Since the nineties, regional governance has acquired an increasing importance for cultural policies in the developing world. However, the elements determining the development of unequal models of cultural governance within the same country, and the differential relevance of subnational nationalism in this regard, have not been completely explained. In this article we develop a comparative analysis of the autonomous cultural policies of Catalonia, Madrid, and Andalusia. Thus, we explain how their models of horizontal governance are determined by common elements, such as the model of public policies, and other specific differential factors such as historical and industrial local heritage and regional identity, where nationalism is specifically relevant.