A National Party in a Regional Party System: The PSC-PSOE in Catalonia

Is nationalism left or right? Critical junctures in Québécois nationalism*

“… 10 That being said, there are indications of a emergent left strand within Catalan nationalism represented by the Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), as well as the growing regionalist orientation of Catalan socialists (Roller 2004; Roller and Van Houten 2003). The author would like to thank Jan Sonnenschein for bringing this point to his attention. …”

Regionalist Challenges to European States: A Quantitative Assessment

“…Such change sometimes occurs at 'critical junctures', as happened in Belgium in the late 1960s, but these become quickly institutionalized and have resisted further changes. Moreover, further research has indicated that several forces other than cultural and economic conditions have shaped party behaviour at the sub-national level (Roller and Van Houten, 2003;Van Houten, n.d.). However, a comprehensive analysis of the various forces shaping regional party systems is still lacking.…”

Catalan Independence and the Challenge of Credibility: The Causes and Consequences of Catalan Nationalist Parties’ Strategic Behavior

“…32 A further contributing factor was organizational and ideological changes within the PSC, under the charismatic leadership of ex-Barcelona mayor Pasqual Maragall. 33 Having historically struggled to disassociate itself from the political priorities of the statewide PSOE to which it is federated, from the mid-1990s onwards the PSC adopted a more distinctive Catalanist agenda that sought to create an alternative leftist-Catalanist majority based on shared commitments to social justice and reform of the Catalan statute of autonomy. Whilst such a project offered clear common ground with ERC's own left-wing principles, increasing Catalan self-government through statute reform fell far short of its ambition for independence.…”