Statistical Inquiry and the Management of Lingulstic Plurality in Canada, Belgium and Switzerland

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is (i) to account for the emergence in Canada of an intense cognitive activity related to (and which at the same time contributed to) the political-linguistic equilibrium of the country and (ii) to demonstrate how, through the work and discussions of statisticians, demographers, sociologists, and other “experts” on language issues, statistical norms have shaped political norms and vice versa, giving rise to a specific mode of managing linguistic plurality. To do this, we will take into account the cases of two other countries where language has also been an important focus for identity, but where it did not give rise to comparable statistical interest: Switzerland and Belgium. The two aspects we will consider and whose weight we will try to assess in each case are: (1) the political-linguistic equilibrium of the country, which includes (a) the respective sizes of the communities and their evolution during this century, (b) the territorial homogeneousness or heterogeneousness of linguistic distribution as defined by its coincidence with political borders, (c) the way the geopolitical environment affects each community, (d) the social status of each language, and (e) its attractiveness, notably on immigrant population; and (2) the political-linguistic regime which manages relations between communities and which we can analyze as made up by (a) the general constitutional order, (b) the specific constitutional requirements dealing with language, and (c) the distribution of rights and duties established through various laws.

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