Modernization theory hypothesizes that ethnicity and ethnic activism will diffuse and dissipate following industrialization because in industrial economies class will replace ethnicity as the basis for individual and group identity. However, the persistence of ethnic activism, including autonomist and separatist movements in Western European countries. challenges the validity of that hypothesis. Equally significant, many attempts, historical and contemporary, to suppress ethnicity and ethnic activism have failed. Neither class consciousness nor nationalist consciousness has transcended or displaced ethnic and regional identity. Such is the case for Spain.

This study attempts to show that suppressive action by the state, not change in the economy, is the independent variable that explains contemporary ethnicity and ethnic activism. Suppressive action is defined as any policy, repression, or other activity by the state aimed at suppressing ethnic identity and autonomy.