cat/ceop/AppJava/pages/index.html.
10. See Luis Moreno’s works at http://csic.academia.edu/LuisMoreno/ or https://scholar.google.fr/citations?user=lM2vXGoAAAAJ&hl=en.
12. In the Merriam-Webster dictionary, ‘nationalism’ is primarily defined as ‘a feeling that people have of being loyal to and proud of their country often with the belief that it is better and more important than other countries’. The second definition refers to ‘a desire by a large group of people (such as people who share the same culture, history, language, etc.) to form a separate and independent nation of their own’, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nationalism. For the Institut d’Estudis Catalans, ‘nacionalisme’ is uniquely defined as an ‘ideology and movement which claims the independent political organization of a nation’, http://dlc.iec.cat/results.asp?txtEntrada=Nacionalisme&operEntrada=0.
13. ‘Dans la période contemporaine, l’Espagne semble avoir dépassé ces contradictions et s’être engagé dans un post-nationalisme—un quasi fédéralisme!—qui s’appuie à la fois sur le national, l’infranational et le supranational’ (Delfour, Citation2009, p. 307).
15. The historical and well-documented (dictionaries, official decisions, etc.) evolution toward this ‘equivalence’ is further analysed in Garcia and Grande (Citation2012). They compare the construction of the French and the Spanish national identities in pages 23–46.
16. The name of the Dictionary of Castilian Language of the Real Academia Espanola (RAE) was changed to Dictionary of Spanish Language in 1925, during the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera (1923–1930).
17. For several decades, the Catalan language had been forbidden in the public arena, which may explain why the Castilian language is still generally used in the majority of social contexts where at least one person prefers Castilian, regardless of his/her knowledge of Catalan.
20. The PP is a Spanish right-wing party; C’s is a Catalan centrist party. Both are explicitly unionist. To portray their positions, the unionist campaign in Catalonia uses the logo of a heart, half-enveloped by the Spanish flag and half by the Catalan flag: ‘The movement […] wants to encourage people who feel Catalan and Spanish to “raise their voices against separatism” in the elections of 25 November [2012]’, http://www.naciodigital.cat/noticia/48564/dona-li/volta/nova/campanya/favor/unitat/espanya.
21. Convergència is a liberal Catalan party and Unió is a more conservative formation that has since disbanded. ERC is a left-wing party, CUP a party of the far-left. These three parties are pro-independence.
22. ICV is a Catalan communist party, associated to ecologists.
23. The PSC is the Catalan part of the Spanish socialist party PSOE. During the 2012 electoral campaign, they defined themselves as ‘federalist’.
24. Podemos was created in 2014, in Madrid with the objective of providing a leftist alternative to the PSOE. In the AC such as Galicia, Catalonia, Valencia and the Basque Country, Podemos has negotiated coalitions with local parties. They have adopted new names representing these particular associations. In Catalonia, Catalunya si que es pot (CSQEP) was essentially formed by ICV-Els Verds and Podemos.