Local Political Violence and Regional Identity in Spain

Abstract

Terrorist groups often aim to extract concessions (e.g., religious or regional autonomy) from governments. While there is evidence that out-group attacks increase support for hawkish policies, less is known about the effects of terrorism on the attitudes and political preferences of those that are (supposedly) represented. In this project, I examine the effects of local terrorist attacks perpetrated by Basque nationalists on nationalist sentiment within the Basque country, and in other Spanish provinces with strong regional identities (e.g., Catalonia and Galicia). I use a combination of attitudes surveys that intersected terrorist attacks and highly-granular electoral data to study these questions.