Linguistic Rights and the Borders of Political identity

Language policy is focal in the relations between states and ethnolinguistic minorities, yet empirical evidence on its political effects is limited. Although accommodation of minority languages in state-mediated domains can be expected to favor national integration and reduce conflict, the implied delivery of cultural and material benefits along linguistic lines can empower ethnic parties and further policitize identities. I examine the 1986 linguistic reform in the Spanish province of Navarre, which divided the territory into three zones with different levels of normalization of the Basque language. Using Difference-in-Differences and Regression Discontinuity designs across zones, I find that the introduction of bilingualism in public institutions did not significantly alter Basque nationalist mobilization in the short run. However, support for Basque parties diverged markedly across zones from the late 2000s, suggesting that intergenerational identity realignments and the end of political violence by ETA catalyzed political change over the medium to long run. Consistent with this interpretation, the reform led to an increase in the share of candidates with Basque names in local elections. Overall, the reform appears to have affected political behavior and the making of social boundaries between linguistic groups by widening the constituency of voters with Basque identities rather than changing the behavior of pre-existing Basque speakers. Machine-learning analyses of thousands of streets and geographic names reveal that an important boundary-making process, the linguistic make-up of human geography, remains in part contested in communities at the language frontier.