ABSTRACT

This chapter traced CiU's and the PNV's behaviour as state-wide parliamentary actors. In particular, it examined the patterns of party competition between the two sub-state nationalist parties and the state-wide governing party based on the degree to which they ally in parliament. The chapter analyse party competition between the state-wide governing party and each of the mainstream sub-state nationalist parties in the state-wide parliament. It also studies party competition in the inter-electoral phase, focusing on parliamentary voting alliances in the state-wide parliament, a more difficult to measure form of co-operation. This chapter examines periods of minority government, which holds constant the government's need for parliamentary allies. It employs the Rice index of voting likeness (IVL) as an imperfect measure of parliamentary alliances. While CiU, now, and the PNV, then, turned toward sovereignty objectives, Catalan society is more mobilized. A piece of the explanation lies in the evolution of party competition at the regional level.