Fragmented identities and political conflict: Failed nationalism in a multinational state. The case of Valencia in Spain

Literature on nationalism usually neglects failed cases of nationalism. My dissertation deals with one of these negative cases. I analyze why peripheral nationalism has never taken root in Valencia, a multilingual region in multicultural Spain in which most of the factors explaining the emergence of nationalism are present. However, peripheral nationalism and regional identities have always been minimal.; This deviant case is explained using a triple argument. First, I review the political history of the region to analyze the progressive integration of Valencia in the Spanish culture, market, and polity. I study three critical junctures: The expulsion of the Moors (1609), the consequences of the War of Succession (1701--07), and the tumultuous nineteenth century that began with a political revolution that marked the building of modern Spanish nationalism. Comparing the success of Catalan and Spanish nationalisms and the failure of the Valencian one I conclude that Valencian political and cultural elites were liberal, not conservatives, and thus fitted better in Spanish liberal nationalism than in Church-inspired and conservative peripheral nationalism. The consequences of this failure are felt in two additional critical junctures: The Restoration and the Second Republic.; Second, I develop a political argument analyzing why Valencian elites failed to develop peripheral nationalism when the conditions were most favorable in the transition to democracy and the decentralization of the state. Instead, the building of the autonomic state in Valencia became the battleground for the emerging conflict of identities.; This conflict revolves around the language and the identity of Valencians. I trace its intellectual bases back to the 1960s and 1970s. Fusterianism and Blaverism are the two groups leading the conflict. It became embedded in political parties and in autonomic institutions. This leads my research to the study of the political elite.; Understanding why this conflict has lasted so much helps to explain why nationalism has never been successful in Valencia. I study the cognitive framework of political elites analyzing the results of a survey to MPs. In my third argument, I conclude that politicians, as the population, combine Valencian and Spanish cultural referents producing a mix of concentric identities decoupled from language.