Language or race?: The choice of core values in the development of Catalan and Basque nationalisms

Using the concept of core values, this article sets forth a comparison between Catalan and Basque nationalisms. It uses the declarations on language made by the main leaders and intellectuals of the respective nationalist movements. While Catalan nationalism has given paramount importance to language since its inception, the Basque movement was beleaguered by an overall ambiguity and fluctuating attitude over the core values to be promoted. This ambiguity is reflected in the profound changes to be witnessed in Basque nationalism from its beginning to the present day. The article claims that existing anthropological and cultural preconditions can affect political developments. Notably, since ethnic languages play such an important role in most ethnonationalist movements, their vitality can influence political outcomes. Furthermore, ethnic languages rather than other values (such as race or religion) offer better prospects for peaceful and successful mobilization in democratic states if these languages are spoken – or at least understood – by sizeable proportions of the population. Otherwise, nationalist movements will encounter more difficulty in finding a suitable alternative means of political mobilization. Language has a more inclusive character, inasmuch as it is not used as a barrier to prevent the integration of outsiders. Today, language is becoming a core value in the Basque Country too. This is to be explained by recent changes in Basque society. In particular, after the isolationist reaction against the first wave of immigrants at the end of the last century, increased immigration from southern Spain has made it imperative that there be a change from ascriptive criteria of national membership to non‐ascriptive ones.