Disenfranchisement in linguistically diverse societies. The case of the European Union

Victor Ginsburgh, Ignacio Ortuno-Ortin and Shlomo Weber ()
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Ignacio Ortuno Ortin

No 2004080, LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE from Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE)

Abstract: We consider a linguistically diversified society that has to select a set of languages to be used for official purposes. We examine the notion of language disenfranchisement that is created when one or more languages fail to be included in the list of the official ones, implying that some individuals are denied full access to the documents and to the political process in their native tongues. To derive one of our disenfranchisement indices, we use the Dyen percentage cognate matrix of linguistic distances between languages. We then apply survey and population data on language proficiency in the European Union, calculate disenfranchisement indices and determine optimal sets of official languages that depend on two parameters, society's sensitivity against disenfranchisement and comprehensiveness of the language regime adopted. We also discuss the language situation in the European Union after its enlargement in May 2004.

Keywords: languages; disenfranchisement; Dyen and Dichotomous indices; European Union (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D70 O52 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004-12-31
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (27)

Downloads: (external link)
https://sites.uclouvain.be/core/publications/coredp/coredp2004.html (text/html)

Related works:
Journal Article: Disenfranchisement In Linguistically Diverse Societies: The Case Of The European Union (2005)
Working Paper: Disenfranchisement in linguistically diverse societies: the case of the European Union (2005)
Working Paper: Disenfranchisement in Linguistically Diverse Societies: The Case of the European Union (2005)
Working Paper: Disenfranchisement in linguistically diverse societies: the case of the European Union (2005)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cor:louvco:2004080

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE from Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE) Voie du Roman Pays 34, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium). Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Alain GILLIS ().