ABSTRACT

The ethno-nationalist conflict in the Basque Country has been the target of a wide array of constitutional and legislative initiatives. These comprise a substantial restructuring of governance structures and reallocation of public resources that can be covered by the concept of ‘responsive policies’. This chapter considers the history of political murders produced by the organisation Euskadi ta Askatasuna (ETA, Basque Country and Freedom) and elaborates an account based on the main responsive governmental initiatives with regard to the Basque conflict, which is tested with a multivariate research design. It focuses, in particular, on the effects of two major changes in political structures that have also entailed a massive reallocation of public resources: political decentralisation and democratisation. However, it shows that while political decentralisation has made a major contribution to the appeasement of Basque insurgency, democratisation has not had a direct effect on this development.