The Case for Multinational Federalism

Alain-G. Gagnon

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9781135211417
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Throughout the world, liberal-democracies are grappling with increasing claims made in the name of minority national, socio-cultural and ethno-cultural identities that seek greater recognition in the institutions of the nation-state. This work inserts itself into debates centred on diversity through a normative and empirical analytical assessment of the political sociology of multinational democracies. The main thread of the arguments put forward is that federalism, in both its institutional manifestations and its sociological properties, constitutes a promising avenue for the management of cohabitating political communities and for the affirmation of collective identities within states that are constituted by two or more nations.

Author Alain-G Gagnon develops his argument by contending that the federal principle allows for the exercise of advanced democratic practices within nation-states, permitting internal nations to openly affirm the bases of adherence to a common political project. At the same time, he argues that federalism nourishes the development of distinct collective traditions that serve to benefit all parties to the association. It is concluded that only in such a scenario will the elusive pursuit of an authentic and shared loyalty underpin multination states and ensure their stability, in contrast to the instrumental sentiments of belonging engendered by procedural territorial federal models.

Focusing primarily on the Canadian case, this book also draws inspiration from other federal states (Belgium, the United States), as well as federalizing states (Spain, the United Kingdom). It will be of keen interest to students and scholars of Politics, European Studies, along with Nationalism and Federalism Studies.

1
Memory and national identity in Catalonia and Québec¹

For each individual to discover in himself what his humanity consists in, he needs a horizon of meaning, which can only be provided by some allegiance, group membership, cultural tradition. He needs, in the broadest sense, a language in which to ask and answer the questions of ultimate significance.²

The above epigraph by Charles Taylor identifies language, culture and a feeling of belonging as crucial for the construction of one’s identity. Taylor made the remark in the spring of 1979, one year before Québec’s first referendum on sovereignty-association in which the forces of Québec sovereignty saw their political project rejected by three out of five voters. That referendum should have led to major constitutional reforms so that the Québécois would feel more comfortable in the Canadian federation. However, while there were reforms, they were largely aimed at consolidating power in the hands of the central government. This only strengthened the sovereignty movement in Québec by giving it a major reason to mobilize.

Throughout his career, Taylor has defended general liberal values, and many of his writings have denounced the risks that individualism poses to political communities, though he has been careful not to suggest independence for nations such as Québec that have questioned their membership in composite states. Indeed, Taylor hesitates to assert that all options be open to nations at the foundations of existing states because

it becomes very important that we be recognized for what we are. If this is denied or set at naught by those who surround us, it is extremely difficult to maintain a horizon of meaning by which to identify ourselves.³

Taylor’s words take on their full meaning when they are applied to Catalonia and Québec, the cases to which I will essentially limit the discussion in this chapter because their liberal approaches are informative for all multinational societies. Indeed, Taylor’s words echo demands for recognition that have been reiterated frequently throughout history by political spokespersons in Catalonia and Québec. For Taylor, the central problem of misrecognition leads minority nations to seek a status that corresponds more closely to the perception they have of themselves.⁴ Here is how Taylor summarizes his position:

The thesis is that our identity is partly shaped by recognition or its absence, often by the misrecognition of others, and so a person or group of people can suffer real damage, real distortion, if the people or society around them mirror back to them a confining or demeaning or contemptible picture of themselves. Non-recognition or misrecognition can inflict harm, can be a form of oppression, imprisoning someone in a false, distorted, and reduced mode of being.⁵

Catalonia and Québec are surprising both because of their resilience over the centuries and because of their ability to advance their respective nationalist projects. With a view to the recent positive results in the 18 June 2006 referendum on a new political status for Catalonia within Spain, and the negative result of the Québec referendum on 30 October 1995, we have to identify and understand nations’ needs to be recognized on their own terms and to portray themselves to others according to their own dynamics. We also need to acknowledge the sometimes freewheeling backroom intrigues and manoeuvring of the various political and social players involved in constructing and affirming national identity. Current challenges, including that of acquiring formal recognition as nations within the Spanish and Canadian constitutions, require great solidarity on the part of Catalonian and Québec leaders, and long-lasting, solid commitment from civil society.

Québec is an extremely relevant case for Catalonia since it has already held two referenda on its political status in the Canadian federation and is still seeking full recognition as a nation. Throughout its history, Québec has also engaged in major political struggles against the establishment of majority pan-Canadian nationalism, and has sought, like the people of Catalonia, to highlight its specificity as a historical nation in a federation.

The challenges that these two nations face largely explain why Catalonian and Québec political theorists are often invited to Wallonia, Wales and Scotland to participate in discussions on the importance of establishing fair relations between the central government and member states of complex countries (such as Belgium, Italy and the United Kingdom). Such theorists generally argue in favour of liberal projects based on territorial recognition in order to give national communities greater empowerment and social cohesion, while at the same time insisting that the political representatives of national communities be directly accountable to their constituents. Such prescriptions often differ from the policies in fashion in Canada and Spain; for example, those based on the principle of non-territoriality, generally expressed as café para todos in Spain and “a province is a province is a province” in Canada, that are designed to prevent identity claims from gaining a foothold, no matter how legitimate the claims might be. Thus, among Catalans and Québécois, claims are presented more in terms of fair treatment, whereas members of majority nations speak of equal treatment. Obviously, requiring that all citizens or all member states of federations be subject to identical treatment favours the majority national group.

The present chapter will be organized along four main lines. First, I will explore the theme of memory and nation-building to explain political differences between majority and minority nations. Then I will sketch the broad strokes of the defining events that have marked Catalonia and Québec by reviewing the way that liberal nationalism developed in those two historical nations.⁶ We will then look at the affirmation of minority national cultures in the countries that currently seem most reluctant to meet demands for recognition. Finally, I will focus on the Catalan, Scottish and Québec cases to provide a short analysis of the plural identities that citizens claim in multinational situations.

Memory and national construction

A sociological and political approach anchored in history is essential for describing the birth and development of nations such as Acadia, Catalonia, Galicia and Québec. First, I would like to cite Fernand Dumont, a pioneer of sociology in Québec, who, like Salvador Giner with respect to Catalonia,⁷ has described the shape and depths of the soul of Québec.

Survival is impossible if the past is not invoked since a nation that is first and foremost a culture comes down to a heritage. The dual recourse to hope and memory is justification. It is also a guarantee of permanence, for the result is, through the power of the written word, the edification of a reference that will portray a present people in history.⁸

In these few sentences, Dumont has summarized the stakes for minority national communities as they seek to assert themselves. Writing the history of a nation or political community is a political action par excellence; it is also a means of raising awareness and projecting the group into the future. According to Dumont, it is imperative to look to the past in order to understand the present. Indeed, this was also recognized by members of the Catalan Renaissance movement (Renaixança), who were swept up by a wave of romanticism in the mid-nineteenth century. The members of the movement helped establish the Catalan language, gave historical meaning to the nation and spread Catalan culture.⁹ However, to return to Taylor, “Nations exist not just where there is the objective fact of speaking the same language and sharing a common history, but where this is subjectively reflected in a people’s identifications.”¹⁰

Writing not only expresses a culture undergoing change, but also the continuity of daily creation. Benedict Anderson describes this as the incarnation of the imagined community.¹¹ Literature becomes simultaneously an exercise in identity creation, a way of thinking, a point of view, a manner of seeing oneself and a means of projecting oneself into the future.

Thus, understanding the phenomenon of nationality requires better knowledge and recognition of institutions, which is why the educational system, religion, family, unions, political parties and social movements are so important. Such networks hold great potential. The processes of socialization are very important in the construction of a society because they give meaning to history and serve as reference points¹² and stabilizing features.

It is less important to idealize the past than it is to attempt to understand it, including the successes and the failures, as objectively as possible in its historical framework. Québec and Catalonia will be better equipped to face their respective futures and project themselves into history as it is being written if they have fully accepted their pasts. Accepting the past includes agreeing to situate oneself in relation to others. This creates awareness of the distinctive features of the political community and truly establishes the democratic structure of liberalism. Too often in procedural liberalism, national pluralism is ignored even though it reflects the feeling of belonging and, by extension, the expression of the general will.¹³

In his ground-breaking work, Genèse de la société québécoise, Fernand Dumont makes another important observation, which is also very relevant for Catalonia: he notes that Québec society “is mainly structured at its base”.¹⁴ Dumont rightly points out that Québec society is rooted in a wide set of networks of social exchanges in which shared experiences are anchored in a specific context. This thesis has been taken up and expanded by a new generation of researchers, such as Luc Turgeon in his work on the central role of civil society at the time of the Quiet Revolution in Québec.¹⁵

Catalonia and Québec are developing differently from other member states of Spain and Canada. Although it seems like only yesterday, 60 years have in fact passed since Pierre Vilar noted that in the case of Catalonia there were “growing dissimilarities between the social structure of the Catalan area and that of the majority of the rest of the country [Spain]”.¹⁶ In Spain, civil society has played a truly central role in maintaining social cohesion, a trend that continues to this day. The same dissonance characterizes the relations between Québec and the rest of Canada, where two host societies have had to integrate various waves of immigrants since the end of the Second World War. In fact, there are two citizenship regimes into which people are invited as full participants.¹⁷

In a way, Catalonia and Québec are region-states¹⁸ or, to borrow Simon Langlois’ accurate description, “global societies”¹⁹ with well-defined social structures, historically anchored distinct cultures, specific political institutions and clearly identifiable territory. This makes these two nations unique host societies²⁰ in Canada and Spain.

Defining events: Catalonia’s journey

In the history of a people, certain points can be seen as interpretive keys that make it easier to understand the economic, social and political changes that the people has undergone.

First, note that the Catalan comarques (i.e. principalities ruled by Counts) date back to the ninth century and continued to play a major role until the Bourbon dynasty in 1715.²¹ These principalities presided over the region’s commercial and political destiny from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries. “[T]he principalities of Catalan had a form of constitution limiting the ‘sovereign’s’ powers before the famous English Magna Carta came into existence.”²² The principalities had a much greater impact on the construction of contemporary Catalan identity than we tend to suspect.

Under the Bourbon regime, the Nueva Planta decree pertaining to Catalonia was passed in 1715 and led to Castilanization of the public service under the Crown of Aragon, which controlled the Kingdom. In response, Catalans fell back on civil society. Until then, Catalonia had never had a strong government because during the Habsburg reign in Spain, non-Castilian areas were essentially autonomous territories. The arrival of the Bourbons led to the disappearance of Catalan institutions and the elimination of the medieval structures favouring Catalan regional nobility.

Subsequently, social mobility in Catalonia was tied to the emergence of a truly Catalonian industrial bourgeoisie, such as in the textile industry. However, the Bourbons were partly responsible for Catalan economic achievements because they provided access to both the Castilian market and their vast empire.²³ This helped to consolidate Catalonia’s economy and facilitated the establishment of an elite class of merchants.

At the time, Catalans had little access to positions in the public service and in the army. For example, towards the end of the eighteenth century, “half of the public servants of Aragon were Castilians, [rising to] 60% in Catalonia …”.²⁴ Note also that in Spanish governments “between 1833 and 1902, out of 900 ministers, only 25 were from Catalonia (2.7% though the area contained over 10% of Spain’s population). […] between that date [1902] and 1914, no Catalan was appointed minister”.²⁵

During that time, neither the public service nor the army were avenues that Catalans could use to advance in society. Catalans’ exclusion from central government institutions led them to invest more in Catal...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of illustrations
• Acknowledgements
• Note on the author
• Introduction: the merits of federalism and new awareness of the multination
• 1 Memory and national identity in Catalonia and Québec
• 2 The normative foundations of asymmetrical federalism: the Canadian situation from a comparative perspective
• 3 The emerging phenomenon of the multination
• 4 Executive federalism and the exercise of democracy in Canada
• 5 The effects of majority nationalism in Canada
• 6 Resistance and potential: the duty to consider the multination
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index