Just before the fall - The Northern League and the cultural construction of a secessionist claim

The article tries to develop a better understanding of the role of discursi ve formations in the establishment of a nationalist claim. Nationalist disc ourses are defined as a distinctive subset of those discursive practices di rected to transform, through the drawing of a boundary, a given audience in a solidary community, characterized by an internal, socially constructed s imilarity and by an external, socially constructed difference. It is argued that such a cultural approach may also help clarify some controversial iss ues in the sociology of nationalism, such as the meaning of the frequently made distinctions between 'ethnic' and 'civic nationalism. It is argued tha t, while useful in identifying two crucial rhetorical resources, such disti nction is troublesome when applied to nationalist actors. The empirical focus of the article is an analysis of a sample of articles p ublished in the main Italian newspapers about the secessionist campaign of the Northern League in 1996. An analysis of their contents makes it possibl e to highlight the plurality of discursive strategies employed by social ac tors in order to advocate or oppose a nationalist claim. It is shown how al l the actors involved adopt rhetorical themes belonging both to 'ethnic' an d 'civic' templates.