This article aims to address how two specific national identities-Basque and Catalan-, enhanced by their nationalisms and by the Spanish democratization process, were able to materialize politically and legally in what is qualified as nation-autonomies. To analyze this case study we start covering the role of the nation-State and the relationship between the concepts of State and nation. It specially highlights the emergence of new political units, which the author classifies as nation-autonomies, which constitute a real challenge to the traditional concept of sovereignty, focusing the Spanish case.
Catalonia; Spanish autonomous State; centrifugal nationalism; Basque Country; sovereignty