Nationalism and Self-Government: The Politics of Autonomy in Scotland and Catalonia (S U N Y Series in National Identities)

Scotland and Catalonia, both ancient nations with strong nationalisms within larger states, are exemplars of the management of ethnic conflict in multinational democracies and of global trends toward regional government. Focusing on these two countries, Scott L. Greer explores why nationalist mobilization arose when it did and why it stopped at autonomy rather than statehood. He challenges the notion that national identity or institutional design explains their relative success as stable multinational democracies and argues that the key is their strong regional societies and their regional organizations' preferences for autonomy and environmental stability.

"Greer offers a very important set of general questions and issues related to the broader context of devolution and global-local relations. The idea of civic nationalism presented here has a strong potentiality to become a `new' form of diversity governance." -- Joan Subirats, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona "This is a significant topic, especially in Europe and Canada. The author provides an excellent critical review of the theoretical literature and also introduces some interesting ideas to the subject." -- Stephane Paquin, Universite de Sherbrooke