Political Participation and Political Emancipation : the Impact of Cultural Membership

• Author: Jean Pierre Fichert
• DOI: 10.1177/106591297402700106
• Published date: 01 March 1974
• Date: 01 March 1974
• Subject Matter: Articles

104

POLITICAL

PARTICIPATION

AND

POLITICAL

EMANCIPATION :

THE

IMPACT

OF

CULTURAL

MEMBERSHIP

JEAN

PIERRE

FICHERT

Stockton

State

College

EYMOUR

MARTIN

LIPSET

once

observed

that

every

country

has

a

South,

a

remark

by

which

he

implied

that

many

countries

of

the

world

include

areas

whose

political

style

is

characterized

by

a

&dquo;special

regional

flavor.&dquo;

He

went

on

to

suggest

that,

compared

to

the

rest

of

Canada,

Quebec

is

such

an

area.&dquo;

Cana-

dian

politics

and,

in

particular,

the

Canadian

political

culture

are

frequently

re-

ferred

to

in

terms

of

dichotomies

which

oppose

the

English

and

French-Canadian

traditions.

One

of

the

earliest

comparisons

was

that

of

Lord

Durham

who

noted

during

his

stay

in

Canada

that

while

&dquo;the

superior

political

and

practical

intelli-

gence

of the

English

cannot

be,

for

a

moment,

disputed, ...

the

greater

amount

of

refinement,

of

speculative

thought,

and

of

the

knowledge

that

books

can

give,

is,

with

some

brilliant

exceptions,

to

be

found

among

the

French.&dquo;

2

More

recent

examples

include,

for

instance,

Maheux

who

contrasts

French-Canadian

authori-

tarianism

and

the

English-Canadian

democratic

orientations

and

Johnstone,

who

suggests

that

Francophones

are

status

oriented

while

Anglophones

are

more

achieve-

ment

oriented.3

The

purpose

of

this

paper

is

to

test

empirically

a

hypothesis

ad-

vanced

by

Quinn

who

suggests

that

the

two

cultural

groups

differ

in

terms

of

their

orientation

toward

the

political

process,

and

to

speculate

about

the

potential

impact

of

any

difference

upon

political

change

in

Quebec.’

The

paper

will

focus

on

the

early

development

of

attitudes

toward

political

participation.

The

data

are

based

on

a

survey

of

elementary

school

children

in

Quebec

conducted

in

1970-71

(N=960).8

POLITICAL

PARTICIPATION

Political

participation

refers

to

the

orientations

to,

and

involvement

in,

the

political

process

by

members

of

a

political

community.6

Quinn

argues,

basically,

NOTE :

I

am

grateful

to

Professors

Hargrove,

Cornwell

and

Feldstein,

all

from

Brown

Univer-

sity,

for

critical

comments.

I

would

also

like

to

thank

my

wife,

E.

Susanne

Richert,

for

critical

advice.

1

Seymour

M.

Lipset,

Political Man

(Garden

City:

Doubleday,

1960),

p.

258.

2

C.

P.

Lucas,

Lord

Durham’s

Report

(Oxford:

1912),

II,

9,

cited

by

Mason

Wade,

The

French-Canadians

(Toronto:

MacMillan

of

Canada,

1968),

I,

201.

3

Arthur

Maheux,

"French-Canadians

and

Democracy,"

in

Douglas

Grant

(ed.)

Quebec

Today

(Toronto:

University

of

Toronto

Press,

1960),

pp.

341-51.

John

C.

Johnstone,

Young

People’s

Images

of

Canadian

Society

(Ottawa:

Queen’s

Printer,

1969),

p.

9.

4

Herbert

F.

Quinn,

The

Union

Nationale

(Toronto:

University

of

Toronto

Press,

1963),

Chap.

1.

’ The

sample

and

the

method

have been

described

at

length

in

"Political

Socialization

in

Quebec:

Young

People’s

Attitudes

Toward

Government,"

Canadian

Journal

of

Political

Science,

6

(June

1973), 303-13.

6

For

a

recent

discussion

of

the

concept

of

participation

and

its

impact

on

political

develop-

ment,

see

Guiseppe

Di

Palma,

Apathy

and

Participation

(New

York:

The

Free

Press,

1970),

introductory

chapter.

The

present

article

deals

only

with

attitudes

toward

partici-