At a time when nationalist movements are forcefully looking for new forms of political, institutional, and constitutional accommodation – if not seeking independence altogether – insight into their dynamics is more useful than ever. In The Parliaments of Autonomous Nations, Guy Laforest and André Lecours assemble an original perspective on minority nations in Belgium, Canada, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Analyzing how parliaments in Flanders, Quebec, Catalonia, Galicia, the Basque Country, Scotland, and Northern Ireland have worked to build, consolidate, and express their identities, manage and protect the cultural distinctiveness of their communities, as well as articulate self-determination claims, contributors provide insights into these nations’ democracies and traditions. Essays also focus on the central parliaments of multinational states, and on the methods used by these parliaments to promote their own national identities and respond to minority nations’ claims for recognition, autonomy, or even independence. An illuminating look at the internal forces of Western governments, The Parliaments of Autonomous Nations also offers a broad view of vital concerns such as nationalist struggles, federalism, and parliamentarism.

Guy Laforest is executive director of the École Nationale d’Administration Publique (ÉNAP), Québec.

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André Lecours est professeur titulaire à l’École d’études politiques de l’Université d’Ottawa. Il détient un doctorat en science politique de l’Université Carleton (2001). Il s’intéresse principalement au nationalisme, au fédéralisme et à la politique européenne et canadienne. Il est le coauteur (avec Daniel Béland) de Nationalism and Social Policy: The Politics of Territorial Solidarity, publié par l’Oxford University Press en 2008. Il est également l’auteur de Basque Nationalism and the Spanish State, publié par l’University of Nevada Press en 2007, et le directeur de New Institutionalism: Theory and Analysis, publié par l’University of Toronto Press en 2005.

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"A major advance towards a better understanding of the role of parliaments of minority nations." Nations and Nationalism

“This is a comprehensive treatment of an original and important topic. The contributors are respected scholars in the field and together the collection greatly advances our understanding of how sub-state legislatures function within multinational states.” - Stephen Tierney, University of Edinburgh