Asymmetry as a Device for Equal Recognition and Reasonable Accommodation of Majority and Minority Nations. A Country Study on Constitutional Asymmetry in Spain

Abstract

Asymmetry may foster equal recognition and reasonable accommodation. This can be achieved by means of acknowledging and respecting some differences of minority nations that distinguish them from territories of the majority nation. While asymmetry seems in tension with surface equality between units of self-government, it can foster deep equality between minority and majority nations. A multinational constitution, therefore, ought to respect, grant and even promote asymmetries of different kinds. From this perspective, the chapter aims to analyse historical, political and constitutional asymmetries in Spain, with particular attention to Catalonia and Basque Country. In respect to constitutional asymmetries, such analysis requires distinguishing constitutional potentiality from its actuality. Although the 1978 Spanish Constitution looks multinational and allows asymmetry in many aspects, its vagueness and ambiguity left much leeway to legislation and politics. Nevertheless, this Constitution has clear uninational and unitarian traits regarding other aspects such as sovereignty, territorial unity and integrity, constitution-making and centralized judiciary. This deep uninational character together with a narrow understanding of the asymmetrical potential may explain much of today’s secessionism in Spain.