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ID: 080802

Basque power-sharing experience: from a destructive to a constructive conflict? / Beck, Jan Mansvelt

Beck, Jan Mansvelt	Journal Article
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Publication

2008.

Summary/Abstract

Neither the devolution of powers to the Basque Autonomous Community in Spain nor more than a decade of power-sharing within this region has led to a peaceful settlement of the Basque conflict. Combining Kriesberg's approach to conflict resolution and consociational theory, past power-sharing experiences are analysed. The lack of overarching loyalties, traditions of compromise, comprehensive participation and the continuation of violence have frustrated power-sharing. After the 2006 ceasefire, the conditions for giving the conflict a constructive turn have not fundamentally changed. The potential for alternative forms of power-sharing as a way out of the Basque conflict, combined or not with innovative territorial arrangements cannot be employed because of multi-scale polarisation. De-escalation as a prerequisite for new types of power-sharing arrangements requires relearning democratic pluralism and a recognition of ethnic hybridity in this politically and geographically fragmented society

Key Words

Conflict Resolution ; Power Sharing ; Basque Conflict

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ID: 074555

Geopolitical imaginations of the Basque homeland / Beck, Jan Mansvelt

Beck, Jan Mansvelt	Journal Article
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Publication

2006.

Summary/Abstract

In this article the different territorial imaginations of Basqueness in Basque nationalist rhetoric and political practice are described. The seeming consensus on a greater Basque Country or Euskal Herria encompassing two administrative regions in Spain and three former provinces in France has become the hegemonic narrative at a rhetorical level. Euskal Herria as the imagined nation-state is the dominant myth compared to territorial allusions concerning the medieval Kingdom of Navarre. In contrast to the nationalist rhetoric, political practice of Basque nationalists varies according to the sub-state arenas in which they are active. Three concurrent practical goals of nationalists are discussed, namely the co-sovereignty claim for Euskadi, the demand for a separate Basque department within France and the establishment of an independent Basque state. The article addresses the following questions. Why Euskal Herria has become the winning myth to the detriment of territorial imaginations based on the mediaeval Kingdom of Navarre? Why does the political practice of Basque nationalism vary so strong according to its politico-institutional context? To what extent the geopolitical imaginations have become rooted in daily life experiences in the envisaged Basque homeland?

Key Words

Geopolitics ; Basque Nationalism

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