Comportement politique/sociologie

F10 - Nationalism, Ethnicity, and Immigration

Date: May 31 | Heure: 10:30am to 12:00pm | Location: Classroom - CL 317 Room ID:15759

Chair/Président/Présidente : Jason Roy (Wilfrid Laurier University)

Discussant/Commentateur/Commentatrice : Andrea Perrella (Wilfrid Laurier University)

E-Politicking 3.0 in Europe: André Turcotte (Carleton University), Vincent Raynauld (Emerson College)
Abstract: On June 16, 2015, American businessman Donald Trump announced that he was entering the primaries race to secure the Republican nomination for the 2016 U.S. Presidential election. This was an unusual announcement in many ways. But while the pageantry was unusual from a political imagery perspective, Trump’s speech focused on themes that have been resonating in recent elections in the United States and internationally in the wake of the 2008 global economic downturn which resulted in the widespread implementation of austerity measures. This form of nationalism fueled by a mix of anger, nostalgia, and xenophobia, which feeds into the political ideology known as nativism (Mudde 2014; Ward 2016), is currently proving to be a very successful political message around the world. This paper’s main objective is to unpack the reasons behind such successes. As noted by Polyakova (2015: 14), “once considered ephemeral phenomena, radical right parties have become part of the mainstay in the very countries that are supposed to lead Europe toward the fulfillment of enlightenment ideals.” Specifically, applying on an approach we have used to examine the rise of the grassroots-intensive Tea Party movement in the United States (Turcotte and Raynauld, 2014) the paper explores three specific manifestations of the rise of the Radical Right in Europe namely, the electoral success of Norway’s Fremskrittspartiet during the 2013 parliamentary contest, Nigel Farage’s UK Independence Party and the Front National in the European parliamentary election and Brexit.

Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is: Ethnicity and Political Donations: Randy Besco (University of Toronto), Erin Tolley (University of Toronto)
Abstract: Is ethnicity related to political donations? We analyze campaign donations to candidates who ran for major parties in the 2015 federal election. Elections Canada data provides the name, postal code, and date of the donation, and we code the ethnicity and gender of donors using both human and automated methods. While name analysis poses some challenges, this administrative data also has important advantages: it is a record of real behaviour, avoiding social desirability bias, and it is population data, avoiding sampling issues. Using this data, we investigate two sets of questions. First, we analyze the patterns of donations by party and ethnicity. Do certain ethnic groups donate more, or in different amounts? Which parties and candidates do they donate to? What is the role of gender? Second, we link this donations data to media coverage of minority issues in the 2015 election. Did minority Canadians donate more following controversies over the niqab and “barbaric cultural practices”, or did they donate to different parties and candidates? We conclude by offering some insights on how this method could be replicated and expanded to answer new types of research questions.

The Constitution and Nationalism: Explaining Citizens’ Attitudes to Constitutional Reform in Canada Thirty Years After Meech: David McGrane (University of Saskatchewan), Stephen White (Carleton University)
Abstract: Spring 2016 was the thirtieth anniversary of the start of “Quebec round” of constitutional negotiations that eventually led to the Meech Lake Accord. Using surveys administered in late 2015, one for Quebec and the other for the Rest of Canada, this paper looks the current level of citizen acceptance of the ideas put forth by Quebec provincial government during the Quebec round. Further, it examines how the acceptance of those ideas is influenced by feelings of Canadian or Québécois nationalism. To operationalize feelings of nationalism, it uses a set of in-group and out-group measurements to evaluate the degree to which citizens feel that they belong to their province or territory versus their sentiment of belonging to Canada. It also examines citizens’ level of agreement with the five principle demands made by the Quebec provincial government the Quebec round: constitutional recognition as a distinct society, control of immigration, a role in Supreme Court appointments, opting out of federal social programs with no financial penalty, and a constitutional veto. It ends by exploring how of Canadian and Québécois nationalism can influence citizen’s positions on constitutional reform.