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Who Are the Spaniards? Nationalism and Identification in Spain*

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Who Are the Spaniards? Nationalism and Identification in Spain* Who Are the Spaniards? Nationalism and Identification in Spain* KENNETH BOLLEN, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill JUAN DIEZ MEDRANO, University of California, San Diego Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/sf/article/77/2/587/2233702 by guest on 28 September 2021 Abstract National and ethnic identity are the subject of a wide range of sociological theories. Our analysis focuses on nationalism and identity in Spain. Our data come from a probability sample of respondents in a 1992 survey. We employ measures of individual attachment to Spain that tap two dimensions: sense of belonging to Spain and feelings of morale associated with this identity. We estimate a measurement model that substantiates these two dimensions. We also present and test different hypotheses about the roles of ethnic origin, economic development, economic specialization, and education on attachment to Spain. Our statistical analyses reveal that respondent's ethnic origin (birth and residence in a culturally distinct region) and education have the strongest negative influences on attachment. Among the macro structural conditions, economic specialization ofa region has the greatest negative impact on attachment. Furthermore, our descriptive analysis of the regional patterns of sense of belonging and feelings of morale with respect to Spain reveal some predictable patterns and some surprises in the regional rankings. Social scientists have proposed a wide range of theories to explain national identity and ethnic or nationalist political mobilization. These efforts respond in part to the intensity that ethnic and nationalist conflict has reached in states that formed at the conclusion of the two world wars (e.g., Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and the Soviet Union), in states that emerged out of the decolonization process (e.g., Rwanda), and, more surprisingly, in old Western European states such as Great Britain, Spain, and France. * Authors names are listed alphabetically. Direct correspondence to Kenneth Boller, CB #3210, Dept. of Sociology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3210. E-mail: [email protected]. © The University of North Carolina Press Social Forces, December 1998, 77(2):587-622 588 / Social Forces 77:2, December 1998 The scope of application and the relative merits of these theories are hard to determine, however, because empirical tests are infrequent. Also, those that are conducted tend to analyze. only local or individual variation in regions where nationalism or ethnic conflict is relatively intense and often use inadequate measures of the variables under examination. This article analyzes individual variation in the degree of attachment to the nation-state. Scholarly interest in this topic has run parallel to interest in the factors leading to ethnic political Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/sf/article/77/2/587/2233702 by guest on 28 September 2021 mobilization. In fact, the complexity of core concepts in the field of ethnicity — such as group solidarity, which evokes both an identity and a political action dimension — and frequent compromises related to the dependent variables used in empirical tests make it difficult to distinguish empirical tests of explanations of national identity from those concerned with explanations of ethnic political mobilization. Despite these problems, a close reading of various theoretical arguments allows for the formulation and testing of a series of hypotheses directly concerned with attachment to the nation-state, which we have tested with survey data collected in Spain in 1992. Despite being one of the oldest European states, Spain is an example of incomplete nation-building, as attested by the strength of Basque and Catalan nationalism. Moreover, its regional ethnic and economic diversity make it an excellent case to assess the roles of education, economic development, economic specialization, and ethnic origin in the development of attachment to the nation- state. Our analysis focuses on an entire state, Spain, rather than follow the traditional approach of focusing on culturally distinct regions with strong nationalist movements (Belanger & Pinard 1991; Hechter 1975; Leifer 1981). The traditional approach may have in fact introduced a truncation bias in the empirical findings. Moreover, the examination of single regions has forced researchers to use within- region contextual units of analysis (e.g., counties or municipalities) that are too small to reflect the socioeconomic, political, and cultural forces that shape people's attitudes and political behavior. A second methodological feature of our article is that the statistical models we estimate use individual and contextual variables to predict individual attitudes. This approach contrasts with the majority of previous studies of ethnic conflict and nationalism, which have relied on aggregate data to test what are in fact contextual-level theoretical arguments (e.g., Nielsen 1980; Olzak 1982, 1992; Ragin 1977, 1979). The aggregate-level approach precludes the analytical distinction between individual and contextual effects and thus complicates interpretations of empirical findings (see Quillian 1995). Finally, this investigation uses direct measures of attachment to the nation-state. Attachment to the nation-state represents the attitudinal dimension of the complex attitudinal and behavioral problem of nation-building and group solidarity that scholars have been studying for more than forty years. We distinguish two dimensions of group attachment — sense of belonging and feelings of morale — which have been Nationalism and Identification in Spain 1589 discussed in the social psychological literature but not in the literature on nationalism and ethnic conflict. In the first part of the article we outline several major hypotheses that explain attachment to the nation-state. In the second part we test these propositions. We have left out theories that are exclusively concerned with ethnic conflict (e.g., Ethnic Competition theory) and theories of group attachment that we cannot address with the data at hand (e.g., Lawler 1992). Furthermore, there is not a one-to-one Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/sf/article/77/2/587/2233702 by guest on 28 September 2021 correspondence between the hypotheses that we discuss and test and particular theoretical schools: some hypotheses have been proposed by otherwise contrasting sociological traditions, different but complementary hypotheses have been proposed by members of the same sociological tradition, and some authors have formulated different but related hypotheses in the course of their intellectual careers. Finally, the goal of the article is to evaluate, in the context of Spain, hypotheses about identification with one's nation-state rather than to develop new hypotheses based on a historical analysis of national identity in Spain. The Case Study: Spain Linz (1973) once said that "Spain today is a state for all Spaniards, a nation-state for a large part of the population, and only a state but not a nation for important minorities" (99). The Spanish state's current division into 17 autonomous communities with broad political powers and the strength of the Basque and Catalan nationalist movements reflect Spain's cultural and historical diversity and demonstrate that Linz's statement is as true today as it was in 1973. Spain is a multicultural state in which at least four distinct languages coexist. Although Castilian is the Spanish state's official language, the 1978 Constitution recognizes the right of the autonomous communities of the Basque Country, Galicia, Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and the Community of Valencia to use their own languages, as long as this use does not jeopardize the use of Castilian. Thus, during the 1980s, the autonomous governments of these regions have promoted the use of Euskera in the Basque Country, Galician in Galicia, Catalan in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands, and Valencian in the Community of Valencia. Spain's cultural diversity has historically been matched by an equally dramatic diversity in levels of development and productive structures. At the turn of the centurythe only industrialized areas of Spain were Catalonia, the Basque Country, and to some extent Madrid, whereas the rest of Spain remained anchored in subsistence agriculture. At that time, Galicia, which was the poorest Spanish region, had a GDP that was half of Catalonia's, despite the fact that the sizes of their populations were almost the same (Carreras 1990). This diversity has diminished significantly overtime, however, as poorer regions have industrialized and as the state has institutionalized mechanisms for the redistribution of wealth across 590 / Social Forces 77:2, December 1998 regions (Raymond 1990). The cultural and economic diversity prevailing in Spain makes it an ideal case for the analysis of regional differences in attachment to Spain. Attachment to the Nation-State in the Literature on Ethnic Identity and Conflict Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/sf/article/77/2/587/2233702 by guest on 28 September 2021 The data that we have available suggest that we can analyze the role of a major subset of factors proposed in the literature for the explanation of attachment to the nation-state. These factors are ethnic origin, economic development, economic specialization, and cognitive skills. ETHNIC ORIGIN The role of ethnic origin in the explanation of attachment to the nation-state has been taken for granted by most theories of national identity and
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