Modernization and Ethnic Conflict in Belgium
| Published date | 01 March 1979 |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-9248.1979.tb01185.x |
| Date | 01 March 1979 |
| Author | Anthony Mughan |
| Subject Matter | Article |
MODERNIZATION AND ETHNIC
CONFLICT IN BELGIUM*
ANTHONY MUGHAN
Ahsrruct.
In the specific context
of
Belgium, this article expounds and tests the thesis that
regional (ethnically defined) contrasts in time sequence and rate
of
modernization have given
rise
to
two distinct types
of
nationalism, one ‘cultural’ and the other ‘economic’, whose
different origins and goals are reflected in the nationalist parties’ loci
of
electoral support. The
data provide considerable support
for
this thesis. But they also show the character of the
parties’ support to have become paradoxically less distinctive as ethnic hostilities escalated.
It
is suggested that this development reflects the influence
of
two changes in the political context
of
ethnic politics in Belgium, the defensive, accommodative reaction
of
the established,
unitarist parties and the changing electoral strategies
of
the nationalist parties themselves.
AN
influential thesis
of
social and political change holds that the process
of
industrialization and modernization, while
it
may initially dislocate traditional
societies and exacerbate ethnic conflict, in the long run erodes the social and
political significance
of
ethnic identifications and loyalties. Political conflict
thus becomes inexorably defined in economic terms. Lipset and Rokkan,
for
example, assert:
‘The National Revolution forced ever-widening circles
of
the territorial population to
choose sides in conflicts over values and cultural identities.
The
Industrial Revolution
also
triggered
a
variety
of
cultural counter-movements, but in the longer run tended to
cut across the value communities within the nation and
to
force the enfranchised
citizenry to choose sides in terms of their economic interests, their shares in the
increased wealth generated through the spread
of
the new technologies and the
widening markets.’
But, following a long period
of
relative quiescence, the recent political
successes
of
ethnic nationalist movements within some of the world’s most
highly modernized societies, most notably, Belgium, Canada and Great
Britain, have highlighted the need to revise this valuable,
if
simplistic, thesis
of
socio-economic and political change.
Elsewhere,
I
have argued at length that the politicization
of
the ethnic
*
The author would like to thank the Belgian Archive
for
the Social Sciences and David Rayside
for
providing him with much
of
the data on which this analysis
is
based. Helpful comments on
earlier drafts were made by Cierhard Loewenberg, David Reynolds, L.
J.
Sharpe and two
anonymous referees.
For
reasons of space, the meaning and inter-relation
of
the terms ’industrialization’ and
‘modernization’ are not discussed here. This
is
done admirably in
J.
H.
Kautsky,
The
Political
Consequences
of
Modernizurion
(New York, Wiley,
1972),
pp.
19-22.
S.
M.
Lipset and
S.
Rokkan, ‘Cleavage Structures, Party Systems and Voter Alignments: An
Introduction’, in their edited volume,
Purry Sysrems and Voter Alignmenrs
(New
York,
Free Press,
1967),
pp.
18-19.
Political Studies,
Vol.
XXVII.
No.
1
(21-37)
22
MODERNIZATION AND ETHNIC CONFLICT IN BELGIUM
cleavage in these societies can be explained by the effects
of
regional-linguistic
contrasts in the time sequence and rates of modernization upon the distri-
bution of political power resources amongst ethnic groups within the state.3
Briefly, this argument holds that some regions (ethnically defined) industria-
lized earlier and more quickly than others and the consequent maldistribution
of
power resources served to reinforce, even to aggravate, a situation in which
the costs and benefits of membership in the state were borne unequally by
different ethnic groups. In this climate of deprivation, ethnic social and
political loyalties persisted despite industrialization and modernization. This
situation remained fundamentally unchanged until the period following World
War
I1
when the differentials in regional modernization rates came to favour
previously disadvantaged ethnic groups. The result has been the rise to
unprecedented political significance of two distinct types of nationalist political
party, one ‘cultural’ and the other ‘economic’, whose different origins and
goals are reflected in their
loci
of electoral support.
This paper represents an effort to test this explanation in the specific context
of
contemporary Belgium. First of all, however,
I
shall elaborate, from an
historical perspective, upon the importance of regional contrasts in the time
sequence and rates of modernization for the pattern of ethnic politics in
Belgium. These contrasts will then be hypothesized to have given rise to a
‘cultural’ nationalist movement in Flanders and an ‘economic’ one in Wallonia
whose different policy emphases are reflected in their respective political
parties’, the Volksunie and Rassemblement Wallon (R. W.),
loci
of electoral
support. To test this hypothesis, the Volksunie and R.W. vote will be related to
level and rate measures of modernization. These relationships will be examined
for each election fought by the individual parties between
1958
and
1974
in
order to determine whether
or
not they changed as the parties became more
popular over this period (see Table
1).
Any changes that have occurred can
then
be
explored for their theoretical significance, as well as for their impact
upon the Belgian party system.
MODERNIZATION: THE BELGIAN EXPERIENCE
In general terms, modernization is the process of social and economic
change that is associated with industrialization and technological advance. The
condition of modernity itself is characterized by ‘a belief in the rational and
scientific control
of
man’s physical and social environment and the application
of
technology to that end. One could thus define the process of modernization
as one of secularization, but it also involves a great number
of
other
interrelated factors. Among these are extensive social interdependence, trade
and communications; urbanization
. .
.
unemployment in non-agricultural
occupations
;
widespread literacy and the availability of higher education
;
and
a relatively high degree
of
social mobility and placement according to
Understanding the long-term persistence and recent escalation of ethnically-
based political conflict in Belgium requires the consideration of the economic,
A. Mughan, ‘Modernisation, Deprivation
and
the Distribution
of
Power Resources: Towards
a Theory
of
Ethnic Conflict,’
New Community,
5
(1977),
36e70.
Kautsky,
The Political Consequences
of
Modernization,
p.
20.
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