Sinardet, Dave
[USL-B]
De Winter, Lieven
[UCL]
Dodeigne, Jérémy
[UNamur]
Reuchamps, Min
[UCL]
These past decennia, the social science literature on identities saw a consensus growing on the fact that identities are not a fixed, static, essentialist reality but have developed in specific historical and socio-economic contexts. They are, in other words, socially constructed (Gellner 1983, Hobsbawm 1990, Anderson 1983). Therefore it is difficult to measure national identities as an empirical reality. What can be measured though is the extent to which people identify with such a social construct. It is not because they are socially constructed that (national) identities do not exist and even are in fact important for many people. However, when measuring these identifications, one has to take into account their fundamental complexity. Particularly in federal, multilingual states identity feelings can be very complex and ambiguous. Even if identities are often used in absolute and exclusive terms in the political debate, citizens often have multi-layered identities. Some will be more activated in certain circumstances than in others. Abroad, people from Switzerland will present themselves as Swiss while in their own country they can also emphasize the canton or the village in which they live. In such multilingual states, sometimes also labelled as multi-national, multi-layered and mixed identities are generally not politically neutral. When such states are characterised by debates on the extent to which autonomy should be attributed to substate levels, feelings of regional or national identity easily acquire a political meaning and can be interpreted as political stands. This is in part because the strength of (sub)national identities is considered as one of the possible drivers and legitimizers of the demands for the territorial reorganisation or breaking up of national states. Regionalist political entrepreneurs have crafted narratives in which specific regional economic strengths and cultural traditions are combined to mobilize for territorial autonomy (Keating 1996). The causal relation can however also be inversed. Regional identifications can also be influenced by the political context. It can be expected that the increasing importance of regional authorities – be it in terms of competences or of a direct election of their parliament – will lead to stronger regional identities, as shown by past research in (quasi)-federal states like Spain, Canada and the UK (Guibernau, 2006). Because they are often politically salient, identities and preferences on regional autonomy will also more easily tend to influence voting behaviour. Territorial identities are complex as well as controversial, and therefore tend to be difficult to measure, especially in multilingual/multi-national states. A neutral measurement of identity is not self-evident. Often, social science research will (unconsciously) be based on a normative vision on identity, which is projected onto the research subject. For instance, the way citizens are questioned in scientific surveys about their ethno-territorial identification contains unexpressed assumptions. If a respondent is asked whether she feels British or Scottish, one takes for granted that these two identities are mutually exclusive and/or in opposition to each other, while they can just as well be complementary. Survey research also encounters difficulties in capturing variation in time and context. In this chapter, we will look into ethno-territorial identities in Belgium, using different measurements, and their relation with preferences on distribution of competences across policy levels as well as with voting behaviour. We will mostly use data drawn from the 2009 and 2014 PartiRep surveys, as well as on some additional data from Making Electoral Democacy Work.
Bibliographic reference |
Sinardet, Dave ; De Winter, Lieven ; Dodeigne, Jérémy ; Reuchamps, Min. Language, identity and voting. In: Kris Deschouwer, Mind the Gap. Political Participation and Representation in Belgium, ECPR Press : Colchester 2018, p. 113-132 |
Permanent URL |
http://hdl.handle.net/2078/231367 |