Individualism Nationalism Ethnocentrism And Authoritarianism In Belgium Sociology Essay Example

boundary line, German is the official linguistic communication of a little minority. There are besides three cultural communities: the Flemish, the Gallic and the German-speaking community. The communities have powers in countries where public services are extremely dependent on linguistic communication usage, such as instruction, wellness and civilization. The communities and parts each have their ain Parliaments and their ain Governments. Each part has a great trade of liberty but clashs about linguistic communication, ethnicity, and national individuality between Ian flemings and Walloons continues to the present twenty-four hours, particularly in the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde part.

The vote right in Belgium is a one adult male, one ballot '' system: every Belgian national, male or female, who has reached the age of 18 has the right, and is obliged to project one ballot ( unless this right has been suspended or the person is ineligible ) in the elections at the six different degrees.

Today, there fundamentally are no longer national parties in Belgium, except for some little unionist parties. All parties are homogenous Flemish or Francophone and are present either in the Flemish or in the French-speaking constituencies, or else in the undivided bilingual electoral territory of Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde. The Belgian multi-party system normally leads to a alliance authorities.

In a cross-sectional survey, Billiet ( 1995 ) found a relationship between individuality and ethnocentrism among Flemish Roman Catholics while Meloen ( 1996 ) through empirical observation addressed the issues of dictatorship and modern political racism in a study of 900 Flemish high school pupils. In a sample of grownups, besides administered in Flanders, Van Hiel and Mervielde ( 2005 ) found that right flying dictatorship was positively related to bias.

In a longitudinal survey Billiet et Al. ( 2005 ) found a moderate and instead changeless across clip correlativity between patriotism and ethnocentrismin in Flanders. The writer did non turn to the inquiry whether patriotism leads to ethnocentrism, ethnocentrism to patriotism, or both effects operate at the same time in a mutual causal relationship.

The background and principle of the above surveies was the vote behaviour in Flanders, peculiarly the support for the utmost rightist party Vlaams Blok ( Fraeys, 2004 ) . Patriotism, dictatorship, and political protests are all supposed to play an of import function in the support for the Vlaams Blok. The chief job in the political orientation of the Vlaams Blok is the pick for an cultural national province, where the 'state ' is understood as an 'ethnic community which is biologically determined ' ( De Witte & A ; Klandermans, 2000 ) . The Vlaams Blok has been convicted for racism by a Belgian tribunal in 2004.

The present survey is inspired by, and extends, the research on the development of political political orientations in Flanders. Particularly, it presents longitudinal analyses of the relationships between individuality, ethnocentrism, patriotism and dictatorship.

Chapter 3 presents the conceptual theoretical account of mutualities between the four key constructs of individuality, ethnocentrism, patriotism, and dictatorship on the footing of a literature reappraisal. I define the impressions of individuality, ethnocentrsim, patriotism and dictatorship as follows:

Individuality: the chase of personal felicity. Harmonizing to this political political orientation the nucleus undertaking of a community or province is to further the rights, and better the development, of persons and to guarantee their freedom. Community and province are seen as devices to persons

to accomplish those aims. The community exists for the interest of its single members. Individualism implies that the authorities should non unduly intervene in persons ' lives. Alternatively, it should vouch that persons do non harm each others ' involvements.

Ethnocentrism: a belief in the high quality of one 's ain group and a corresponding contempt for other groups. Ethnocentrism implies a strong differentiation between `` cliques '' ( groups with which the person identifies him or herself ) , and `` outgroups '' ( typically minority groups, toward which he or she has no sense of belonging or which are perceived as antithetical to the clique ) .

Patriotism: an political orientation, a sentiment, a signifier of civilization, or a societal motion that focuses on the state. As an political orientation, patriotism holds that 'the people ' are the state, and, that as a consequence, merely nation-states founded on the rule of national self-government are legitimate. In many instances nationalist chase of self-government has caused struggle between people and provinces including war ( both external and domestic ) , sezession ; and in utmost instances, race murder.

Dictatorship: a political doctrine that negates democracy and an political orientation that accepts a political system that is non based on the consent of the governed but on the will of the swayers. Furthermore, it accepts a monopoly of power, and treatment and vote are replaced by the determinations of leaders.

The postulated relationships among the above constructs are depicted in Figure 7.1.

Specifically, the hypotheses are:

• Individuality has a negative consequence on dictatorship.
• Dictatorship has a positive consequence on ethnocentrism.
• Patriotism has a positive consequence on dictatorship.
• Individuality has a negative
  

impact on patriotism.

Figure 7.1. The postulated recursive construction between latent province variables

Methodology And Informations Set

In this subdivision, I explain why I have used uninterrupted clip mold ( CT ) and structural equation mold ( SEM ) to gauge the parametric quantities of the CT theoretical account. At the terminal of the subdivision I describe the information set.

Most surveies of the mutualities among individuality, patriotism, ethnocentrism and dictatorship ( or of a subset of these variables ) are cross-sectional, e.g. Billiet et Al ( 2005 ) , Fraeys ( 2004 ) , Spruyt ( 1995 ) and Billiet ( 1995 ) . However, cross-sectional research has a disadvantage in that there is no control over the autoregression effects and the waies of cross-effects between the variables are hard to measure. Longitudinal research based on perennial measurings of the same variables at different points in clip make it possible to cut down or get the better of these jobs.

The statements for uninterrupted clip patterning have been summarized by amongst others Bergstrom ( 1988 ) . The principle of uninterrupted clip mold is that a societal or political system does non merely map at quarterly or one-year observation points in clip, but besides during intermediate intervals. Hence, the theoretical account should besides associate to the intermediate intervals. Gandolfo ( 1993 ) added that the consequences of a theoretical account should non depend on the length of the observation interval and must stay the same when the interval is doubled or halved. If the consequences should non depend on the period length, he concluded, they should stay valid when this length tends

to zero ( that is, when one switches over from distinct to uninterrupted clip analysis ) . Harmonizing to Oud ( 2007 ) , the most compelling ground for analysing cross-effects in uninterrupted clip is that equal effects found in distinct clip do non vouch at all that the underlying uninterrupted clip effects are equal. Particularly, equality at a individual point in clip may be consistent with quite different cross-lagged consequence maps across clip. For illustration, the cross-lagged consequence maps of a brace of mutual effects, say indivdualism on ethnocentrism and frailty versa, although holding equal values at one specific point in clip, may hold rather different signifiers and maxima across clip.

Continuous clip theoretical accounts are estimated on the footing of observations in distinct clip ( in this survey the General Election Studies in 1991,1995 and 1999 ) . Appraisal requires a tool that links the distinct observations to the uninterrupted clip theoretical account. One possible tool is the approximative distinct theoretical account ( ADM ) . An advantage of the ADM is that it utilizes merely simple additive limitations to come close the differential equation theoretical account and allows appraisal by means less nonlinearly oriented SEM plans like LISREL.

An option to the ADM is the Exact Discrete Model ( EDM ) . The EDM links in an exact manner the distinct clip theoretical account parametric quantities to the underlying uninterrupted clip theoretical account parametric quantities by agencies of nonlinear limitations ( Bergstrom, 1988 ) , . Oud and Jansen ( 2000 ) showed how the nonlinear SEM plan Mx ( Neale, et al. , 1999 ) can be employed for maximal likelihood appraisal of

the uninterrupted clip province infinite theoretical account parametric quantities. Oud and Jansen ( 2000 ) besides generalized the EDM to cover non merely time-invariant parametric quantities, but besides the parametric quantities that vary continuously over clip harmonizing to a general multinomial strategy.

The information set in this thesis is obtained from the General Election Study for Belgium in 1991, 1995 and 1999. The information set contains two types of respondents, Flemish respondents and Dutch talking respondents of the Brussels-Capital Region. The sample was selected as a two phase sample with equal chances of the secondary units. The entire sample size avaiable for all three moving ridges is 1274. The geographical distribution of the respondents is given in Table 7.1.

Table 7.1 Geographical distribution of panel respondents in Flanders and Brussels interviewed in 1991, 1995 and 1999

The Chief Empirical Consequences

The first empirical chapter 4 Measuring dictatorship with different sets of points in a longitudinal survey trades with measuring of dictatorship. As defined in chapter 3, dictatorship is a signifier of societal behaviour characterized by rigorous obeisance to the authorization of a province or organisation and attachment to implementing and keeping control through the usage of oppressive steps. It refers to a composite of nine sub-syndromes ( Adorno et al. , 1950 ) , of which conventionality ( rigorous attachment to conventional values ) , aggression and entry are the most of import ( Meloen, 1991 ) .

The sets of points in the information set at the three clip points ( 1991, 1995 and 1999 ) were non the same. In entire 12 different points were used over the three moving ridges. The intent of chapter 4 was the

designation of the points that systematically and adequately step dictatorship over clip. The points 1 and 2 are the nucleus points and were used in all threee moving ridges ( 1991 C 1995 C 1999 ) . These points are: `` Obedience and regard for authorization are the two most of import virtuousnesss kids have to larn '' , and `` Most of our societal jobs could be solved, if we could somehow acquire rid of the immoral, crooked people '' . Items 3-6 and point 9 were used merely twice ( in 1991 C 1995 and in 1995 C 1999, severally ) ; the staying five points merely one time ( in 1991 or 1999 ).

I applied the congenerous measuring theoretical account by Joreskog ( 1971, 1974 ) . Congenericness between points means that their implicit in latent variables have a correlativity coefficient about equal to 1 and therefore can be considered to mensurate the same implicit in phenomenon. I found that Joreskog 's theoretical account performed good. The chief empirical consequence was that the nucleus points step dictatorship good in all three moving ridges

The 2nd empirical chapter 5 is Measuring the relationships between patriotism, ethnocentrism, and individuality in Flanders utilizing Bergstrom 's approximative distinct theoretical account. The mutual relationships between the three constructs individuality patriotism, and ethnocentrism was analyzed by a cross-lagged panel theoretical account. I hypothesized strong autoregressions for individuality, patriotism and ethnocentrism and, on the footing of the theoretical considerations in Billiet ( 1995 ) and Billiet et Al. ( 2005 ) and the conceptual theoretical account presented above, the undermentioned causal cross-lagged construction:

• A negative impact of individuality and a
  

positive impact of patriotism on ethnocentrism

Individuality was measured by five points with 5-point-scales ; ethnocentrism by eight points with 5-point-scales, and the 3rd latent variable, patriotism, was measured by four points in a slightly more complicated manner.

Appraisal was done by agencies of the LISREL plan by gauging the approximative distinct theoretical account ( ADM ) , from which the exact distinct theoretical account ( EDM ) was derived and used in subsequent calculations. For the measuring theoretical account, all burdens turned out to be extremely important, bespeaking that every point contributes to the latent variable. Furthermore, the dependabilities as measured by R2 ranged from 0.230 to 0.670.

The autoregressive effects for all three variables turned out to be instead strong, as hypothesized.

Sing cross-effects, there are significant differences between Figures 7.2 and 7.3, peculiarly:

The hypothesized negative relationships from individuality on patriotism and ethnocemtrism turned out to be positive. A possible account is that by alterations in society individuality got a less broad character and developed into a more chauvinistic and ethnocentric way.

There is a mutual relationship between individuality and ethnocentrism whereas we hypothesized a unidirectional relationship from individuality to ethnocentrism. A possible account is that the turning ethnocentrism in the society of Flanders stimulated the less broad sort of individuality mentioned above.

Figure 7.3 The estimated relationships between individuality, ethnocentrism, and patriotism

Furthermore, both individuality and ethnocentrism have little effects on patriotism. Patriotism was found to be

dependent merely with no important consequence on the two other latent variables.

Standardized cross-lagged consequence maps ( unit-impulse responses ) revealed the maximal impact of individuality on ethnocentrism ( 0.235 ) to happen after 17 old ages and the consequence in the opposite way ( 0.190 ) after 16.4 old ages. The smaller maximal impacts of individuality on patriotism ( 0.105 ) and ethnocentrism ( 0.099 ) are expected to happen subsequently, after 22 and 23.2 old ages, severally.

Chapter 6 The relationships between individuality, patriotism, ethnocentrism, and dictatorship in Flanders by agencies of the uninterrupted clip EDM/SEM theoretical account extends the analysis presented in Chapter 5 to all four key variables presented in the conceptual theoretical account. The EDM/SEM is estimated by the Mx plan with all four constructs handled as latent province variables that influence each other continuously across clip. Although patriotism, ethnocentrism, individuality, and dictatorship in Flanders have been the topic of several surveies before, a longitudinal analysis has non been performed on all four constructs at the same time nor have their relationships and the way of their relationships been studied in uninterrupted clip.

Figure 7.4 The hypothesized relationships between individuality, patriotism, ethocentrism and dictatorship

The basic hypotheses in Figure 7.4 are:

• Individuality has a negative consequence on dictatorship.
• Dictatorship has a positive consequence on ethnocentrism.
• Patriotism has a positive consequence on dictatorship.
• One of import consequence of the chapter is that the SEM theoretical account is identified with three clip points.

Figure 7.5 The estimated relationships between patriotism, individuality, ethnocentrism and dictatorship

As in chapter 5, we find significant differences the hypothesized theoretical account ( 7.4 ) and the empirical findings ( 7.5 ) . Particularly:

Patriotism

is an `` stray '' variable in that it neither has an impact on any of the other variables in the theoretical account nor is impacted by any of them. This is a effect of the debut in the theoretical account of the 4th construct dictatorship. Apparently, dictatorship is the the cardinal variable in the theoretical account. It impacts on individuality and ethnocentrism and, in its bend, is impacted by ethnocentrism. In the contemporary Flemish context, the traditional impressions of patriotism, individuality, ethnocentrism and dictatorship and their relationships do no longer use. Tradtional patriotism does non suit into this theoretical account any longer.

In the conceptual theoretical account we specified a relationship from dictatorship to ethnocentrism. The empirical consequences confirm this relationship but besides reveal an even stronger relationship from ethnocentrism to dictatorship. Apparently, ethnocentrism is the cardinal driver in the theoretical account.

Contemplations on the Methodological Analysis and the Deductions of the Empirical Consequences

The empirical analysis has dealt with four latent variables, each measured by different sets of indexs. For one variable, dictatorship, I used Joreskog 's ( 1971, 1974 ) relative theoretical account to place the indexs that measure this variable systematically over clip. I found that this theoretical account performs good to prove whether or non different points used in a longitudinal analysis can be used to mensurate the same implicit in latent variable.

The following of import methodological consequence is that uninterrupted clip mold is appropriate to analyse the development of the mutualities among individuality, ethnocentrism, patriotism and dictatorship over clip. Continuous clip makes it possible to make full the spreads between the distinct clip points and evaluates the auto-effects and cross-effects of the

variables for intermediate clip intervals. It therefore allows comparing effects for unequal clip intervals between moving ridges, obtained in the same survey or in different surveies. The ground is that the autoregressions every bit good as the cross-effects do non depend on the clip interval used. In peculiar, in a stable theoretical account autoregression goes down for an increasing clip interval, while cross-effects first addition and following travel down ( Oud, 2002 ) .

A 3rd methodological determination is that a theoretical account with four latent variables observed at three points in clip is identified.

A 4th major methodological happening relates to the public presentation of structural equation mold ( SEM ) . A SEM is made up of two submodels: a measuring theoretical account where the dealingss between the ascertained and the latent variables are specified and estimated ; and a structural theoretical account that presents the relationships among the latent variables. In SEM, we can utilize cross-sectional and longitudinal informations. The present survey has shown the advantages of SEM in longitudinal analysis, peculiarly equal appraisal of autoregressions and of cross-lagged effects commanding for autoregressions.

The chief consequence as respects content is that we have gained more insight into the relationships among individuality, ethnocentrism, patriotism and dictatorship. Particularly:

Compared to Billiet ( 1995 ) , a major accomplishment of this thesis is the determination of a mutual relationship between the dictatorship and ethnocentrism and non merely a one-way relationship. This is due to the fact that we used a longitudinal analysis while Billiet merely used a cross-sectional analysis..

Sing the relationship between individuality and dictatorship, in this survey we found a positive impact from dictatorship to individualism alternatively of

a negative consequence from individuality to dictatorship, as hypothesized on the footing of theory. In line with Billiet, et Al ( 1996 ) , we observe that the traditional hypothesis of a negative consequence from individuality to dictatorship does non suit any longer the present Flanders state of affairs where many guest workers are seen as a menace to the lower category and the bad economic state of affairs in Wallonia is considered a menace for the people in Flanders who are worried that a significant sum of societal security goes to Wallonia. These developments have created a sort of individualistic selfishness which is non captured by the traditional theory of individuality. In this respect it would be interesting to analyse the relationship between individuality and dictatorship by societal category, as the perceptual experiences of the hereafter of societal security may differ by societal category.

Sing the relationship between dictatorship and ethnocentrism, we did non anticipate a mutual relationship. Our original hypothesis is confirmed but there is besides another relationship: from ethnocentrism to dictatorship. In the original expansive theory by Adorno, et Al ( 1950 ) , there was the hypothesis that dictatorship as character construction was the `` female parent '' of many attitude constellations as for illustration anti-jewishm, ethnocentrism, conservative thingking about the economic system and labour relation. In contemporary Flandres it is ethnocentrism that drives, and in its bend is driven by dictatorship.

Sing patriotism and dictatorship, the empirical consequences showed no relationship between both variables while we postulated that patriotism has a positive consequence on dictatorship. Apparently, the impressions of patriotism and dictatorship are less closely linked in contemporary Flandres than hypothesized in

traditional theory.

The undermentioned policy recommendations can be derived from the empirical consequences:

The consequences can be used in educational and information plans. Specifically, when adressing the issue of ethnocentrism it is of import to see the full composite of relationships in which it is embedded instead than sing it in isolation. So if a plan aimed at the decrease ethnocentrism is entertained, individuality ( in the sense of egoism ) and authoritarianism need to be considered every bit good.

The positive relationship between individuality and ethnocentrism found in chapter 5 should be taken into history in the context of denationalization plans which have taken topographic point in Europe and elsewhere. Denationalization and the attach toing doctrine of individuality may sabotage the sense of Gemeinschaft which may take to ethnocentrism and finally to racism. Of class, farther research on this issue is needed

In the context of unemployment policies and reform of societal security the wider political impacts on ethnocentrism and dictatorship should be taken into history. For case, a decrease of unemployment may travel together with less ethnocentrism.

Some Suggestions for Farther Research

In this survey I used maximal likeliness ( ML ) to gauge the parametric quantities. However, because some grade of nonnormality was found in the informations, alternatively of ML alternate calculators like weighted least squares ( WLS ) or diagonally weighted least squares ( DWLS ) processs should be tested.

In this survey I have applied the ADM/SEM and EDM/SEM processs. However, there are two options to work out the uninterrupted clip appraisal job. One option is the additive stochastic differential equation attack ( LSDE ) ( Singer, 1991 ) The LSDE attack involves repeated computation of the

latent province vector for all topics whereas in the EDM-Mx process, the latent province vector is derived on the footing of the loglikelihood map. It seems worthwhile to compare these different attacks in footings of appraisal consequences. Another option is the multivariate latent differential equation ( MLDE ) ( Boker et al.,2004 ) . The grade of similarity between ADM/SEM and MLDE is dependent on the existent clip interval between measurings. An interesting inquiry is how similar the consequences are for intervals as in the present survey.

Extension of the four variables model to include racism. As described above, ethnocentrism is a really wide variable and in the extreme it goes to racism. By widening the theoretical account the similarities and differences between ethnocentrism and ethnocentrism can be identified every bit good as their relationships to the other variables in the theoretical account.

This survey is based on three moving ridges. When new moving ridges become available, it is worthwhile spread outing the analysis by adding the new observations ( e.g for the old ages 2004 and 2009 ) . If we have more clip point, so the preciseness of the analysis can be increased.

Reconsideration of the impressions of individuality, patriotism, ethnocentrism and dictatorship and their dependences in the visible radiation of the empirical findings for Flanders. In this context it is besides of import to see disaggregation of the analysis by societal category. It could be that the relationships between variables are different for different categories and, furthermore, that they vary over clip.