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Chapter Five. Basque Paradiplomacy
- University of Nevada Press
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The last chapters showed how the historical trajectory of the Basque Country from the late nineteenth century onward involved the development of nationalism as an increasingly powerful political force. The previous chapter explained that the transition to democracy in Spain featured the creation of the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country and that, in the democratic state, Basque politics became centered around the Basque autonomous institutions and their relationship with the state. There is also an international dimension to Basque politics, since nationalism , combined with the political and institutional context generated by Spain’s Estado de las Autonomías, has led to the development of a Basque paradiplomacy. Paradiplomacy refers to regional governments developing international relations . This is by no means a phenomenon unique to the Basque Country. Many regions in Europe (including some of Spain’s other autonomous communities), North America, and elsewhere around the world conduct bilateral relations with other regional entities (sometimes even with sovereign states) and participate in multilateral forums.1 They do this in order to achieve a variety of objectives, most often economic but in some cases also political and cultural. A sine qua non condition for paradiplomacy is, of course, decentralized political structures. But territorial political autonomy alone does not lead to paradiplomacy. The development by regional governments of international relations is spurred by a variety of international processes such as economic globalization and, in the European context, supranational integration that work to decenter the state. In some cases, paradiplomacy is driven by a desire to strengthen, promote, and project an identity distinct from the one associated with the state. This chapter suggests that Basque paradiplomacy is primarily about identity politics. This is not to say that this paradiplomacy is not concerned with achieving economic gains through, for example, the facilitation of exports, but only that its scope and intensity are a function of nationalism. The idea of a connection between identity and paradiplomacy does not mean that distinctive collective identities necessarily lead to cases of paradiplomacy such as the Basque Country’s. In other words, the chapter’s argument is not that the Basque Country conducts international relations because many Basques feel more Basque than Spanish; this would be an oversimplification. Rather, the idea put forward here is that the development Chapter Five Basque Paradiplomacy 114 of foreign affairs by the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country is the consequence of a nationalist movement. The specific rationale provided by the Basque government for its right to an international presence is strongly rooted in the evolution of the Spanish state. Basque politicians stress the idea of a right to self-determination to argue that the Basque Country should be able to conduct its own international relations. They invoke the precedent of the Basque government-in-exile, which, during the Franco dictatorship, acted autonomously in the international arena. The legacy of the authoritarian state spurs Basque paradiplomacy in other ways. Cultural repression and the ensuing struggle for cultural and identity preservation have become enduring aspects of Basque politics that are now seen to have global dimensions. The diaspora provides the Basque government with natural partners for international activities. Finally, the political violence that emerged as a reaction to the dictatorship prompts the Basque government to undertake various initiatives to present a different, more positive face of the Basque Country internationally. Paradiplomacy: Regional Governments as International Actors Regional governments are most often treated as domestic actors.This is hardly surprising since their overwhelming agency occurs within regional or national frameworks . The primary role of regional governments is arguably to design and/or implement public policy applicable only within the boundaries of the federated unit or decentralized territory in question. In regions with directly elected assemblies, responsible executives, and a distinct political class, these governments also serve functions of representation and political legitimization, which are also regionally bounded. This dimension of the action of regional governments has been widely recognized by academics. Indeed, a significant number of scholarly writings analyze the politics of specific regions2 much as if they were sovereign states.3 The agency of regional governments also takes place within a national context. Regional governments necessarily have some relationships with the central state. These relationships can be structured in many different ways: sometimes regional governments and the center are relatively equal partners, and the relationship involves exchanges of information and policy coordination (for example, Belgian federalism). In other cases, central-regional relationships feature the subordination of the latter to the former. This is observable...