Autonomist Regionalism within the Spanish State of the Autonomous Communities: An Interpretation

Minority nationalism in the Basque country, Catalonia and Galicia has been a constant feature of twentieth-century Spanish politics. Nevertheless, a new phenomenon added to it has been the emergence of regionalist parties in several of the 17 Spanish autonomous communities created by the 1978 constitution, as well as its consolidation during the 1980s and first half of the 1990s. By examining the political evolution of Spanish regionalisms over the last two decades, an attempt is made at establishing the differences existing between regionalism and minority nationalism.