No CrossRef data available.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2020
In Eastern Europe, when someone dies, the custom is to drape mirrors in the house with black muslin or a dark sheet. According to folklorists, this is done so that the deceased, who is believed to wander through his or her house for nine days saying goodbye to friends and family, will not be frightened when he or she cannot find his or her reflection in the mirror. While it is easy to scoff at such superstitious customs, there is much to learn from them. The draping of the mirrors is a vivid metaphor, but it is also useful when it comes to making a counterintuitive point: namely, little systematic attention has been paid to the role of economic preferences, markets, and the pace of development in shaping Quebec's nationalist objectives and strategy. And it is this failure to comprehend the impact that economics, from a microscopic and macroscopic level, has had on ‘nation-building’ and, more concretely, on the October 30th referendum (where in answer to the question “Do you agree that Quebec should become sovereign, after having made a formal offer to Canada for a new Economic and Political Partnership, within the scope of the Bill respecting the future of Quebec and of the agreement signed on June 12, 1995?”, 49.5 percent of Quebeckers voted ‘Yes’) that is tantamount to a ‘draping of the mirrors,’ of providing an incomplete explanation about the bases of Quebec's nationalism.
1 Richards, John, Language Matters: Assuring that the Cube of Sugar not Dissolve in the Cup of Coffee (unpublished manuscript, 1996), 45Google Scholar, and Seguin, Rheal, ‘French in Quebec Called Vulnerable,’ Globe and Mail (2 February 1996), A1Google Scholar
2 Valaskakis, Kimon and Fournier, Angeline, The Delusion of Sovereignty (Montreal: Robert Davies 1995)Google Scholar
3 Freeman, Alan and Grady, Patrick, Dividing the House: Planning for a Canada Without Quebec (Toronto: Harper Collins 1995)Google Scholar
4 Greenspon, Edward, ‘The Battle to Keep Canada Whole,’ Globe and Mail, 29 June 1996, A1Google Scholar, and Mackie, Richard, ‘Yes 50.2, No 49.8, Poll Suggests,’ Globe and Mail (21 October 1995), A1Google Scholar
5 Orridge, A.W., ‘Separatist and Autonomous Nationalisms: The Structure of Regional Loyalties in the Modem State,’ in Williams, Colin H., ed., National Separatism (Vancouver: UBC Press 1982), 47Google Scholar. See also Rosenberg, Alex, ‘The Metaphysics of Microeconomics,’ The Monist 78 (1995) 352-67CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6 Akerlof, George A., An Economic Theorist's Book of Tales (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1994), 2–3Google Scholar
7 In Johnson, William, A Canadian Myth: Quebec, Between Canada and the Illusion of Utopia (Montreal: Robert Davies 1994), 108Google Scholar
8 Menand, Louis, ‘You Say It's Your Birthday,’ The New Republic (18 April 1988) 38Google Scholar
9 Shattered Myths and Failed Incantations: The Meaning of the Quebec Referendum (Toronto: Brendan Wood Intemational1995), 6
10 Flatters, Frank R. and Lipsey, Richard, Common Ground for the Canadian Common Market (Montreal: Institute for Research on Public Policy 1983), 45Google Scholar
11 In Keating, Michael, Nations Against the State (New York: St. Martin's Press 1966), 83Google Scholar
12 Watson, William, ‘Two Thumbs Up for Latter Day Birth (or Death) of a Nation,’ Canadian Public Policy 18 (1992) 108CrossRefGoogle Scholar
13 Blais, André, Nadeau, Pierre, and Nadeau, Richard, ‘Attentes economiques et linguistiques et appui a Ia souverainte du Quebec: une analyse prospective et comparative,’ Canadian Journal of Political Science 27 (1995), 637-57CrossRefGoogle Scholar
14 Cited in Behiels, Michael, Prelude to Quebec's Quiet Revolution (Kingston, ON: MeGill-Queen's University Press 1985), 185Google Scholar
15 Cited in Williams, Colin H., ed., National Separatism (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press 1982), 13–14Google Scholar
16 Cobban, Alfred, The Nation State and Self-Determination (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell 1969), 280Google Scholar
17 Behiels, , Prelude, 8, 18–19Google Scholar
18 Fortin, Pierre, ‘How Economics Is Shaping the Constitutional Debate in Canada,’ in Young, Robert A., ed., Confederation in Crisis (Toronto: James Lorimer 1991), 37Google Scholar; Watson, William, ‘As Quebec Goes ...’, Commentary 101 (1996) 40Google Scholar; and Helliwell, John F., ‘Convergence and Migration among Provinces,’ Canadian Journal of Economics 29 (1996) 324-30CrossRefGoogle Scholar
19 Johnson, , A Canadian Myth, 400Google Scholar
20 Arbour, Pierre, Quebec Inc. (Montreal: Robert Davies 1993)Google Scholar
21 Courchene, Thomas, ‘Market Nationalism,’ Policy Options 7 (1980) 7–12Google Scholar
22 Gagnon, Alain-G. and Montcalm, Mary Beth, Quebec Beyond the Quiet Revolution (Scarborough, ON: Nelson Canada 1989)Google Scholar; McRoberts, Kenneth, Quebec Social Change and Political Crisis (Toronto: McClelland: Stewart 1988)Google Scholar; Blais, André and Nadeau, Richard, ‘To Be or Not To Be Sovereigntist Quebeckers’ Perennial Dilemma,’ Canadian Public Policy 18 (1992) 19–103CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Blais, André, Nadeau, Pierre, and Nadeau, Richard, ‘Attentes économiques et linguistiques et appui à Ia souverainté du Québec: une analyse prospective et comparative,’ Canadian Journal of Political Science 28 (1995) 637-57CrossRefGoogle Scholar
23 Becker, Gary S., Nobel Lecture: The Economic Way of Looking at Behavior, Journal of Political Economy 101 (1993) 385–409CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Stewart, Hamish, ‘A Critique of Instrumental Reason in Economics,’ Economics and Philosophy 11 (1995) 57–83CrossRefGoogle Scholar
24 Frank, Robert H., Choosing the Right Pound (New York: Oxford University Press 1985), 247Google Scholar
25 Frank, , Choosing the Right Pound, 247Google Scholar
26 Cited in McRobert, Kenneth, ‘The Sources of Neo-Nationalism in Quebec,’ in Behiels, Michael D., ed., Quebec Since 1945 (Toronto: Copp Clark Pitman 1987), 107Google Scholar.
27 Cited in Reece, Jack E., The Bretons Against France (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press 1977), VIIGoogle Scholar
28 Meadwell, Hudson, ‘The Politics of Nationalism in Quebec,’ World Politics 45 (1993) 208-15CrossRefGoogle Scholar
29 Breton, Albert, ‘Economics of Nationalism,’ Journal of Political Economy 72 (1964) 381,382,377CrossRefGoogle Scholar
30 Cited in Courchene, Thomas, In Praise of Renewed Federalism: The Canada Round (Toronto: C.D. Howe Institute 1991), 69–70Google Scholar
31 Cited in Moynihan, Daniel Patrick, Pandaemonium (New York: Oxford University Press 1993), 56Google Scholar
32 Blais, and Nadeau, , ‘To Be or Not To Be Sovereigntist,’ 100Google Scholar
33 Richards, , Language Matters, 30Google Scholar
34 Blais, Nadeau, and Nadeau, , ‘Attentes éonomiques et Iinguistiques,’ 637Google Scholar
35 Gagnon, Lysiane, ‘Sorry to Be Boring, But Quebec Loves Its Constitutional Contradictions,’ Globe and Mail (6 July 1996), 03Google Scholar. Also see Mackie, Richard, ‘Quebeckers Favour Canada, Poll,’ Globe and Mail (20 June 1996), A5.Google Scholar
36 Pinard, Maurice, ‘The Secessionist Option and Quebec Public Opinion, 1988- 1993,’ Canada Opinion 2 (1994) 3Google Scholar
37 Downs, Anthony, An Economic Theory of Democracy (New York: Harper & Row 1957)Google Scholar
38 Runde, Jochen, ‘Review of Young Back Choi's “Paradigms and Conventions”,’ Economics and Philosophy 2 (1995) 370Google Scholar. Also see McCloskey, Donald N., ‘The Rhetoric of Economics,’ Journal of Economic Literature 21 (1983) 481–571Google Scholar and Knetsch, Jack L., ‘Assumptions, Behavioral Findings, and Policy Analyses,’ Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 14 (1995) 69–75CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
39 Canadian Council on Social Development, Communiqué: New Study Compares Urban Poverty Rates (26 June 1996, 1
40 Seguin, Rhea!, ‘Quebec's Cuts Hit Middle Incomes,’ Globe and Mail (28 March 1996), A1Google Scholar
41 Little, Bruce, ‘Quebec Payroll Taxes Highest,’ Globe and Mail (22 September 1995), B3Google Scholar, and Mackie, Richard, ‘Quebec Employers and Employees See Gloomy Picture,’ Globe and Mail (22 November 1995), 83Google Scholar
42 Gagnon, Lysiane, ‘Quebeckers Think Everything is Coming Up Roses for the Year 2000,’ Globe and Mail (9 January 1993), 03Google Scholar
43 Johnson, , A Canadian Myth, 400Google Scholar
44 LaSelva, Samuel V., The Moral Foundatian of Canadian Federalism (Montreal: MeGill-Queen's University Press 1996)Google Scholar
45 Cited in Barry, Brian M., Sociologists, Economists and Democracy (Toronto: Collier Macmillan Canada 1970), 5–6Google Scholar