Topics of: The Yellow-Brick Road to the Spanish Nation-State

Nation states arise historically with the transfer of rule from the king to the people, which becomes depository of the general interest. But the old patrimonial state included different peoples, some of which continued to have their own constitutions, representative chambers, and codes of law. Unifying them was a pre-requisite for the emergence of the nation state. This was achieved through a process of nation building which, for most European states, culminated in the 19th century. Not so in Spain. The recurring crises of the Spanish state through the 19th and 20th centuries, and renewed territorial problems in the 21st, reveal an unachieved national project. The seminar will discuss theories of nationalism and sovereignty, and will consider the historical attempts of the Spanish state to manage its intractable nationalities problem, with particular reference to Catalonia. In addition to the state¿s political fractures, the significance of culture for the insolubility of national identities in a single national project will be considered in some detail, as will the role of academic disciplines in furthering a cultural mandate in the sense of political power or in challenge to it.