Diversity, Autonomy and Solidarity in Multinational States: Current Developments in the Spanish-Catalan and the Jews-Arabs Political Disputes

The concept of the nation state – and specifically the tension between affirming solidarity among nation-state compatriots and respecting national minorities’ rights in order to preserve diversity and secure their autonomy – has been on the global agenda over the last two centuries, especially in Europe. In recent years, two cases, in Catalonia and in Israel – different in many respects but similar in others – serve as inspiring test cases for analysing questions of national identities and state cohesion. Both of these cases portray the dilemmas surrounding national identity in an allegedly dichotomic fashion, thus requiring a choice between independence and secession or unionism and assimilation. This article suggests that a dichotomic perspective is not compelling and that solidarity and autonomy are not necessarily contradictory. It explores the connection between solidarity and autonomy and applies the analysis to the case studies of Catalonia and Israel separately, given the unique characteristics of each case.