When Institutional Innovation comes from the Local: The Emergence of Basque Language Policy in France

The French state is reluctant to grant any official recognition and protection of minority and regional languages. However, this lack of institutional support from above has been partly compensated by some local institutional arrangements, which created new conditions for a certain recognition of regional languages. The French Basque Country illustrates well this paradoxical situation. Since the early 1990s, new institutions were set up at the territorial level for Basque language and culture. In 2005, the process of institutionalization went a step forward with the distinction between cultural and linguistic policy and the foundation of the Public office for the Basque language. These institutions resulted from compromises between the state, local elected officials and linguistic movements. A key factor here was the cross-border influence of the Spanish Basque language policy model, that was used by French Basque language activists in their negotiation with the state and with local policy-makers.