Constructing Quebec and Wallonia: How Political Parties Speak about their Region

Political parties are key political actors in both Quebec and Wallonia. As their foremost ambition is to govern their region, these parties clearly contribute to shaping its identity and image. This chapter aims at exploring how political parties in Quebec and in Wallonia speak about their region by focusing on an analysis of their electoral manifestos for the period 1994–2014. Using a quantitative and qualitative approach combining insights from lexicometry, cognitive linguistics and political science, the aims of this contribution are (i) to unravel how the parties perceive their region and its future development, (ii) to identify relevant evolutions in their perception of their respective region, and (iii) to assess to what extent parallels can be drawn between the two regions.