ABSTRACT
The chapter discusses in a comparative fashion the factors that have contributed to the formation of the nationalism of the rich. It also broadens the comparative perspective by looking at European countries not analysed in the case studies. It suggests that the formation of the nationalism of the rich can be best explained by the following combination of factors: (1) the creation during the Glorious Thirties of extensive forms of automatic redistribution to a scale unprecedented before; (2) the beginning, from the mid-1970s, of an era of ‘permanent austerity’, exacerbated, in specific contexts, by situations of serious public policy failure and mismanagement of public funds; (3) the existence of national/cultural cleavages roughly squaring with sharp income differentials among territorial areas of a given state.
