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A Note on “Hartz-Horowitz at Twenty”: The Case of French Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2009

Nelson Wiseman
Nelson Wiseman
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
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Abstract

In an assessment of Louis Hartz's fragment theory, H. D. Forbes contends that its basic weaknesses are most easily exposed in the case of French Canada. This article argues the opposite: Hartz's approach in this case is particularly illuminating rather than representing its Achilles’ heel. Hartzian analysis is consistent with the historiography of French Canada. The growth of liberalism in the nineteenth century that Forbes points to in the French-Canadian fragment pales when placed in a comparative perspective as Hartz's theory requires. It is the mix of feudal and liberal ideas in the twentieth century that helps to explain the rise of social democratic forces like the Parti québécois.

Résumé

Dans une évaluation de la théorie du fragment de Louis Hartz, H. D. Forbes soutient que ses faiblesses principales sont les plus manifestement exposées dans le cas du Canada franéçais. Cet article prétend le contraire: l’approche de Hartz dans ce cas est particuliérement éclairante plutôt que représentative de son talon d’Achille. L’analyse de Hartz est consistante s’agissant de l’historiographie du Canada français. La montée du libéralisme au 19e siècle que Forbes met en evidence dans le fragment canadien-français pâlit lorsqu’on la place en perspective comparative comme l’exige la théorie de Hartz. C’est le mélange d’idées féodales et libérates au 20e siècle qui permet d’expliquer l’avènement des forces social-démocrates telles que le Parti québécois.

Type
Comment/Commentaire
Information
Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 21 , Issue 4 , December 1988 , pp. 795 - 806
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association (l'Association canadienne de science politique) and/et la Société québécoise de science politique 1988

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References

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