Title

Constituency Homogeneity, Economic Risk, and Support for Quebec Sovereignty: A Research Note

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-2003

Department

International Business & Management

Language

English

Publication Title

Canadian Journal of Political Science / Revue Canadienne de Science Politique

Abstract

This article presents a test of the argument that vulnerability to economic dislocation, primarily as it is represented by economic homogeneity in communities, exercises a constraint on levels of support for Quebec nationalism. The guiding hypothesis is that residents of economically vulnerable ridings will be reluctant to accept the risks attached with political moves toward independence. The authors employ data on the level of support for the Bloc Quebecois in the federal elections of 1993 and 1997, and the proportion voting 'Yes' in the 1995 sovereignty referendum in Quebec, in the province's 75 federal electoral districts as their measures of support for sovereignty. Results suggest that there is a relationship between the geographies of potential economic vulnerability and the level of nationalist support, particularly evident in the 1995 referendum voting and the 1997 election. Calculations involving perceived economic vulnerability and risk remain as powerful defenders of the political status quo in Quebec.

Comments

For more information on the published version, visit Cambridge Journals Online.

DOI

10.1017/S0008423903778809

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