ON THE DYNAMICS OF LINGUISTIC CLEAVAGE IN QUEBEC: A TEST OF ALTERNATIVE HYPOTHESES

Abstract

This article presents an empirical test of three hypotheses dealing with the modernisation of polyethnic societies. An hypothesis derived from the functionalist/developmental perspective and two hypotheses derived from the conflict/competition perspective are assessed using survey data on Francophone‐Anglophone relations in contemporary Quebec. The main conclusions are that 1) the cross‐sectional design using survey data allows a clear test of Hechter's (1975) reactive ethnicity hypothesis; 2) the reactive ethnicity hypothesis is supported in the analysis; 3) the resource competition hypothesis (e.g., Nielsen 1980) is also supported; 4) the reactive ethnicity and resource competition hypotheses are not necessarily mutually exclusive, as some recent authors have claimed (Nielsen 1980; Ragin 1979), and can best be seen as two variants of the same communal competition perspective imbedded in the conflict theory tradition.

Citation

Laczko, L.S. (1986), "ON THE DYNAMICS OF LINGUISTIC CLEAVAGE IN QUEBEC: A TEST OF ALTERNATIVE HYPOTHESES", International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol. 6 No. 1, pp. 39-60. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb013000