Can Mature Democracies Fail? The Quebec Independence Referendum and the Dynamics of Political Support in Contemporary Canada

成熟的民主国家会失败吗？

• 批准号: 9514385
• 负责人: Harold Clarke
• 金额: $ 13.44万
• 依托单位: University of North Texas
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1995
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1995-11-01 至 1997-10-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9514385&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Mature; Democracies; Fail; Quebec; Independence

Although considerable attention has been given to democratic processes in former communist and totalitarian states, a variety of processes also have been transforming attitudes toward and support for governments in nations that have long democratic traditions. Political scientists and researchers in related field have used two theoretical perspectives to examine the sources of public support for democratic forms of government. One is a `political culture` perspective, which emphasizes socio-cultural and political identities and public conceptions of democratic norms and values. The other theoretical perspective is that of `political economy,` which focuses on national and personal economic conditions, the redistribution of wealth among individuals and groups, and judgments about the effectiveness and fairness of the political system in delivering a range of products and services. These perspectives are used to examine the stresses currently affecting Canada through analyses of data gathered through a longitudinal series of surveys taken before and immediately after a referendum that will be held in late October 1995 to determine whether the province of Quebec should become an independent nation. More than 1,000 Quebec residents and more than 1,150 residents of the rest of Canada will be interviewed over the phone and asked to complete a post-referendum survey. The data gathered through these interviews and surveys will be compared with information gathered in Canada and other nations to assess the study the ways that different factors affect public support for political institutions in a mature democracy. The results of this project will provide an excellent opportunity to explore the influence of socio-cultural and political economic factors on the form and stability of democratic governments. Although focusing on the Quebec independence referendum, the data will complement a long-standing series of information gathered in other nations, thereby contributing to more generalizable knowledge. Because the data collected through this study will be deposited in a number of public archives, they will be available to other investigators to use in testing other hypotheses regarding democratic processes and behavior.

尽管前共产主义和极权国家对民主进程给予了相当大的关注，但在拥有悠久民主传统的国家，各种进程也在改变人们对政府的态度和对政府的支持。政治学家和相关领域的研究人员用两种理论视角来考察民主政体的公众支持来源。一种是“政治文化”视角，强调社会文化和政治特性以及公众对民主规范和价值观的观念。另一种理论视角是“政治经济学”，它关注的是国家和个人的经济状况、财富在个人和群体之间的重新分配，以及对政治制度在提供一系列产品和服务方面的有效性和公平性的判断。这些观点被用来通过分析1995年10月底将举行的决定魁北克省是否应成为一个独立国家的全民投票之前和之后进行的一系列纵向调查所收集的数据，来审查目前影响加拿大的压力。超过1000名魁北克居民和超过1150名加拿大其他地区的居民将接受电话采访，并被要求完成公投后的调查。通过这些采访和调查收集的数据将与加拿大和其他国家收集的信息进行比较，以评估这项研究不同因素如何影响成熟民主国家的公众对政治机构的支持。该项目的成果将提供一个极好的机会，探讨社会文化和政治经济因素对民主政府的形成和稳定的影响。虽然这些数据的重点是魁北克独立公投，但它将补充其他国家长期收集的一系列信息，从而有助于更多的概括性知识。由于通过这项研究收集的数据将存放在一些公共档案中，因此其他调查人员将可以使用这些数据来测试有关民主进程和行为的其他假设。