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the symbolic state
Democracy, Diversity, and Citizen Engagement Series
Series editor: Alain-G. Gagnon
With the twenty-first-century world struggling to address various forms of
conflict and new types of political and cultural claims, the Democracy,
Diversity, and Citizen Engagement Series revitalizes research in the fields of
nationalism, federalism, and cosmopolitanism, and examines the interactions
between ethnicity, identity, and politics. Works published in this series are
concerned with the theme of representation – of citizens and of interests –
and how these ideas are defended at local and global levels that are increas-
ingly converging. Further, the series advances and advocates new public
policies and social projects with a view to creating change and accommodating
diversity in its many expressions. In doing so, the series instills democratic
practices in meaningful new ways by studying key subjects such as the mobi-
lization of citizens, groups, communities, and nations, and the advancement
of social justice and political stability.
Under the leadership of the Interdisciplinary Research Centre on Diversity
and Democracy, this series creates a forum where current research on democ-
racy, diversity, and citizen engagement can be examined within the context
of the study of nations as well as of nations divided by state frontiers.
1 The Parliaments of Autonomous Nations
Edited by Guy Laforest and André Lecours
2 A Liberal Theory of Collective Rights
Michel Seymour
3 The National Question and Electoral Politics in Quebec and Scotland
Éric Bélanger, Richard Nadeau, Ailsa Henderson, and Eve Hepburn
4 Trust, Distrust, and Mistrust in Multinational Democracies
Comparative Perspectives
Edited by Dimitrios Karmis and François Rocher
5 Constitutional Politics in Multinational Democracies
Edited by André Lecours, Nikola Brassard-Dion, and Guy Laforest
6 Fiscal Federalism in Multinational States
Autonomy, Equality, and Diversity
Edited by François Boucher and Alain Noël
7 The Symbolic State
Minority Recognition, Majority Backlash, and Secession
in Multinational Countries
Karlo Basta
The Symbolic State
Minority Recognition,
Majority Backlash, and Secession
in Multinational Countries
Karlo Basta
McGill- Queen’s University Press
Montreal & Kingston London Chicago
• •
© McGill-Queen’s University Press 2021
ISBN 978-0-2280-0805-7 (cloth)
ISBN 978-0-2280-0806-4 (paper)
ISBN 978-0-2280-0920-7 (ePDF)
ISBN 978-0-2280-0921-4 (ePUB)
Legal deposit fourth quarter 2021
Bibliothèque nationale du Québec
Printed in Canada on acid-free paper that is 100% ancient forest free
(100% post-consumer recycled), processed chlorine free
This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian
Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Awards to
Scholarly Publications Program, using funds provided by the Social Sciences
and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.
Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Title: The symbolic state: minority recognition, majority backlash, and
secession in multinational countries / Karlo Basta.
Names: Basta, Karlo, 1976- author.
Series: Democracy, diversity, and citizen engagement series; 7.
Description: Series statement: Democracy, diversity, and citizen engagement
series; 7 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20210249234 | Canadiana (ebook)
20210249307 | ISBN 9780228008064 (paper) | ISBN 9780228008057
(cloth) | ISBN 9780228009207 (ePDF) | ISBN 9780228009214 (ePUB)
Subjects: LCSH: Multinational states. | LCSH: Secession. |
LCSH: Nationalism. | LCSH: Comparative government.
Classification: LCC JC311 .B37 2021 | DDC 320.54—dc23
This book was typeset by Marquis Interscript in 10.5 / 13 Sabon.
Contents
Tables and Figures vii
Acknowledgments ix
1 In Search of Theories of the Multinational State 3
2 Theoretical Bottlenecks 18
3 Decentralization, Symbolic Recognition, and Secessionist
Crises 35
4 Canada and Quebec from the Quiet Revolution to the 1995
Referendum 63
5 Spain and Catalonia from the Transition to the 2017 Secession
Crisis 86
6 Yugoslavia and Croatia from the Re-emergence of the National
Question to the Break-up 111
7 Czechoslovakia from the Velvet Revolution to the Velvet
Divorce 138
8 The Multinational State and the Analytic Imagination 158
Appendix 181
Notes 189
References 211
Index 251
Tables and Figures
tables
2.1 Theories of multinational state: The state of the field 21
3.1 Argument outline: The political economy story 40
3.2 Case selection 42
3.3 The political economy story: Summary of findings 43
3.4 Summary of causal process observations 59
A1 Share of population by province (as % of Canada’s
total) 181
A2 Share of GDP by province (as % of Canada’s total) 182
A3 Per capita GDP by province (as % of Canada’s average) 182
A4 Share of population by autonomous community
(as % of Spanish total) 183
A5 Share of GDP by autonomous community
(as % of Spanish total) 184
A6 Per capita GDP by autonomous community
(as % of Spanish average) 185
A7 Industrial production by autonomous community
(share of the Spanish total) 186
A8 Net central government spending by select autonomous
community (as % of AC GDP) 187
A9 Share of population by republic (as % of Yugoslav
total) 188
A10 Share of Yugoslavia’s gross social product, by republic
(%) 188
A11 Per capita GDP in the Czech Republic and Slovakia (current
prices in Czechoslovak Crowns) 188
viii Tables and Figures
figures
3.1 Causal process summary 49
3.2 Chapter layout 62
4.1 Canada 1960–1995 causal process summary 64
5.1 Spain 1980–2017 causal process summary 87
5.2 Institutional Preferences in Catalonia, 2006–2017 108
6.1 Yugoslavia 1960–1991 causal process summary 112
7.1 Czechoslovakia causal process summary (emphasis
on 1989–1992 period) 139
Acknowledgments
This book is made of circumstances, personal proclivities, and folly.
The circumstances have to do with the implosion of my original
homeland – Yugoslavia. The proclivity is the uneven but abiding
sociological curiosity that has marked me since I was a boy. And the
folly relates to the belief that I could somehow harness that curiosity
to explain those circumstances, without in the process burning through
my life chances. Without that costly error, this volume would not have
been written. But neither would it – nor could it – have been completed
without the generosity and involvement of many colleagues, mentors,
friends, and kind strangers.
The project started as a doctoral dissertation at the University of
Toronto, and as fateful advice by Jeffrey Kopstein, my supervisor at
the time, to park the Balkans for a while and learn how to do political
science. The upshot was that I dared to look beyond the horizon, and
thus came to understand where I came from by knowing other places.
I am thankful to Jeff for this and for his guidance over the long years
it took me to finish the program. A number of other people in the
Department of Political Science provided valuable advice and support,
including David Cameron, Phil Triadafilopoulos, Susan Solomon, and
Lucan Way.
Two individuals played an outsized role during my time at U of T.
Richard Simeon influenced my thinking about institutions in multi-
national states to an extent I only came to appreciate after his passing.
More prosaically, but as importantly, he was my link to scholars
(notably via the Ethnicity and Democratic Governance network) who
would contribute to this work in ways small and great. This is no
coincidence. Richard was both a deep and careful thinker and the
