Abstract
Canada is one nation, but it is in many ways two communities, one Francophone and the other Anglophone. We employ a formal model of “ideology” and analyze how nationality is constructed in people’s minds. The magnitude of the changes in expressed “preferences” in terms of ideology depends on the salience of the new issue, the extent to which it confirms with the existing ideological cleavage, and the difference between the perceived status quo on the new dimension and the voter’s most preferred alternative. Using data from the 1993 Canadian National Election Study, we consider the relative importance of different policy dimensions in explaining voting decisions among educated Canadians. The issue of Quebec sovereignty, alone, is shown to have significant power for predicting vote choice. A plausible explanation, confirmed here by regression analysis, is that Quebec sovereignty “stands” for other issues in voters’ conception of Canadian politics.
Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the annual meetings of the Public Choice Society, April 12–14, 1996, Houston, TX. Seminar participants at Duke University, George Washington University, George Mason University, Princeton University, University of Kentucky, and University of North Carolina all helped clarify the ideas contained herein. Finally, specific comments by John Aldrich, John Brehm, Dennis Coates, Paul Gronke, William Keech, Peter Lange, Mark Peffley, George Rabinowitz, Lee Sigelman, Genia Toma, Mark Toma, and Peter VanDoren were particularly useful. Error are ours, however.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Aldrich, J. (1983). A spatial model with party activists: Implications for electoral dynamics. Public Choice 41: 63–100.
Aldrich, J. (1995). Why parties?: The origin and transformation of party politics in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Bothwell, R. (1995). Canada and Quebec: One country, two histories. British Columbia: UBC Press.
Brimelow, P. (1986). The patriot game: National dreams and political realities. New York: K. Porter Books.
Brimelow, P. (1995). Alien nation: Common sense about America’s immigration disaster. New York: Harper Collins.
Clarke, H. and Stewart, M. (1992). Light anchors, choppy seas: Social structure and party choice in Canada. In M. Franklin, et al. (Eds.), Electoral change: Responses to evolving social and attitudinal structures in western countries. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Clarkson, S. (1978). Anti-nationalism in Canada: The ideology of mainstream economics. Canadian Review of Studies in nationalism 5: 45–65.
Denzau, A. and North, D. (1994). Shared mental models: Ideologies and institutions. Kyklos 47: 3–32.
Enelow, J. and Hinich, M. (1984). The spatial theory of voting. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Flanagan, T. (1994). Invasion from the right: The reform party in the 1993 Canadian election. Papers in Political Economy, No. 42. Political Research Group: University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario.
Gibson, G. (1994). Plan B: The future of the rest of Canada. British Columbia: Fraser Institute. Hinich, M. and Munger, M. (1994). Ideology and the theory of political choice. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Hinich, M. and Munger, M. (1997). New issues and the dynamics of political change. Typescript. Department of Political Science, Duke University.
Hinich, M. and Pollard, W. (1981). A new approach to the spatial theory of electoral competition. American Journal of Political Science 25: 323–341.
Johnston, R. (1993). Issues and party allignments: A review with Canadian examples. In A. Breton, et al. (Eds.), Preferences and democracy, 265–286. Norwell, MA: Kluwer Academic.
Jones, B. (1994). Reconceiving decision-making in democratic politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Kornberg, A. (1988). Politics and culture in Canada. Ann Arbor, Center for Political Studies, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan.
Kornberg, A. and Clarke, H. (1992). Citizens and community: Political support in a representative democracy. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Kornberg, A., Mishler, W. and Smith, J. (1975). Political elite and mass perceptions of party locations in issue space: Some tests of two propositions. British Journal of Political Science 5: 161–185.
Lupia, A. (1992). Busy voters, agenda control, and the power of information. American Political Science Review 86: 390–404.
MacDonald, S. and Rabinowitz, G. (1987). The dynamics of structural realignment. American Political Science Review 81: 775–796.
McKelvey, R. (1976). Intransitivities in multidimensional voting bodies and some implications for agenda control. Journal of Economic Theory 30: 283–314.
McRae, K.D. (1964). The structure of Canadian history. In L. Hartz (Ed.), The founding of new societies. New York: Harcourt Brace.
Migué J.-L. (1977). Public choice in a federal system. Public Choice 90: 000–000.
Morris, R.B. et al. (Eds.). (1982). Encyclopedia of American history. 6th edition. New York: Harper Row.
Moynihan, D.P. (1993). Pandaemonium: Ethnicity in international politics. New York: Oxford University Press.
Ordeshook, P.C. (1976). The spatial theory of elections: A review and critique. In I. Budge, et al. (Eds.), Party identification and beyond. New York: Wiley.
Poole, K. and Rosenthal, H. (1993). Spatial realignment and the mapping of issues in U.S. history: The evidence from roll call voting. In W. Riker (Ed.), Agenda formation, 12–40. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Poole, K.T. and Rosenthal, H. (1997). Congress: A political economic history of roll call voting. New York: Oxford University Press.
Rabinowitz, G. and MacDonald, S. (1989). A direction theory of issue voting. American Political Science Review 83: 93–121.
Riker, W. (1982). Liberalism vs. populism: A confrontation between the theory of democracy and the theory of social choice. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman.
Riker, W. (1986). The art of political manipulation. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Riker, W. (1990). Heresthetic and rhetoric in the spatial model. In J. Enelow and M. Hinich (Eds.), Advances in the spatial theory of voting. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Schofield, N. (1985). Anarchy, altruism, and cooperation. Social Choice and Welfare 2: 207–219.
Taylor, M. (1976). Anarchy and cooperation. London: Wiley.
Taylor, M. (1982). Community, anarchy, and liberty. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Thompson, D.C. (1988). Vive le Québec libre. Toronto: Deneau Publishers.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1998 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hinich, M.J., Munger, M.C., De Marchi, S. (1998). Ideology and the construction of nationality: The Canadian elections of 1993. In: Hinich, M.J., Munger, M.C. (eds) Empirical Studies in Comparative Politics. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-5127-7_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-5127-7_8
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-5072-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-5127-7
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive