This thesis assesses several theories about the social basis of the Quebec independence movement. The most prevalent of these theories locates the core of support for Quebec independence in the Francophone new middle class. The Marxist perspective offers a closely related hypothesis, according to which the independence movement is based in the Francophone new petite bourgeoisie. A third theory sees the new class as at the helm of the new social movements, among which is the Quebec independence movement. Finally, a fourth hypothesis is that the Francophone intellectuals and professional intelligentsia are the foremost separatists. / The results of tabular and logistic regression analysis of data on referendum support for sovereignty-association refute the new middle class and new petite bourgeoisie hypotheses. The analyses indicate considerable support for sovereignty-association among a narrow variant of the new class. Within this narrow new class, or professional intelligentsia, support for sovereignty is most heavily concentrated among the Francophone intellectuals. The most discriminating predictor of separatism is not class, but the opposition between those in intellectuals vs. the business/managerial occupations. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.61321 |
| Date | January 1992 |
| Creators | Kowalchuk, Lisa |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Department of Sociology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001314378, proquestno: AAIMM80327, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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