MenuLiverpool University Press

Abstract

Book Reviews Edited by Amy B. Reid BOOK REVIEWS History and Politics BÉLANGER, ÉRIC, RICHARD NADEAU, ALISA HENDERSON, and EVE HEPBURN. The National Question and Electoral Politics in Quebec and Scotland. Montréal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2018. Pp. 292. ISBN 978-0-7735-5327-9. This book on the electoral influence of the multiple declensions of the “national question” in Québec and Scotland represents an interesting addition to McGill-Queen’s Democracy, Diversity, and Citizen Engagement Series directed by Alain-G. Gagnon. Relatively short (only 199 pages without the annexes), it is nonetheless dense. Divided into six chapters, it includes a historical and conceptual introduction (Chapter 1), four case studies on partisan dynamics and electoral attitudes in Québec (Chapters 2 and 4) and Scotland (Chapters 3 and 5), as well as an ensemble of comparative perspectives that summarize and analyze in detail the similarities and differences between the two regions (Chapter 6). Because of the influence of their respective nationalist movements, political scientists, sociologists, and historians have frequently compared Québec and Scotland. This work’s added value lies in the depth of its study of differences and interactions between national (federal/British) and regional (Québécois/Scottish) electoral logics, as well as between partisan strategies linked to electoral systems and voter rationales viewed with respect to constitutional, identity, and socioeconomic preferences. The “national question” is not, then, defined in isolation, but (and rightly so) presented as concomitant to a variety of territorial dimensions related to the cultural/linguistic, social, fiscal/economic, and international/paradiplomatic autonomy of Québec and Scotland. Québec Studies, 69 https://doi.org/10.3828/qs.2020.10