In this dissertation I attempt to build a bridge between normative discussions about multinational democracy and political recognition, and a contextually-sensitive empirical analysis of the Spanish case. I argue that, by looking at the characteristics and political dynamic of Catalonia, the Basque Country and Galicia, we can gain a better understanding of the definition, composition and viability of a multinational democracy. Combining normative discussions and a description of an empirical case (Spain) I seek to bridge both normative and empirical literatures about political recognition and multinationality highlighting the fruitful interconnections between them. In doing so, I attempt to provide adequate tools to normatively assess concrete and actual processes of political recognition in a context-sensitive manner. The dissertation also emphasises the possibilities (and limits) of federalism as a viable political and institutional framework to accommodate multinational demands in a democratic fashion. By looking at the Spanish case and the controversies and challenges that Catalonia, the Basque Country and Galicia present, I believe I offer a better understanding of political recognition. I defend a view of democracy and politics that is open by definition and is amenable to contestation and ongoing negotiations. I contend that the temptation to arrive at a solution as if it were a final and permanent state of affairs should be avoided; rather, the indeterminate and open-ended nature of the processes analysed should be not only tolerated but rather assessed according to the conditions and dynamic of the process of political recognition identified and discussed in my dissertation.

In this dissertation I attempt to build a bridge between normative discussions about multinational democracy and political recognition, and a contextually-sensitive empirical analysis of the Spanish case. I argue that, by looking at the characteristics and political dynamic of Catalonia, the Basque Country and Galicia, we can gain a better understanding of the definition, composition and viability of a multinational democracy. Combining normative discussions and a description of an empirical case (Spain) I seek to bridge both normative and empirical literatures about political recognition and multinationality highlighting the fruitful interconnections between them. In doing so, I attempt to provide adequate tools to normatively assess concrete and actual processes of political recognition in a context-sensitive manner. The dissertation also emphasises the possibilities (and limits) of federalism as a viable political and institutional framework to accommodate multinational demands in a democratic fashion. By looking at the Spanish case and the controversies and challenges that Catalonia, the Basque Country and Galicia present, I believe I offer a better understanding of political recognition. I defend a view of democracy and politics that is open by definition and is amenable to contestation and ongoing negotiations. I contend that the temptation to arrive at a solution as if it were a final and permanent state of affairs should be avoided; rather, the indeterminate and open-ended nature of the processes analysed should be not only tolerated but rather assessed according to the conditions and dynamic of the process of political recognition identified and discussed in my dissertation.

The objective of this thesis is to complement the wealth of scholarly works which examine the "transitions from authoritarian rule" that occured in Spain and Brazil. This thesis distinguishes itself from these earlier works by bracketing discussion concerning the elite-level political transitions that occured in order to concentrate on the democratization and socialization of the Spanish and Brazilian societies. / The work focuses on a number of collective organizations that emerge during these transitions, and will postulate an argument as to why they should be referred to as "transformation movements". Two important questions that the thesis addresses while examining these cases are: "why do these movements emerge under authoritarian regimes," and "what is it about transformation movements that merits some type of differentiation from other types of collective action?". / The significance of these questions to the understanding of "transformation movements", and the role of these movements in the transitions that occured in Spain and Brazil, unfolds in the work that follows.

Among the Roman foundations in modern Catalonia was the colonia of Barcino, which, unlike several of its neighbours, had no local native predecessor. The growth of these cities was slow, and an air of mediocrity shrouds them all, save Tarraco. With the decline of nearby communities in the third century, the significance of Barcino increased. New defences and economic activity, supplemented by the presence of civil and ecclesiastical powers in the Visigothic period, ensured the survival of urban life, although a tendency to contraction around the religious centre is apparent in the topography of the 6th. century, marking the beginning of the transition to the medieval plan. In the following centuries the fortress function was foremost: only from the mid tenth century can changes be detected, with the appearance of suburbs and a 'Port'. Braked by Almansur's raid, the impetus of growth was soon recovered. The development of the city during the succeeding two centuries can be traced from nearly a thousand documents, mainly unpublished. In this period, Barcelona's population increased ten-fold, with corresponding alterations to the townscape, while details of topography which have survived until the present day were often determined in this period. Three main zones are detectable: the adapted pattern of Antiquity within the defences, the spontaneous growth of the inner suburbs, while those of c.1080 onwards contain elements of planning. By 1200, open land, once commonplace, had disappeared and the medieval city of narrow streets and tightly packed houses had been formed. The reasons behind this growth are diverse. Historical circumstances and the precedents of the Visigothic period played some part. Equally significant were the decline of Barcelona's neighbours and the maintained agricultural strength of its plain. Finally, Barcelona formed a focal point not only for this territorium, and a wider hinterland, but also for the emergent Catalonia.

In the 1920's, the grouping of Galician intellectuals known as the Xeración Nós began, through their wide-ranging literary output and more specifically political activities, to articulate and reinterpret essential notions of Galician cultural identity after several centuries of cultural repression and centralisation. This thesis examines both the nexus of inherited positions informing this cultural recovery, and its original reformulation, through the works of the most prominent intellectual of the Xeración Nós, Ramón Otero Pedrayo (1888 1976). Otero was an important figure in Galician intellectual and cultural life over the larger part of the twentieth century, especially when expression of Galician distinctiveness, whether political or cultural, was severely limited and largely discouraged by the Franco regime. He is particularly deserving of an in-depth study, especially since this theme so intrinsically associated with him has not yet been written upon from a perspective of cultural history. In order to provide as accurate an analysis as possible of Otero's conception of Galician reality and the developmental nature of his ideas, I have consulted a large number of texts, ranging from brief journalistic sketches to dense biographical tomes. In particular, I focus on the large body of essays written by Otero such as the Ensaio histórico sobre a cultura galega (1932) and the more imaginative configuration of Galician identity contained in the trilogy of novels Os camiños da vida (1928), Arredor de si (1930) and Devalar (1935). This allows for an analysis of the writer's perspective on the essential bases of Galician culture via the recuperation through literature (most notably the influence of the broad cultural revival initiated in the 1860's, or Rexurdimento, and the influence of historical and cultural co-ordinates ultimately derived from Romantic thought). Crucial in shaping Otero's definitive vision is an eclectic array of references from cultural history both ancient and modern, ideological import through the Celtic ideal, and contemporary social issues (such as the political climate of the Second Republic). To be seen firmly within the parameters of an intellectual history, this thesis has as its objective an explanation how these intrinsic and extrinsic sources of influence condition Otero's evaluation of Galician distinctiveness, and what that quality actually embodies, within the context of the cultural activity prevalent in Galicia from 1918 to 1936 and beyond.

This thesis treats three interconnected topics of Spanish history between 206 B.C. and Augustus: immigration from Italy, provincial and local government and the extension of civitas Romana and ius Latii to Spaniards. In different ways, these formed the framework of, and lent encouragement to, the Romanization of the Peninsula, the effects of which still endure. Though not overlooked by English-speaking scholars, Spain has not attracted attention as consistent and extensive as that accorded other lands of the Roman empire. Moreover, apart from some research by Spaniards, investigation of the period generally has tended to be particularist - concerning itself with limited problems such as Caesarian and Augustan colonization, second-century-B.C. military policy and the economic state of the country at various moments; and often occurs as part of a broader survey of conditions over several provinces (if not of the whole empire), with some loss of depth. Concentration on Spain alone, of course, can suffer from a lack of breadth and analogy, especially as paucity of evidence permanently afflicts nearly every topic in Republican Spanish history save military affairs (where it is intermittent). Yet the risk is worth taking: the problems are important as well as interesting. [Continued in text ...]

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (doctoral)--Jāmiʻah al-Lubnānīyah, Beirut, 1989. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 286-300) and indexes.