A new thesis, written entirely in English, has recently been added to the Ad Concordiam Thesis collection. The thesis studies the way that financing systems influence and determine the agenda of parties with nationalist aspiration, with a particular focus on Convergència i Unió in Catalonia and on EAJ-PNV in the Basque Country.
The thesis, the work of Dr. Caroline Gray, from Scotland, is part of a broader research project at Liverpool University on the evolution of the territorial proposals of the Catalan and Basque nationalist parties. The project is studying the different social, political and economic factors, which have influenced the direction taken by the nationalist parities since the transition, and particularly since the 1990s. The thesis methodology is based on a broad array of interviews with leading politicians from different parties, their advisors and also some civil servants, most of whom working in the autonomous government, but also at Provincial Council level in the Basque Country. It analyses all the negotiations related to the autonomous financing system since the 1980s and the political dynamics around those negotiations.
