Conflict And Compromise In Multilingual Societies

Conflict and Compromise, Volume 3: Finland examines historical and developmental patterns during the Swedish, Russian and post-independence periods of Finland's history. McRae outlines Finland's changing social structures, showing how the language groups have evolved within these structures in the twentieth century. He compares how Finnish-speaking and Swedish-speaking citizens perceive themselves and other language groups, as well as the similarities and differences in their views on political and social issues. Further, the book describes in detail the constitutional and institutional arrangements for languages in Finland's political and administrative system, as well as in education and the mass media.

After the French Revolution, Switzerland developed from a country in which German dominated linguistically into a confederation of four officially recognized language groups -- German, French, Italian, Romansh -- concentrated in different geographical areas and marked by distinctive cultures and lifestyles. Following a historical overview of this development and the social and political institutionalization of the linguistic cleavages, McRae's study examines key elements in the functioning of modern Swiss society: political parties, federal and cantonal institutions, the media, educational and cultural policies, the relation between the linguistic cleavages and class and religion, the attitudes and behaviour of the four language groups to one another. It concludes by reviewing the various explanations advanced to explain the relative social and political stability of Switzerland. This book is the first volume in a projected multi-volume work examining four multilingual Western democracies. The volumes to come will focus on Belgium (scheduled for publication in 1985), Finland, and Canada.

After the French Revolution, Switzerland developed from a country in which German dominated linguistically into a confederation of four officially recognised language groups -- German, French, Italian, Romansh -- concentrated in different geographical areas and marked by distinctive cultures and lifestyles. Following a historical overview of this development and the social and political institutionalisation of the linguistic cleavages, McRae's study examines key elements in the functioning of modern Swiss society; political parties, federal and cantonal institutions, the media, educational and cultural policies, the relation between the linguistic cleavages and class and religion, the attitudes and behaviour of the four language groups to one another. It concludes by reviewing the various explanations advanced to explain the relative social and political stability of Switzerland.

McRae (political science, Carleton U., Ottawa) asks by what means a multilingual country can arrive at linguistic peace and justice for different language groups. He has already examined Switzerland (1983) and Belgium (1986), and will finish his investigation, and get to what is no doubt for him the core of the issue, with a fourth volume on Canada. Here he looks at the historical and developmental patterns during the Swedish, Russian, and post-independence periods in Finland, outlines the changing social structures and language groups, tests the views of the speakers of Swedish and Finnish about themselves and each other, and describes the constitutional and institutional arrangements for language. Canadian card order number: C97-932383-5. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR