Claims for recognition and autonomy have permeated politics in Belgium, Spain and Canada over the last several decades. The transformation in these states' party systems and the debates over their constitutional and institutional arrangements are signs that nationalist movements have been successful in putting their issues on the political agenda. Indeed, the emergence of autonomist or secessionist nationalist parties in Spain and Canada and the split on linguistic lines of the traditional Belgian parties have transformed the political landscape of these societies. These political parties have attempted to rearrange, with varying success, the constitutional and institutional framework. In turn, this framework has shaped their action, posing constraints and offering opportunities. While the action of political parties seeking recognition and autonomy for their communities has introduced an element of instability in the larger societies' political system, the response to their challenge has been instrumental in determining its ultimate consequences.

This chapter addresses two related questions. First, it will show how collective identities in Belgium, Spain and Canada have been institutionalized in partisan politics and how the political parties reflective of these identities have emerged to challenge the constitutional and institutional framework in which they operate. It will also show that these parties may transform a party system in a way that makes it an enduring source of instability.