When Language Trumps Democracy: National Identity and Democratic Resilience in Spain

Abstract In the current literature, there is a growing debate about various structural factors that negatively affect the ability to resist autocratization, as well as the interests for which voters would sacrifice democracy. Unresolved conflicts over national identity and borders, which have been identified as important factors in the democratization process, are not recognized as such in the current literature on autocratization. Using data from the conjoint experiment in Spain, this article introduces the resolved conflict over national identity as an important factor of democratic resilience. Specifically, and contrary to existing theoretical expectations, the article shows that Spanish voters would sacrifice democracy for their favorite policy on the language issue (the supremacy of Spanish versus the right to use Catalan, Basque, and Galician), which is treated here as an essential part of the national identity dispute in Spain. Moreover, contrary to most expectations, the author shows that the willingness to trade off democratic principles for the language issue is stronger among those with a more pluralist view of national identity. The author argues that issue salience can be seen as one explanation in this regard.