Reclaiming Their Shadow: Ethnopolitical Mobilization in Consolidated Democracies
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Reclaiming their Shadow: Ethnopolitical Mobilization in Consolidated Democracies Ph. D. Dissertation by Britt Cartrite Department of Political Science University of Colorado at Boulder May 1, 2003 Dissertation Committee: Professor William Safran, Chair; Professor James Scarritt; Professor Sven Steinmo; Associate Professor David Leblang; Professor Luis Moreno. Abstract: In recent decades Western Europe has seen a dramatic increase in the political activity of ethnic groups demanding special institutional provisions to preserve their distinct identity. This mobilization represents the relative failure of centuries of assimilationist policies among some of the oldest nation-states and an unexpected outcome for scholars of modernization and nation-building. In its wake, the phenomenon generated a significant scholarship attempting to account for this activity, much of which focused on differences in economic growth as the root cause of ethnic activism. However, some scholars find these models to be based on too short a timeframe for a rich understanding of the phenomenon or too narrowly focused on material interests at the expense of considering institutions, culture, and psychology. In response to this broader debate, this study explores fifteen ethnic groups in three countries (France, Spain, and the United Kingdom) over the last two centuries as well as factoring in changes in Western European thought and institutions more broadly, all in an attempt to build a richer understanding of ethnic mobilization. Furthermore, by including all “national minorities” in these three countries, groups not often taken account of in comparative studies will be incorporated into the analysis presented here, perhaps avoiding errors resulting from selecting only currently highly mobilized groups. This study finds that when the evolution of cultural and political contexts are taken into account, ethnic mobilization appears as a long process tied directly to the expansion of norms of democracy and group rights, the nature of the national identity, and the distinctiveness of the ethnic identity. Table of Contents Dissertation Approval 1 Tables, Figures, and Maps 2 Acknowledgements 3 Introduction: The Shadow of Ethnic Identity 5 Chapter 1: Assumptions, Definitions, and Analytic Frameworks 16 Chapter 2: European Thought and Institutions – 43 The Evolving Supra-national Context Chapter 3: Ethnopolitical Mobilization Under Jacobin Nationalism – 80 The Case of France Chapter 4: Ethnopolitical Mobilization Under Ethnic Nationalism – 120 The Case of Spain Chapter 5: Ethnopolitical Mobilization Under Civic Nationalism – 150 The Case of the United Kingdom Chapter 6: How Different is Different Enough? 202 Group-level Factors and Ethnopolitical Mobilization Conclusion: Towards a New Model of Ethnopolitical Mobilization 289 References 304 Appendix 323 Insert Dissertation approval form in place of this page 1 Tables, Figures, and Maps Tables 1-1: Components of ethnicity 19 1-2: Comparison of national identity 41 4-1: Ideological and centralist/regionalist cleavages in Spain 135 4-2: Competing bases of Spanish identity 147 A-1: Comparing elements of groupcon 331 A-2: Testing constructed elements of ethnicity 336 Figures 7-1: A generalized model of ethnopolitical mobilization 289 7-2: Group factor interactions 293 7-3: Group-state factor interactions 296 7-4: Group-state-European factor interactions 298 Maps 3-1: Languages and dialects of France 83 3-2: The expansion of France 84 3-3: Patois-speaking communes, 1863 93 3-4: Entrenched areas of patios 95 3-5: France’s “natural” boundaries 114 4-1: The Reconquista 125 4-2: Spanish kingdoms in 1360 128 4-3: The Autonomous Communities of Spain 141 5-1: Roman Britain 151 5-2: The Anglo-Saxon invasion 155 5-3: The Viking interregnum 158 5-4: The plantation of Ireland 175 6-1: France-Alsace 215 6-2: France-Basques 218 6-3: France-Bretons 223 6-4: France-Catalans 230 6-5: France-Corsicans 232 6-6: France-Flamands 237 6-7: France-Occitans 239 6-8: Spain-Basques 243 6-9: Spain-Catalans 252 6-10: Spain-Galicians 262 6-11: United Kingdom-Cornish 266 6-12: United Kingdom-Northern Irish Catholics 270 6-13: United Kingdom-Scots 276 6-14: United Kingdom-Welsh 282 2 Acknowledgements A project the size of a dissertation causes one to incur too many debts to too many people for all of them to be appropriately acknowledged. The same holds true for me and my work. However, there are a few people I wish to recognize here. First, Professor William Safran, who, as chair of my dissertation committee, advisor, mentor, and friend continually challenged me to push myself and my research further. Luis Moreno, whose expertise and collegiality in Belfast, Paris, and via e-mail was a constant source of knowledge, encouragement, and friendship. Sven Steinmo, who forced me to develop and maintain focus when my research and interests led me on numerous tangents and demanded I write something people could actually read. And the other members of my committee, David Leblang and James Scarritt, whose perspectives and insights helped broaden both my methodological approaches and my analyses. I would also like to thank members of the IPSA Research Committee on Ethnicity and Politics, and in particular Ramón Máiz, for enduring early presentations of research in Belfast and Paris that resulted in this project. The faculty and staff of the Department of Political Science at the University of Colorado, whose friendship and invaluable assistance over the years made this project possible. And my fellow grad students alongside whom I managed to survive seminars, comprehensive exams, long hours of research and frustration, to emerge on the other side. Finally, and most importantly, I would like to thank members of my family, the Tolers, Cartrites, and Kellehers, whose years of encouragement and support have been so important to reaching this point. My two beautiful children, Luke and Emma, 3 who remind me every day of what really matters in life. And finally, my amazing wife Nancy, the most wonderful partner in this project: Without her I would not have done so much so quickly in my studies, let alone have built such a wonderful family along the way; Nancy, in the years that come I hope to repay at least part of all you have given to me. 4 Introduction: The Shadow of Ethnic Identity Peter Schlemiel’s Wonderful Story1 Once upon a time there lived a man named Peter Schlemiel. After attending a wonderful party at which there was evidence of magic, he set out to find the purveyor of these tricks. Upon meeting the man, the man made Peter a rather intriguing offer: sell his shadow for a magic bag which produced endless wealth. Peter, being a good homo economicus, made the exchange. Peter’s sudden economic good fortune had an unexpected side-effect, however: He soon found that, despite his great wealth, people reviled Peter wherever he went for his shadowless state. He attempted to hide his condition in a variety of ways: traveling only at night, in carriages, or in forests; hosting parties only by torchlight; having a servant stand next to him to provide a shadow. In each location, however, his secret was eventually discovered and made public, forcing Peter to move on. The protagonist undertook a variety of strategies to restore his more natural condition. At one point he even attempted to have a shadow painted for him, only to have the artist (who was quite disgusted at the thought of working for a patron sans shadow) inform him that Peter would be 1 Adelbert von Chamisso, 1993, Peter Schlemiels Wundersame Geschichte [Peter Schlemiel’s Wonderful Story] (Columbia SC: Camden House). 5 required to stand in one place for the effect to work. After a year and a day of shadowlessness, having suffered extortion, humiliation, and lonliness, Peter again met the man in possession of his shadow and attempted to reverse the exchange. However, the man informed Peter that he must pay the dearer price of his soul for the return of his shadow. The Devil, revealing his true nature, even loaned Peter his old shadow for a brief time to remind Peter of the beautiful condition he had so recklessly bartered away. Peter, perhaps wisely, refused to part with his soul, but his attempt to steal his shadow from the Devil failed, leaving Peter despondent. The tale ends with Peter, having thrown away his magic purse but now in possession of a pair of magic boots, traveling the world exploring its many wonders. His lack of a shadow rendered him an outcast, but Peter made the best of his situation and ended his days in relative contentment collecting flora and fauna from across the globe but in isolation. The fable concludes with Peter advising: “I say that if you wish to live among your fellow man, learn to value your shadow more than gold. If, on the other hand, you choose to live only for the sake of your own better self, then you need no advice from me (Chamisso 1993, 87)”. Most scholars agree that Peter Schlemiel’s shadow represents national or ethnic identity.2 While Peter does eventually decline to sell his soul to regain his shadow, the story illustrates that only a fool (hence the name Schlemiel: God’s Fool) 2 Evidence for this argument is substantiated in letters written by Chamisso at the time, reflecting his own self-perceived lack of nationality. For example, he writes in a letter to a friend: “I am a Frenchman in Germany and a German in France; a Catholic among the Protestants, Protestant among Catholics; a philosopher among the religious…, a mundane among the savants, and a pedant to the mundane; Jacobin among the aristocrats, and to the democrats a nobleman, a man of the Ancien Regime… Nowhere am I at home…!” And later: “The world events of the year 1813, in which I was not able to take an active part – for I had forfeited a fatherland, or rather had not yet adopted one – tore me apart repeatedly, without deflecting me from my chosen path.