Ethnocentrism in the low countries: A comparative perspective

This study explores differences of ethnocentrism and related phenomena in The Netherlands and Flanders on the basis of two comparable surveys conducted in 1990 and 1991. The explanatory models derived from theories of ethnocentrism are largely confirmed. People in Flanders subscribe more strongly to both components of ethnocentrism (i.e. to an unfavourable attitude towards out‐groups and to a favourable attitude towards the in‐group) as well as to a number of its predictors such as authoritarianism, anomie, and social cultural localism. The interpretations of these findings involve historical processes, intergroup tensions, economic fluctuations, and the organisational embeddedness of right‐wing extremism in The Netherlands and in Flanders.