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The regions of Italy, no longer separate political identities, were all separate kingdoms 150 years ago and retain their cultural identities.
Italy is definitely one that's a country of regionalism. I don't know whether the regions are divided into political divisions like states or provinces, but culturally it sure is -- don't mistake a person from Campania, or a Sicilian for a Northern Italian.
With respect to Germany and Italy, do you think this is strongly influenced by the fact that those nations were only formed a little over 100 years ago?
Australia has two territories? Northern Territories yeah, but I am drawing a blank on the other one.
Mexico definitely has regionalism from what I have seen, but I am not sure how much loyalty there is to the individual state over the region.
I think many countries have strong regional identity, but that is bound to happen with cultural diversity. I'm more wondering about being proud of your state/province. Is this the case in say Russia? In the UK people don't seem to identify with their counties so much: they identify more with cities (Liverpool - Brummie) or regions (West Country, Yorkshire, Geordies in the Northeast).
I thought it was an interesting topic of discussion.
Yorkshire is generally considered a county, though these days technically it's divided into separate counties of North Yorkshire/West Yorkshire etc and is big enough to be considered a separate region (generally alongside Humberside, which itself used to be largely a part of Yorkshire but now no longer exists...I wish our counties made sense like states/provinces etc do in other countries!) Yorkshiremen have a strong county identity, probably the strongest of any English county. Among other things we have a reputation for being unsophisticated and plain-spoken, which living down here I take advantage of at every opportunity by using it as an excuse to make un-PC comments and get away with it like this guy (I know people who actually are like this!)
Each state has its own culture. It's very usual to talk about "cultura mineira" (culture of the Minas Gerais state), "cultura baiana" (culture of the Bahia state), "cultura cearense" (culture of the Ceara state), "cultura gaucha" (culture of the Rio Grande do Sul state), and many other "culturas".
Of course the national identity is above it all, and unify the country. The language is the same, even if the accents vary a lot from state to state.
To be sure, regional identity is strong in Italy, and just as strong, if not stronger, is identity by town, if big enough, usually the size of a provincial capital, maybe even smaller in some cases.
As for the US, I would be careful about blanket statements: for as much as some people remain in one state, even town, for generations, others move from state to state based on economic opportunities, change of climate, period of life, etc., and people can change their identity based on where they are.
Comparing Italy and the US, in the former regional/town identity definitely outweighs national identity by far, while in the latter I would say, on balance, national identity outweighs regional/town identities, though to a significantly lesser extent than the contrary is the case in Italy.
Personally I have lived in several countries and while in each one in almost all cases I felt affinity for the region/province/town that I've lived in rather than for the country as a whole.
There are many nation-states with internal separatist movements; within the English-speaking world, Canada and UK are perfect examples, but there are many others. Nonetheless, for the most part, these separatist movements have not been successful.
Though I have viewed national central governments as mostly a mostly a burden, even a necessary evil, on the other hand possible alternatives to the modern nation-state are not necessarily better.
How to educate and govern ourselves has been a vexed human social question since the dawn of history, and, as history clearly shows, they are subject to change, sometimes forever and not necessarily for better.
I heard Bavarians are like Texans and think other germans arent really germans.
There is even a number of different regional identities among the Bavarian areas. For Instance, Franconians (Franconia is the northern Part of today's Bavaria with the cities of Nuremberg, Bamberg etc.) don't feel like Bavarians and have their own traditions. Seems quite "wicked" that there are so many cultural differences in Europe on little space; whereas a lot of places in North America are basically the "same" although they are 800 miles apart.
There are many nation-states with internal separatist movements; within the English-speaking world, Canada and UK are perfect examples, but there are many others. Nonetheless, for the most part, these separatist movements have not been successful.
Though I have viewed national central governments as mostly a mostly a burden, even a necessary evil, on the other hand possible alternatives to the modern nation-state are not necessarily better.
How to educate and govern ourselves has been a vexed human social question since the dawn of history, and, as history clearly shows, they are subject to change, sometimes forever and not necessarily for better.
Good Luck!
Yeah, if you count the separatist movements, then of course, they'd have really strong state/provincial identities on account of them not seeing themselves as states/provinces subdivisions but nations in their own right!
I don't know if its just me, but I have a feeling that separatist movements or at least how prominent they are depicted in the news seem to be not as "on the radar" or have simmered down in the past decade or so, even comparing with the 90s. An example would be the Troubles in North Ireland. Quebec separatism peaked in the 90s and definitely seems to have weakened/died down a lot as of this time.
Yeah, if you count the separatist movements, then of course, they'd have really strong state/provincial identities on account of them not seeing themselves as states/provinces subdivisions but nations in their own right!
I don't know if its just me, but I have a feeling that separatist movements or at least how prominent they are depicted in the news seem to be not as "on the radar" or have simmered down in the past decade or so, even comparing with the 90s. An example would be the Troubles in North Ireland. Quebec separatism peaked in the 90s and definitely seems to have weakened/died down a lot as of this time.
Not so in Scotland, they have a pro-separatist government at the moment who are debating having a referendum on independence at some point in the next two or three years. Though it's true what you said about Northern Ireland, I never hear about that in the news like I used to.
If Saturday Night Live did a skit like that on a guy from Oklahoma or West Virginia, there'd be hell to pay. Especially if he made a remark acknowledging that there was a black guy in the room.
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