Collective Identities and Failed Nationalism. The Case of Valencia in Spain

This paper tries to explain an anomaly. One of the outcomes ofthefederalization of polities is the emergence and consolidation of peripheral identities in conflict or in combination with the central identity. This is largely the case of Spain since the late seventies. However, having the conditions to develop a regional identity, Valencia largely lacks it. This situation puzzled Juan J. Linz during the seventies and has remained largely unsolved. Historic legacies explain part of the problem, but the role played by democratic institutions controlled by different elites has an impact as well. The main explanatory variable is the lack of social consensus as expressed in elite division over cultural matters including symbols, language, and nature of the community. Competing for cultural hegemony, political elites have deepened the divide between two major groups whose conflictive relationship is far from over.