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National identity and political behaviour in Quebec, Scotland and Brittany

University of British Columbia

This thesis makes two broad claims. It contends firstly that there is considerable variation in national consciousness across the population of a stateless nation. People can and do feel minutely, partly or wholely Breton, Scottish or Quebecois. Moreover, these are not merely differences of degree. Underlying the uneven intensity of nationalist sentiment within stateless nations is qualitative variation in the buttresses of national consciousness. Some - typically those with weaker national identities - are "pragmatist nationalists": people whose sense of belonging to a distinct community is firmly grounded in tangible sociological differences, be they ethnic, linguistic, religious or political. Others, more taken with the nation, are "idealist nationalists"; their sense of national belonging is more the product of an abstract and idealized sense of connectedness than hard and concrete sociological difference. This basic difference in the underpinnings of national identity, along with other attendant contrasts between pragmatist and idealist nationalists, are explored through historical analysis of various nationalist organizations and activists in Brittany, Scotland and Quebec. The second central proposition is that this qualitative variation in national identity is an important determinant of political behavior. Many of the wide-ranging attitudes and behaviors seen among exponents of the nationalist cause can be traced back to the conditioning effects of national identity on the outlook and political disposition of different nationalist players. In making this case, the analysis proceeds thematically, drawing examples variously from the three cases; it offers, in places, quantitative evidence based on analysis of the original data from previously conducted surveys. Various attitudinal and behavioral phenomena are thus explored: perceptions of the legitimacy of different means of effecting changes in the nation's political status (e.g. violence versus democratic means); the rationality of different nationalist players; their patterns of participation in nationalist projects; and overall mobilization trends. While these phenomena are somewhat disparate, they are linked by an overarching theme: idealist nationalists are less sensitive to empirical realities than their pragmatist counterparts. They are consequently more intransigent and uncompromising in their attitudes and behavior, and for this reason often play an important vanguard role in the process of nationalist mobilization.

Brittany (France); Québec; Scotland

Text

eng

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0088694

Doctor of Philosophy - PhD

Arts, Faculty of; Political Science, Department of

1998-11

Graduate