Université Libre De Bruxelles

Chapter VII Conclusion: New Pragmatic Nationalists in Europe: a new legacy for all nationalist political parties in Europe? New Pragmatic Nationalists in Europe: experienced regional nationalists in times of economic crisis In this research, we have tried to demonstrate that, in the 21st century, the “usage” of Europe by regional nationalists has evolved as it has become cognitively twisted, economically driven and collectively performed. Our purpose was to demonstrate that for a certain category of regional nationalists - for new pragmatic nationalists - the European venue has gained a regional resonance as much it has brought real gains of political power to be collected at the national level of governance. In that sense, the purpose of this research was to clarify under which constitutional, personal and political conditions ethnic or civic regional nationalists could consider a successful, though realistic European venue to fulfill nationalist purposes at the regional ground. Departing from the major contribution of Eve Hepburn (2007a) who has acknowledged a rational “usage” of Europe by all categories of political parties; we have decided to recapture this notion of “usage” of Europe, although we have kept it within the limits of a nationalist approach. Additionally, based upon the first definition of “pragmatic nationalists” initially used by Michael Keating and Liebset Hooghe (1996) to identify a certain category of regional nationalists who used to consider the European venue to legitimize their nationalist aspirations by the means of a rational “usage” of Europe, we have built our own definition. In that sense, we have argued that experienced regional nationalists in government have become new pragmatic nationalists as they have learned to rely on a cognitive ”usage” of Europe to justify further concessions of policy competences that are still legally shared in both layers of governance in order to induce regional citizens into their political plan and reach the legal threshold to endorse a new state reform. Finally, we have concluded that, this new generation of pragmatic nationalists have evolved as they have learned to adapt their strategy to a new policy cycle to legitimize their nationalist’s aspirations, no longer in Europe, but through Europe. If the term “usage” can be defined as the act of using something to achieve certain goals (Jacquot & Woll 2003: 3), by using the term “usage”, we wished to identify changing rationalities of “usage” employed by regional nationalists on a strategic interaction with the European Institutions to achieve renewed political preferences. Moreover, by the means of a qualitative and a comparative research, we have chosen two paradigmatic cases, which revealed evidences of a new rationality of “usage” of the European institutions. Our purpose was to focus on positive cases, that is, on cases 180 New Pragmatic Nationalists in Europe: experienced Flemish and Scottish Nationalists in times of economic crisis where evolutionary trends of regional mobilization were present and consequently relevant to confirm our hypothesis. Additionally, since we wished to demonstrate that the “usage” of Europe can be applied to all categories of nationalist political parties, irrespectively of their nationalist credo or constitutional settlement, we have chosen an ethnic and a civic nationalist political party, on the one hand, as well as two regional authorities from two distinctive constitutional orders, a federal order and an unitary devolutionary state, on the other. Finally, we have chosen two regional nationalist political parties who were and have stayed in power during our period of research (2007-2012). As far as our theoretical grounding is concerned, we have applied an actor centered institutionalist approach (Mayntz and Sharp 1997) as it has allowed us to sustain how changing “perceptions” and “preferences” within the limits of “bounded capabilities” have lead experienced regional nationalists into a new rationality of “usage” of the European Institutions. In this research, we have demonstrated that the N-VA in Flanders, since 2004, and the SNP in Scotland, since 2007, have become new pragmatic nationalists as they have learned to rely on a territorial economic argument, bearing in mind the positive contribution of a new European policy cycle, especially in times of economic crisis to comply with their renewed political plan. Moreover, we have also argued that, in a clear contrast with the 90’’s, where formal or informal channels were rationally used by all categories of regional nationalists to legitimize their nationalist projects in Europe; in the 21st century, experienced ethnic or civic nationalists in government have learned to rely on a policy narrative (Shabahan et al 2011; Jones and Beth 201; Dardanelli 2010) embedded in a territorial economic argument to make sense of an advocacy coalition framework (Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith 1993), using informal channels as new “policy arenas” (Scot 1995a) to clarify the best policy options to be implemented in Europe and at the regional ground. As we look into literature, an advocacy coalition framework stands for the North American conception of policy network, which, in a clear contrast with British tradition on policy network, is conceived as a tool of governance where public private partnership are set into place to solve collective policy problems. Moreover, an ACF constitutes a useful tool of analysis whenever mechanisms of policy change need to be investigated as much as when technical information assumes a predominant role in joint policy-making (Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith 1993: 16; Sabatier 199: 117). Last but not least, an ACF is conceived as a “belief system”, and it could be defined as a set of actors from both public and private institutions, at various levels of government, who share critical aspects of a “belief system” which is responsible for aggregating individuals into manageable institutional rules and actors – into policy coalitions - to achieve common policy goals. Within this sub-system, which include political and social actors linked together by a territorial identity bound, it is assumed that actors can be aggregated into a number of advocacy coalitions who share a set of “policy belief” - also defined as “policy core belief” (ibidem) - and which, based upon these policy believes, act consequently in concert. The purpose of each coalition is to translate their belief into public policies or programs. Whenever applied in our research, we can consider that regional 181 New Pragmatic Nationalists in Europe: experienced Flemish and Scottish Nationalists in times of economic crisis nationalists have learned to make sense of an ACF to supply their need of “policy expertise” to translate their own policy choices in Europe and at the regional ground in order to comply with their renewed political plan. The emergence of an advocacy coalition framework in Europe could also be linked to the literature on new regionalism (Balme 1996; Keating 1998b; Keating, Cairney and Hepburn 2008:1) and on spatial re-scaling (Brenner 2004; Bartolini 2005) which have also identified the inception of new policy systems of collective action, previously bounded by coterminous state boundaries. In the same light of thought, other commentators have identified an emergent, upward re-scaling of the traditional form of sovereign state from the national to the supra-national level, which would culminate, sooner or later in a new form of supranational statehood (Jessop 2004: 53). Consequently, it is within this general context of upward re-scaling that regional nationalists have chosen Europe as a new place of strategic governance where the development of a multi-level government could be seen as a transitional effect towards a supranational European state (Keating 2009c: 39; Jessop 2004:54). Therefore, the setting up of an advocacy coalition framework can be understood in the light of the emergence of economic governance that has become definitely multi-layered and polycentric (Hooghe and Marks 2004: 25). However, for regional nationalists, “governance rescaling” can only be considered in the light of a new policy solution to clarify policy options, which would allow them to comply with a renewed political plan across layers of governance. In fact, for these experienced regional nationalists, Informal channels of regional interest intermediation have simply gained a new “policy role”, as they are providing the most suitable place of encounter to make sense of joint policy-making in a situation where policy expertise has become highly decisive for regional nationalists to comply with their renewed political plan. With this renewed political strategy, optimist regionalism is not back on track but Europe has opened a new policy window that has favored those who have learned to use a seductive territorial argument to comply with long-term political goals to be collected, finally, at the national ground. 182 New Pragmatic Nationalists in Europe: experienced Flemish and Scottish Nationalists in times of economic crisis The N-VA and the “usage” of Europe in the 21st century The N-VA is a center-right Flemish democratic nationalist party that came into existence in 2001, mostly out of protest against a controversial state reform, the Lambermont state reform (Noppe and Wauters 2002). The N-VA is a civic nationalist political party which has a clear consciousness of Flemish cultural and linguistic distinctiveness but these elements are just part of a broadly

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