Le Crédit social dans la province du Québec: sommaire et développements

Abstract

The article first presents the broad outlines of a recent work of the author. It shows that Social Credit was a movement long before it became a political party, a fact which offers the opportunity to present a brief history of the Social Credit phenomenon in Quebec. This political movement is defined as a protest movement, and its ideology is that of the right in the sense that it makes its appeal particularly to conservatism, with a view to preserving a social and economic order threatened with disappearance. One can distinguish three phases in the evolution of the movement: a mobilization phase, a consolidation phase and a phase of institutionalization. For each of these phases there is a corresponding type of leader. Moreover factionalism acts as the catalyst of change of the movement from one phase to another. The last part of the article presents and discusses the recent developments of Social Credit in Canada and in Quebec. Two different choices appear to be available to the party: to radicalize its appeal as a movement of right-wing protest, or to modernize its ideology in such a way as to become a moderate party of the centre right. Finally the Creditiste phenomenon is examined as a particular species of a broader genus which would include the Parti Québécois as well. One could therefore apply to the latter the same type of analysis that was applied to the Creditiste phenomenon.