Human Rights and Politics: A Social Representational Analysis of Political Positioning during the 1995 Quebec Sovereignty Campaign
In: Group processes & intergroup relations: GPIR, Volume 3, Issue 1, p. 25-40
ISSN: 1461-7188
This questionnaire study was conducted among 202 French-speaking students one month before the 1995 referendum on sovereignty in Quebec. Principal questions concerned: intervention of human rights (HR) attitudes; value priorities; expectations about enforcement and violation of rights (individual/collective) in political choices; and sovereignty representations (for/against). It was found that HR attitudes did not intervene in political choices, but that concerns about well-being and traditional values were linked to Non-Sovereigntist attitudes, whereas social value choices accompanied Pro-Sovereigntist ones. Furthermore, respondents generally thought that, in the outcome of their choice, socioeconomic and collective rights would be better respected; whereas, when confronted with an outcome contrary to their choice, Pro-Sovereigntists expected more political and linguistic discrimination.
