Description
This paper deals with how the meaning of violence and its limits changes over time and is socially set. I use public and political debates on Spanish Political Parties Regulation Act– which led to the banning of Batasuna (Basque radical nationalist party) in 2002 – to explore how the dynamics of contestation and legitimation crystallized in one core piece of legislation of the Spanish counterterrorism framework. Analyzing discourses and actions of a variety of actors – political parties, civil society organizations and public intellectuals – I show how the meaning of ‘unacceptable’ violence, was built at the intersection between State’s interest and social actor’s mobilization. At the basis of the process, lays a public and organized conversation that helped to normalize the banning of political parties and the practice of violence rejection as a proof of adhesion to Spanish democracy.
Keywords: counterterrorism, violence, acceptability, legitimation, controversies
