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A Distinct Society? Understanding Social Distrust in Quebec

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 November 2021

Aengus Bridgman Open the ORCID record for Aengus Bridgman [Opens in a new window] ,
Rosalie Nadeau  and
Dietlind Stolle Open the ORCID record for Dietlind Stolle [Opens in a new window]
Aengus Bridgman*
Affiliation:
Political Science, McGill University, 855 Sherbrooke West, Montreal, QC H3A 2T7, Canada
Rosalie Nadeau
Affiliation:
Head of Research, Data Sciences, 8004 Boyer, Montreal, QC H2R 2S4, Canada
Dietlind Stolle
Affiliation:
James McGill Professor, Political Science, McGill University, 855 Sherbrooke West, Montreal, QC H3A 2T7, Canada
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: aengus.bridgman@mail.mcgill.ca
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Abstract

Following public debates on the topic of trust in Quebec, this article examines the alleged social capital differential between Quebec and the rest of Canada. The literature has found lower levels of generalized trust in Quebec, but explanations offered are diverse and conjectural, with historical, sociological and political factors all in contention. We test contextual and compositional influences, including cohort differences, language and linguistic ability, religion, ethnicity, and neighbourhood-level measures of diversity, using pooled cross-sectional data from the Canadian General Social Survey (2003, 2008 and 2013) linked with precise measures of neighbourhood-level ethnic and linguistic diversity drawn from the Canadian census. We identify those Quebecers who have low levels of trust and those who more closely resemble their counterparts in the rest of Canada. We find that individual linguistic ability and linguistic heterogeneity of the neighbourhood are important correlates of trust and that among francophone populations, social distrust is found most in unilingual homogenous communities.

Résumé

Résumé

Suite aux débats publics, cet article examine le différentiel présumé de capital social entre le Québec et le reste du Canada. La littérature a révélé des niveaux de confiance généralisée plus faibles au Québec, mais les explications proposées sont diverses et conjecturales, les facteurs historiques, sociologiques et politiques étant tous en cause. Nous testons les influences contextuelles et compositionnelles, y compris la langue et les compétences linguistiques, la religion, l'ethnicité et les mesures de la diversité au niveau du quartier, en utilisant des données regroupées de l'Enquête sociale générale canadienne (2003, 2008 et 2013) liées à des mesures précises de la diversité ethnique et linguistique au niveau du quartier tirées du recensement canadien. Nous identifions les Québécois qui ont un faible niveau de confiance et ceux qui ressemblent davantage à leurs homologues du reste du Canada. Nous constatons surtout que la capacité linguistique individuelle et l'hétérogénéité linguistique du quartier sont des déterminants importants de la confiance et que, parmi les populations francophones, la méfiance sociale se retrouve surtout dans les communautés homogènes unilingues.

Keywords

social capitaltrustbilingualismCanadaQuebeccapital socialconfiancebilinguismeCanadaQuébec
Type
Research Article/Étude originale
Information
Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 55 , Issue 1 , March 2022 , pp. 107 - 127
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Canadian Political Science Association (l’Association canadienne de science politique) and/et la Société québécoise de science politique

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