ABSTRACT
The problem for such movements is that it is not easy winning the votes of nationalists in competitive elections from other political parties that may boast of a prestigious past, mobilize an enormous bureaucracy, or dispose of political patronage. Frustrated by the “traps” that democracy can spring, some nationalist movements break with the electoral process and turn to the use of force to achieve their objectives. While it has not come to that in Scotland or Catalonia, Basque separatists in Spain encompass separate political and military organizations. The military wing of the ETA (Euzkadi Ta Askatasuna, or Basque Fatherland and Liberty), the most militant separatist group, has carried out political assassinations and bombings. By contrast, the political wing of the ETA (Herri Batasuna) has become more engaged in the Spanish electoral system and stressed political means of separation. An even more moderate group, the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), which exercises power in the Basque lands, is committed to nonviolence. Spanish democracy has tried to blunt Basque separatist ambitions, channel them into parliamentary means, and divide the nationalist movement. Democracy can provide a real political opportunity structure for separatists to create a broad political movement. But it can also effectively accommodate and weaken ethno-separatist groups.
