Class, Sector and Nation. Support for Minority Nationalism Among Peak Interest Groups in Four Western European Countries

Abstract

The relationship between class and nationality has been a contentious one in the social sciences. Efforts to reduce one to the other have never succeeded. Rather, they interact in complex ways. In contemporary Europe, nationalist movements have revived in some wealthy regions, in what is sometimes seen as a ‘revolt of the rich’, an effort to promote territorial self-interest. If this were so, we would expect representatives of the main economic interests to support secession. A study of business and trade unions in Scotland, Catalonia, the Basque Country, Flanders and Lombardy, however, shows that both are cross-pressured. Nation-builders seek to build cross-class coalitions of support, but both business and trade unions retain strong ties to the existing states, producing different outcomes in each case.

Extracto

En las ciencias sociales la relación entre clase y nacionalidad siempre ha sido controvertida. Y nunca se ha logrado prescindir de un concepto a favor del otro. Más bien, los dos interactúan de forma compleja. En la Europa actual, en algunas regiones ricas han vuelto a surgir movimientos nacionalistas, lo que a veces se considera una “revolución de los ricos” que defienden sus propios intereses territoriales. Si así fuese, lo normal es que los representantes de los principales intereses económicos apoyasen la secesión. Sin embargo, en un estudio sobre negocios y organizaciones sindicales en Escocia, Cataluña, el País Vasco, Flandes y Lombardía se demuestra que ambos grupos se sienten presionados por las dos partes. Los que apoyan la construcción de una nación quieren crear coaliciones de apoyo entre las clases sociales, pero tanto las empresas como las organizaciones sindicales retienen fuertes vínculos con los Estados existentes, generando diferentes resultados en cada caso.

摘要 阶级与国族之间的关係，一向是社会科学中具有争议性的议题。将其中一个概念化约为另外一种的尝试，则从未成功过。反之，上述两者是以复杂的方式相互影响之。在当代欧洲，民族主义运动在部分的富裕区域中復甦，并时而被视为“富人的反叛”，意即致力于促进领土性的自我利益。若真如此，那麽我们或可预期主要经济利益的代表会支持分离主义。但研究苏格兰、加特隆尼亚、巴斯克自治区、法兰德斯和伦巴第的商会及工会却显示出，两者同时受到交叉施压。国族建立者寻求打造跨阶级联盟的支持，但商会和工会则同时与现行的国家维繫着强大的连结，并在各案例中导致不同的结果。

Résumé

Le rapport entre la classe sociale et la nationalité a été une question controversée dans les sciences sociales. Des efforts visant à subsumer l'une par l'autre n'ont jamais réussi. Plutôt, elles interagissent de manière complexe. Aujourd'hui en Europe, la recrudescence des mouvements nationalistes s'est manifestée dans certaines régions riches, dans ce qui est perçu quelquefois comme ‘la révolte des riches’, par un effort visant à promouvoir un intérêt territorial. Le cas échéant, on attendrait à ce que les représentants des principaux intérêts économiques soutiennent la sécession. Cependant, une étude des commerces et des syndicats en Écosse, en Catalogne, au Pays basque, en Flandre et en Lombardie laisse voir que les deux subissent de la pression des deux côtés. Les bâtisseurs de la nation cherchent à établir des alliances qui englobent toutes les couches sociales, mais le commerce et les syndicats gardent de forts liens avec les états existants, ce qui produit des résultats différents dans chaque cas.

Keywords:

• Europe
• national identity
• nationalism
• new regionalism
• politics

Acknowledgement

This paper is based on work undertaken within a Professorial Fellowship funded by the Economic and Social Research Council between 2000 and 2003.

Notes

1. Alesina and Spoloare (2003) resolve this ontological problem using a mixture of public goods theory and ethnic primordialism. First, they argue that smaller units will share policy preferences, although it is not clear why a unit of five million people is more likely to agree than 1 of 50 million. Second, they claim that nations are ethnically homogeneous, which begs the whole question of ethnicity and ignores the fact that many stateless nationalists are at pains to deny any ethnic basis but rather claim their civic credentials.

2. It is based on interviews with representatives of the peak employer groups and trade unions, together with web-based research and secondary literature.

3. Catalonia, the Basque Country and Lombardy all have a per capita GDP above the state average. Scotland is at about the state average and revenues are at or slightly above the average when oil is taken into account. Oil, however, makes a big difference to public finances and is a central element in calculations about the costs and benefits of independence.

4. The radical coalition has changed names frequently to stay ahead of the law and, recently, to bring in nationalists who had never supported violence.

5. Under Francoism, it was absorbed into the official state vertical union.