I think from a French perspective there is also the issue of not recognizing a community smaller than the State or an identity smaller then the Nation. And while there may be good reasons why the State or the Nation may not wish to recognize smaller communities as political agents, that doesn't mean that those communities don't exist in the eyes of the people who are within and outside them, nor that they don't have sociological and political effects.

We have met the enemy, and he is us — Pogo