bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Taq Qian and classical Chinese paintings
Authors: Xingpei YUAN
Published: November 2009

Tao Qian–related paintings created in ancient China can be divided into three categories: paintings inspired by Tao Qian’s literary pieces; paintings inspired by his anecdotes; portraits for Tao Qian. These paintings have made Tao Qian a cultural icon representative of aesthetics of placid rural seclusion. This article aims to reveal the aesthetic implications of Tao Qian as a cultural icon by finding information about lost paintings taking inspiration from him or assessing the authenticity of relevant ancient paintings preserved in museums or collected by collectors.
Shiyi and tiwu—On the artistic description tradition of Chinese classical poetry
Authors: Jingtai HAN
Published: November 2009

This paper systematically surveys the shared artistic issues that arose in both poetry criticism and creative practice in the Wei, Jin and the Northern and Southern dynasties and continued through the Tang and Song dynasties and up to the present time. In this way the long-standing artistic tradition of tiwu 体物 (embodying objects) in Chinese classic poetry, which has long been neglected or disparaged, is uncovered. Furthermore, by analyzing the historical relationship that Chinese classical poems had, principally, with ci 词 (a form of Chinese lyric poetry) and prose, but also with painting, the author hopes to establish a connection between Chinese classical poetry and the artistic goal of “embodying objects” which was prevalent throughout the Wei, Jin and the Northern and Southern dynasties and the Tang and Song dynasties. In this way it will be possible not only to identify a spirit of poetry that involves both artistic competition and scientific rationality, but also recognizes the specific forms of creative consciousness that contribute towards the realization of artistic originality in the practice of true artistic practice.
Notable Exceptions? New and Arrested Directions in Canadian Foreign Policy Literature
Authors: Black David R. , Smith Heather A.
Published: November 2009

The literature on Canadian Foreign Policy has often been characterized as overly descriptive and theoretically weak. This type of characterization, advanced most recently by Maureen Molot, is no longer wholly accurate. By reviewing several relatively recent contributions and debates in this literature, it is demonstrated that in pockets, the subfield has advanced substantially in theoretical sophistication. Nevertheless, it continues to manifest important gaps and limited cumulation. The article speculates on why this should be so, and on how the theoretical condition of the subfield can be advanced. Approaches which incorporate the interplay of internal and external influences on policy, which borrow from important developments in the wider fields of International Relations and Comparative Politics, and which engage in comparison across issue-areas, countries and time are advocated. Applications drawing on “historical materialist,” regime, and epistemic community literatures are specifically promoted.
A Marxist Theory of Justice?
Authors: Shandro A. M.
Published: November 2009

Some recent Marxologists (notably Allen Buchanan, Richard Miller and Allen Wood) have denied that the idea of justice can play any significant role within Marxist thought. This article maintains, on the contrary, that the very logic of historical materialism, notably the concept of the historical development of human needs, necessitates a concept of justice even in the higher phase of communism. Furthermore, the “anti-juridical” interpretation of Marx fails to provide an adequate account of the connection between the communist values of self-realization and community. It therefore obscures the concerns addressed by a notion of justice. The early Marx's concept of species-being (Gattungswesen) expresses the relation between self-realization and community in historical terms. Thus it provides an appropriate context for a Marxist theory of justice.
Fichte'sRedenas a Model: Léon Dion's Addresses to the Quebec Nation
Authors: Laforest Guy
Published: November 2009

Léon Dion is a pioneer of political science in Quebec and Canada. For over 25 years he has advocated a series of reforms of the Canadian federal system, striking a balance between his commitment to Quebec nationalism and his loyalty to Canada. This article analyzes Léon Dion's use of German thought in his latest book, underlying his effort to thwart the apathy and moroseness descending upon Quebec politics in the post-referendum era. A parallel will be drawn between Dion's book and Fichte'sAddresses to the German Nation, delivered in Berlin in the winter of 1807. Both thinkers are characterized by intellectual involvement and concern for national identity in times of crisis. It will be argued that Dion's book contains an important political message for English-speaking Canada.
Selecting Policy Instruments: Neo-Institutional and Rational Choice Interpretations of Automobile Insurance in Ontario
Authors: Atkinson Michael M. , Nigol Robert A.
Published: November 2009

The rational choice model of politics, which construes important political processes as a series of choices taken by self-interested political actors, has dominated theorizing on the subject of policy instruments in Canada. While useful, this approach is nonetheless limited by its narrow conception of rationality and its inattention to the context of instrument choice. As an alternative, the neo-institutional approach offers a perspective on political choice that takes better account of contextual and organizational factors. In this article, the logic of both approaches is used to explain the policy process in the case of automobile insurance in Ontario. The purpose of this exercise is exploratory, not confirmatory. Both approaches do, in fact, offer plausible explanations for the creation of a rate review board, the retention of fault-liability as the basis of compensation and the apparent rejection of public automobile insurance. However, the study concludes that it is essential that research strategies in the realm of instrument choice incorporate insights from the neo-institutional approach.
Paradigms and Political Discourse: Protective Legislation in France and the United States Before 1914
Authors: Jenson Jane
Published: November 2009

This article examines the differences in pre-1914 France and the United States in two kinds of state policies regulating women's behaviour, those “protecting” the condition under which women participated in certain occupations and those providing infant and maternal protection. Those policies are examined to illuminate the argument that politics, including state policies, makes an important contribution to the maintenance and change of ongoing systems of social relations. Central to this argument is the notion that meaning systems around which actors constitute collective identities are a crucial analytic focus for understanding stability and change. At the end of the nineteenth century hegemonic societal paradigms, constructed out of the processes institutionalizing new social relations, emerged in France and the US. The French paradigm of “citizen-producer” and the American one of “specialized citizenship” had quite different implications for the patterns of gender relations embedded within them. These implications are visible in the treatment of women's work and maternity in these years of the emerging welfare state.
La question de l'appartenance: Montesquieu, Rousseau et la Révolution française
Authors: Knee Philip
Published: November 2009

The paradox of modern political theory which affirms individual autonomy and simultaneously seeks solid foundations for social belonging is approached here through its emergence in eighteenth-century France: first by a comparative reading of Montesquieu and Rousseau according to the exigencies of suitability and legitimacy of their respective political philosophies; then by an evocation of some of the echoes of their thought in the French Revolution around the themes of the exercise of power, of virtue and of religion.
Support for the Canadian Federal Progressive Conservative Party since 1988: The Impact of Economic Evaluations and Economic Issues
Authors: Clarke Harold D. , Kornberg Allan
Published: November 2009

Since their victory in the dramatic 1988 Canadian federal election, the governing Progressive Conservatives have suffered a rapid and precipitous decline in public support. Observers have attributed the massive erosion in popularity to the failure of the Meech Lake Accord, the government's insistence on implementing the highly unpopular value-added Goods and Services Tax (GST) and increasing public reservations about the wisdom of the free trade agreement. This article contends that, while these arguments have merit, a more important factor is that many Canadians blame the federal government for the poor state of the national economy and adverse personal economic circumstances. Moreover, negative reactions to the two highly salient economic issues, free trade and the GST, are, in part at least, products of public disapproval of the government's economic performance. The analyses are based on data gathered in national cross-sectional and panel surveys conducted over the 1983–1990 period.
Quand les femmes se distinguent: féminisme et représentation politique au Québec
Authors: Tremblay Manon
Published: November 2009

This article examines how Quebec politicians' sex and political party influence the orientation of their opinions through three themes: the evolution of women's social status, actions of the feminist movement in this sense and the idea of female legislators representing women. A questionnaire was sent to the 305 candidates of the New Democratic party of Quebec, the Quebec Liberal party and the Parti québécois in the provincial election of September 25, 1989. The results show that if women and men manifest no differences in their support of the evolution of women's social status and of the feminist movement, women are more inclined than men to support the idea that women politicians should represent the specific interests of women. Of all the above-mentioned parties, the Liberal party resists this idea the most as well as the feminist movement in general.
Neo-Conservative Ideology and Opposition to Federal Regulation of Child Care Services in the United States and Canada
Authors: Teghtsoonian Katherine
Published: November 2009

This article explores neo-conservative ideology in the industrialized West through a comparative analysis of the arguments advanced against a strong role for the federal government in regulating child care services in the United States and Canada. Existing analyses of neo-conservatism suggest that it is composed of many different elements which may lead to contradictory policy prescriptions; this literature also downplays the presence of a “pro-family” component in the Canadian context. The article illustrates the presence of an “anti-statist,” a “pro-market” and a “pro-family” strand of neo-conservatism in each country, and shows that they converge in opposing federal regulation of child care services. It also suggests that, while there appears to be a shared neo-conservative vision of the appropriate relationship between families and the state across national contexts, discussions of the state and its relationship to the market take on a distinctive tone in each country.
Does Changing the Party Leader Provide an Electoral Boost? A Study of Canadian Provincial Parties: 1960–1992
Authors: Stewart David K. , Carty R. K.
Published: November 2009

The long-standing centrality of party leaders to Canadian elections and politics, and the use of televised extra-parliamentary conventions to choose leaders, have led parties to believe that a new leader will provide them with an electoral boost at the subsequent election. This article tests this perception using the record of 136 cases of leadership change in Canadian provincial parties over the last three decades. The data allow the authors to consider the impact of divisive contests, the relevance of a party's competitive position, and the regional variance on any leadership convention electoral boost. It concludes the conventional wisdom is wrong.
The National Progressive Party of Canada, 1921–1930: Agricultural Economic Conditions and Electoral Support
Authors: Leithner Christian
Published: November 2009

This article tests hypotheses about the electoral support of Canada's first—and perhaps most significant—third party. It demonstrates that two micro-economic concepts, price elasticity of demand and efficiency of production, describe accurately the material base of Progressive party support. It thereby subsumes the study of agrarian parties and voting behaviour within a more general (public choice) framework. It also clarifies and substantiates important elements of the conventional wisdom about Progressive support, and it suggests means which might also shed new light upon the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and Social Credit.
Things Are Not Always What They Seem: French-English Differences and the Problem of Measurement Equivalence
Authors: Blais André , Gidengil Elisabeth
Published: November 2009

This study examines the problem of achieving linguistic equivalence in Canada-wide surveys that rely, as they must, on two different questionnaires, one in English and one in French. It is argued that this is a crucial problem which needs to be dealt with squarely. Since language does not coincide neatly with territorial boundaries in Canada, there will always be some francophones outside Quebec and some non-francophones within Quebec who are not interviewed in their first language. A comparison of responses given in both languages by members of the same language group enables the investigator to distinguish true cultural differences from mere artifacts of measurement. That methodology is applied to one specific issue, support for electoral democracy.
Les femmes sont-elles candidates dans des circonscriptions perdues d'avance? De l'examen d'une croyance
Authors: Pelletier Réjean , Tremblay Manon
Published: November 2009

We can read in the literature that women more often than men are candidates in constituencies where defeat is expected. This study examines whether this belief is accurate. The population examined includes male and female candidates for the Québec Liberal party and the Parti Québécois during the 1976, 1981, 1985 and 1989 elections. Three different formulas were applied to the 958 electoral situations, from which one global difficulty index was devised. Using a log-linear model, the relation between the variables “sex of candidate” and “constituency's level of difficulty” (high, average or low) was compared. Results have shown that between 1976 and 1989, women were not more likely than men to run in constituencies where there was no hope that they would win. It must be noted though, that in 1981, fewer women than men ran for the Parti Québécois in constituencies where victory seemed highly probable. However, when only new candidacies are considered, party affiliation becomes the most significant variable. In conclusion, it is noted that political parties will have to collaborate if more women are to become members of the National Assembly.
The Questionable Relevance of the Constitution in Advancing Minority Cultural Rights in Manitoba
Authors: Wiseman Nelson
Published: November 2009

This article argues that constitutional guarantees for francophones and the laws abridging and expanding those rights have been to date largely irrelevant to the linguistic and political welfare of Franco-Manitobans. Rather than stressing the significance of jurisprudence, the article focusses on demography and behaviour. Franco-Manitobans, as defined by mother tongue, increased in relative numbers after their rights were infringed. Although the pattern might reverse itself in the future, francophones are decreasing now that their rights have been reinstated. Manitoba's behaviour has been influenced by and continues to be consistent with Ontario law and practice, a province not bound by similar constitutional obligations.
La théorie anarcho-capitaliste de l'État: une critique méthodologique
Authors: Prévost Jean-Guy
Published: November 2009

This article deals with the conception of the State defended by libertarian author Murray N. Rothbard. An American economist, Rothbard has been for more than three decades the foremost advocate and theoretician of anarcho-capitalism. The purpose of the article is to show that the theses put forward by Rothbard regarding the nature, origin and legitimacy of the State do not square with the methodological prescriptions and the fundamental axioms that he himself upholds as the ultimate judgment criteria of a theory. In fact, neither the definition of human action as end-governed, nor methodological individualism, nor the concept of demonstrated preference can be reconciled with explanations in which conspiration, manipulation and involuntary ignorance play a decisive part.
Monetary Policy, Accountability and Legitimacy: A Review of the Issues in Canada
Authors: Coleman William D.
Published: November 2009

Monetary policy in Canada is formulated and implemented in a state-directed policy network dominated by the Bank of Canada. State-directed networks embody a tension between democratic accountability and legitimacy on the one side and maintaining support from the business community on the other. This article assesses this tension in Canadian monetary policy, focussing on the relationships between the Bank of Canada and other actors. As a central bank, the Bank of Canada possesses a unique constitutional status, being tied to the government through a directive power of the minister of finance. The Bank has also developed close working relationships with financial institutions for the implementation of monetary policy. In reviewing these relationships, the article identifies problems related to the Bank's political accountability and its ability to maintain legitimacy. The article then reviews some reforms that might address these problems: making the Bank more independent, subjecting it to closer control by the minister of finance and endowing it with a council-based internal governing system.
Decision-Making Coalitions on Non-partisan Councils: A Small City/Large City Comparison
Authors: McAlpine Scott , Drabek Stan
Published: November 2009

This article examines the complementary hypotheses that voting blocs can exist in small cities as well as large cities, and that voting blocs can develop and exist in non-partisan councils. In this respect the study compares the council voting patterns of two Alberta cities—Calgary and Grande Prairie—over the period of one council term, from 1983 to 1986. Well-defined voting blocs, revealed through Rice-Beyle cluster bloc analysis, are found in both councils. Moreover, discriminant analysis reveals that, contrary to previous research on bloc formation in partisan councils, bloc composition can be generally attributed to the interplay of the councillor background attributes.
Urban and Rural Ridings and Women in Provincial Politics in Canada: A Research Note on Female MLAs
Authors: Moncrief Gary F. , Thompson Joel A.
Published: November 2009

Several previous studies have noted that women constitute a relatively small proportion of provincial legislators in Canada. Numerous explanations for this phenomenon exist, most of which are identified clearly by Brodie, Bashevkin, Burt and others. In this research note, the authors examine the relationship between the proportion of female legislators and the urban/rural nature of the electoral district. They find that there is a distinct difference in the proportion of female legislators who represent urban districts compared to rural districts. This urban-rural disparity exists regardless of political party affiliation. Moreover, the gap appears to be widening over time.
Public Enterprise as an Expression of Sovereignty: Reconsidering the Origin of Canadian National Railways
Authors: Perl Anthony
Published: November 2009

Railway nationalization, the anvil on which national public enterprise was hammered together between 1917 and 1923, forms a misunderstood episode in the development of the Canadian state. This article examines the convergence of domestic politics and international economics that facilitated an unprecedented transformation of Canada's capacity to control its economy. State autonomy was used to create public enterprise as an instrument by which the gains of industrial restructuring could be distributed to favoured domestic financiers while its costs were imposed upon foreign investors. This power to manage the gains and losses arising from industrial change formed a new expression of economic sovereignty, one that ought to be viewed as an important step in the transition from imperial to national governance.
The Role of Public Consultation in Shaping the Canadian Broadcasting System
Authors: Raboy Marc
Published: November 2009

Canadian broadcasting is characterized by a tradition of public debate over policy issues that takes place through a range of formal and less formal consultation mechanisms. In a study of the broadcasting policy review process of 1985–1991, the transparency of public debate was seen to be essential in giving access to social groups who would otherwise have little influence on the process.
Postmatérialisme et clivages partisans au Québec: les partis sont-ils différents?
Authors: Pelletier Réjean , Guérin Daniel
Published: November 2009

The rise of postmaterialist values in democratic societies is likely to affect traditional representative institutions such as political parties. This article seeks to ascertain whether the leaders and followers of Quebec's two mainstream political parties, the Liberal party and the Parti Québécois, adhere in any different fashion to these values. It is based on two surveys, the mail survey from the 1993 Canadian Election Study and another established by the authors. Data show important cleavages between these two parties on postmaterialism, the leaders and followers of the Parti Québécois being clearly more postmaterialist than their Liberal counterparts. However, the values associated with “New Politics” do not fill the place of old economic cleavages such as those that are based on the redistribution of wealth, still present in the Quebec party system.
On the Place of Ideas: A Reply to George Hoberg
Authors: Lertzman Ken , Rayner Jeremy , Wilson Jeremy
Published: November 2009

In “Putting Ideas in Their Place,” George Hoberg raises some important and persistent questions about the explanation of policy change. In particular, he suggests that our attempt to demonstrate the role played by ideas in changing forest policy in British Columbia using Paul Sabatier's Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) gives excessive weight to ideas at the expense of more traditional concerns with power and interest. Although it is unclear whether he places the blame on the ACF itself or merely on the way we have employed it, the burden of his critique is that we fail to live up to our commitment to show how ideas and interests can be combined in a more comprehensive form of explanation than one which appeals to interests alone. Worse still, by our reckless overstatement of the case for ideas, we risk creating a “straw monster,” thereby warping the judgment of an entire generation of political scientists.
Losing Common Ground: Feminists, Conservatives and Public Policy in Canada during the Mulroney Years
Authors: Bashevkin Sylvia
Published: November 2009

This article examines relations between organized feminism and the federal Conservative government of Brian Mulroney, focusing on elements of the Canadian women's movement that targeted federal policy change from 1984 to 1993. In questioning the main priorities of both sides and the potential for conflict between them, the discussion uses the conceptual literature on social movement evolution as a base. It assesses formal decision making across five major policy sectors identified by Canadian feminism and presents the perspectives of movement activists on the Mulroney period. Although comparisons with policy action under the Thatcher and Reagan governments indicate a more pro-feminist record in Canada than the United Kingdom or the United States, Canadian materials suggest a narrowing of common ground between the organized women's movement and federal elites during the Mulroney years.
Le droit au choix et le choix du Droit: l'expérience de l'Ontario Coalition for Abortion Clinics et le jugement Morgentaler
Authors: Perrault Martine , Cardinal Linda
Published: November 2009

This article looks at the political significance of the pro-choice movement in the Canadian province of Ontario. It focuses more specifically on the discursive practices of the Ontario Coalition for Abortion Clinics (OCAC) and its use of law as a tool to effective change. By comparing the language of the Morgentaler judgment to that of the prochoice movement, this article attempts to explore the reference to law as a path for social change and, namely, as a site of discursive construction of norms and representations, as opposed to a simplistic definition of law as a site of power struggles.
Direct Election of Provincial Party Leaders in Canada, 1985–1995: The End of the Leadership Convention?
Authors: Cross William
Published: November 2009

Between 1985 and 1995, 12 provincial parties in Canada elected their leaders by a direct vote of their membership. This article examines the motivation behind the switch to direct election, the direct election procedures used and whether the expected benefits have been realized. Claims that direct elections are more democratic than traditional conventions and that they can revitalize a party membership are scrutinized.
Do Canadian Political Parties Form a Cartel?
Authors: MacIvor Heather
Published: November 2009

This article summarizes the cartel model of party structure and tests it against the experience of the Canadian party system in the 1990s. Four claims are evaluated: that the three dominant parties in the House of Commons before 1993 colluded to exclude new parties; that they used state subsidies in their own interest; that the 1993 election result was a backlash against the cartel parties; and that Canadian parties are adopting new leadership selection methods in order to allow their leaders greater autonomy. The article concludes that the first two claims are valid while the latter two are not, and discusses some of the implications of these findings for Canadian parties and for the cartel model itself.
Fédéralisme et identités collectives au Canada et en Belgique: des itinéraries différents, une fragmentation similaire
Authors: Karmis Dimitrios , Gagnon Alain-G.
Published: November 2009

The end of the twentieth century is marked by tensions between universalism and particularism which are particularly glaring in plurinational and pluriethnic countries. This article attempts first to demonstrate the importance and the difficulty in reaching a balance between unity and diversity in pluralistic countries. Even in the cases of Canada and Belgium, where conditions are among the most favourable, federal solutions adopted since the 1960s have not achieved the desired balance. A comparison of the evolution of federalism and collective identities in both Canada and Belgium reveals that opposing federal solutions have led to a similar fragmentation of identities. Pierre Trudeau's pancanadianism and the constitutional linguistic and culturalcloisonnementin Belgium have inhibited the realization of balance between unity and diversity. These choices have further contributed to the fragmentation process already in progress, the first through excessive universalism, the second through excessive particularism. The last part of the article seeks to evaluate the implications of these results for the debates on citizenship in political philosophy.
Continuity and Change in the 1993 Canadian General Election
Authors: Swayze Mikael Antony
Published: November 2009

This research note considers the complex relationship between the electoral and party systems in Canada from 1921 to 1993. By drawing on Douglas Rae's theoretical model, the note demonstrates that the electoral system exerts a powerful influence on the party system and makes the case that important regional information is often washed out in national-level results. Furthermore, a novel approach is taken to the measurement of regional data in a federal election—a comparison of the indices of fragmentation of the regions and the country provide an interesting explanation for some of the stunning changes in parliamentary representation in 1993. In interpreting the 1993 Canadian general election in this framework, the author argues that although the results in parliament seem to indicate momentous changes in Canadian politics, the voting patterns are, nonetheless, consistent with Canadian political history.
Rationality and Sovereignty Support in Quebec
Authors: Howe Paul
Published: November 2009

Recent research has identified three factors as significant determinants of sovereignty support in Quebec: national identity, assessments of the likely impact of sovereignty on Quebec's economy and perceptions of the impact of sovereignty on the French language in Quebec. Drawing on data from the 1992–1993 Canadian Referendum and Election Survey, the article suggests that the latter two factors may not be genuine causes of sovereignty support, but rather rationalizations of other, deeply embedded sentiments. National identity and sovereignty support itself, it is argued, are important determinants of people's expectations concerning the economic and linguistic impacts of sovereignty. However, this may not be equally true across the board. Instead, the influence of economic and language considerations seems to be differentially distributed across the spectrum of national identity. Thus, the rational evaluation of economic and linguistic considerations probably has less leverage over sovereignty support than is usually assumed, and its influence, such as it is, is concentrated in certain sections of the population only.
Voegelin's Philosophy of History and Human Affairs, with Particular Attention toIsraelandRevelationand Its Systematic Importance
Authors: Sandoz Ellis
Published: November 2009

Eric Voegelin's master work isOrder and History, published over a period of three decades with the fifth and final volume appearing posthumously in 1987. The focus of attention here is on the first of these volumes,Israel and Revelation(1956), which may be regarded as intellectually the sequel of volumes two and three, since the writing of those volumes (published in 1957) antedates composition of the study of Israel. From the outset, Voegelin makes clear that his concern is with a philosophy of order historically grounded as the primary means of combating the contemporary crisis of human existence, which he identifies with pervasive deformation of consciousness by ideology and the threat of civilization's extinction through totalitarian mass movements. Thus the task is to regain reality through a recovery of the principal experiences upon which man's historical existence is dependent, with both diagnostic and therapeutic intentions. The attention to the historical record is a means of anamnetically overcoming the social amnesia that threatens to extinguish human existence as it has emerged over millennia back to the Stone Age. Diagnosis and therapy are intended to go hand in hand, since the eclipse of reality, and especially of its highest and hegemonic dimension, the divine Ground of being, in favour of various substitute grounds, is the principal danger to be understood and addressed. The enduring experience of open existence in history is glimpsed, in man's continual Exodus in loving partnership with God, in tension toward the mystery symbolized in eschatological fulfillment.
Do Female MPs Substantively Represent Women? A Study of Legislative Behaviour in Canada's 35th Parliament
Authors: Tremblay Manon
Published: November 2009

This article outlines the pattern of women's participation in the Canadian parliamentary system. The question of interest is whether female members of the House of Commons make a difference in politics and, notably, if they substantively represent women. The basic underlying hypothesis is that women in the Canadian House of Commons make a difference, that is to say, they substantively represent women. However, the impact of women in politics is limited: they do indeed make a difference, but not a drastic one. In this sense, women try to shape the legislative agenda and the legislative discourse in order to promote women's issues more than do men, but their activity in favour of women's concerns remains quite limited from a numerical point of view. To achieve effective results in this study, two methods were employed: a survey given to members of the 35th Canadian Parliament, and a content analysis of the Hansard Index of the House of Commons. Overall, the results presented here provide some support for the substantive argument. On the question of whether women members of the House of Commons make a difference in politics, and, significantly, if they substantively represent women, the answer is generally positive, although it is necessary to qualify this response. Both female and male MPs speak and act to support women's issues in the House of Commons, but these activities remain quantitatively marginal. However, on each aspect considered, the group of female MPs were proportionately more involved in women's issues than their male counterparts.
Early Modern Imperial Governance and the Origins of Canadian Political Culture
Authors: Mancke Elizabeth
Published: November 2009

For the last three decades, scholars of Canadian political culture have favoured ideological explanations for state formation with the starting point being the American Revolution and Loyalist resettlement in British North America. This article challenges both the ideological bias and the late eighteenth-century chronology through a reassessment of early modern developments in the British imperial state. It shows that many of the institutional features associated with the state in British North America and later Canada—strong executives and weak assemblies, Crown control of land and natural resources, parliamentary funding of colonial development and accommodation of non-British subjects—were all institutionalized in the imperial state before the American Revolution and before the arrival of significant numbers of ethnically British settlers to Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and Quebec. Ideological discourses in the British North American colonies that became Canada, unlike those that became the United States, traditionally acknowledged the presence of a strong state in its imperial and colonial manifestations. Rather than challenging its legitimacy, as had Americans, British North Americans, whether liberals, republicans or tories, debated the function of the state and the distribution of power within it.
Making Sense of Regional Voting in the 1997 Canadian Federal Election: Liberal and Reform Support Outside Quebec
Authors: Gidengil Elisabeth , Blais André , Nadeau Richard , Nevitte Neil
Published: November 2009

This article uses a regression decomposition approach to explore the meaning of the gaps in electoral support for the federal Liberal party between Ontario, the West and Atlantic Canada, as well as the gap in Reform party support between the West and Ontario in the 1997 federal election. The analysis proceeds in two stages. The first stage involves determining whether the regional vote gaps reflect “true” regional differences or whether they can be explained simply in terms of differences in the sociodemographic makeup of the regions. Having ascertained that the gaps are not spurious, the second stage of the analysis probes the beliefs and attitudes that underlie them. The authors conclude that the gaps are driven not just by differences in political orientations and beliefs from one region to another, but also by more fundamental differences in basic political priorities.
La dimension populiste de l'émergence et du succès électoral du PartiConfederation of Regionsau Nouveau-Brunswick
Authors: Belkhodja Chedly
Published: November 2009

The rise and electoral success of the Confederation of Regions Party (CoR) in New Brunswick was seen as a major surprise in the context of provincial politics. The first reaction was to analyze the new party as mainly a party opposed to official bilingualism. In this article the author looks at another aspect of importance that is the populist dimension behind the CoR party. Four aspects are studied: the period of emergence (1989–1991), party organization and structures, ideology, attitudes of the membership.
Threat Escalation and Crisis Stability: Superpower Cases, 1948–1979
Authors: James Patrick , Harvey Frank
Published: November 2009

Using a modified version of Chicken, referred to as the Threat Game, Brams and Kilgour have developed a theoretical model of threat escalation and stability in superpower crises. More specifically, they derive explicit thresholds for sufficient pre-emption to stabilize a crisis before it escalates out of control. An appropriate degree of coercion thereby is designated for the response to an adversary, in order to deter further escalation. The overall objective of this study is to use data on superpower crises to test a modified version of the model developed by Brams and Kilgour. Mixed results emerge from testing the most general propositions. The choice of response level usually does not surpass the model's recommended value. However, stabilization is feasible in virtually all crises and, when an actor does meet the threshold, satisfaction with the outcome occurs more frequently than otherwise. Two more specific hypotheses also are tested, with partial support for the model once again being the result.
Gouverne et liberté: Foucault et la question du pouvoir
Authors: Laforest Guy
Published: November 2009

The analysis of the modalities of the governing of conduct, in an individualizing and totalizing modern political rationality, along with the conception of spaces of freedom for concrete human subjects in this environment, are two great preoccupations of Michel Foucault's last works. This article provides an account of the actualization by Foucault of his thought on power which explains the various factors, from problems of historical interpretation to new perspectives, which led him to conceive of power in the categories of the governing of the conduct of others. This study finds anticipations of these changes in Foucault's first historical studies, and demonstrates their relevance in the framework of reflections on freedom.
Gramsci and Democracy
Authors: Morera Esteve
Published: November 2009

In the Quaderni del Carcere, Antonio Gramsci provided the foundations for a socialist theory of democracy. This theory can be drawn from some of Gramsci's most important concepts: his views of intellectual activity on the one hand, and the conceptions of hegemony and civil society on the other. The former provides a general conception of a non-bureaucratic relationship between leaders and the led, the latter points to a participatory model of political activity. This thesis, however, is formulated within the framework of a realist epistemology in which the class structure is conceived as the long-term determinant of the general historical process. Hence, although Gramsci's thought sheds new light on a non-class domain of political activity, it is constrained by both socio-economic conditions and the realism of available knowledge.
Religion et souveraineté du peuple: de Rousseau à Tocqueville
Authors: Knee Philip
Published: November 2009

This article seeks to contribute to the debate on the ethical and political meaning of the French Enlightenment, more specifically concerning the religious implications of the idea of popular sovereignty as it is put in place at the time of the French Revolution. The study of the social status of religion in two thoughts elaborated before and after the Revolution shows the clear opposition between Rousseau's “civil religion” with its perspective of a moral regeneration of man, and Tocqueville's “democratic religion” with its liberal perspective. But it also reveals the ambivalence they share in their attempt to think through the problem of the “common soul” of a society where legitimacy rests only on its self-institution.
Conflict of Interest and the Canadian Constitution: An Analysis of Conflict of Interest Rules for Canadian Cabinet Ministers
Authors: Greene Ian
Published: November 2009

The rash of conflict of interest incidents involving cabinet ministers in Canada in 1986, 1987 and early 1988 can in part be explained by the fact that no clear connection exists in most of the conflict of interest rules between the substance of the rules and basic constitutional principles. Unless ministers understand the reasons for the increasingly complex rules, a high degree of compliance with them is unrealistic. The article explores the connection between the rule of law, social equality, the principle of ministerial impartiality and conflict of interest legislation and guidelines. The conflict of interest rules have usually been drafted hastily in reaction to scandals, with little thought given to their constitutional basis. Thirty-five recent conflict of interest incidents are classified and analyzed. Many might have been avoided if the constitutional reasons for the rules had been better understood. Nevertheless, with regard to the overlap between conflicts of interest and political patronage, the Canadian political system has not developed a clear set of expectations for ministerial behaviour in all circumstances.
Risk, Science and Politics: Alachlor Regulation in Canada and the United States
Authors: Hoberg George
Published: November 2009

This article is a comparative case study of environmental regulation in Canada and the United States, focussing on one important area of environmental regulation, pesticides, and on the treatment of North America's most commercially important pesticide, alachlor. Alachlor is a clear case of policy divergence: Canadians have banned the substance while the US has decided to keep it on the market with minimal restrictions. Three major explanations for the divergence are explored: science, interest group politics, and legal and institutional arrangements. The article concludes that while different interpretations of the risks posed by alachlor contributed to the different decisions, they can only be explained with reference to the economic importance of alachlor and the need to maintain the legitimacy of current institutional arrangements. The concluding section outlines a framework for explaining similarities and differences in environmental, health and safety regulations across nations.
Communications, Time and Power: An Innisian View
Authors: Di Norcia Vincent
Published: November 2009

In 1946, after visiting Russia, Harold Innis remarked that the time had come to broaden the range of political economy by studying, first, the struggle for social supremacy between states, churches and commerce; and, second, the related competition between languages, religions, cultures and communications media. This, I argue, is what Innis accomplished. His early studies of Canadian economic history transcended conventional economics and laid the groundwork for a later political theory of communications. It expressly took up the 1946 challenge to address competing monopolies of knowledge and power, hence manipulating the space and time-binding properties of communications media. Innis' work reflected a materialist model of communications, a social ecology, a soft determinism or philosophic naturalism and it linked knowledge, freedom and power. Finally, I conclude, these insights permitted Innis to transcend bias and to search for a balanced culture.
The Use of United States Decisions by the Supreme Court of Canada Under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Authors: Manfredi Christopher P.
Published: November 2009

The adoption of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms has generated considerable interest among legal commentators who question the potential impact of United States civil rights jurisprudence on Charter adjudication. This article offers a preliminary analysis of the impact of US constitutional law generally, and civil rights jurisprudence in particular, on Charter adjudication in the Supreme Court of Canada between 1984 and 1988. Focussing on the Supreme Court's citations of US decisions, the study finds that the frequency of such citations has increased under the Charter. Moreover, the Court's use of these decisions has had a significant substantive impact in defining the nature of constitutional interpretation and the content of the Charter's legal rights.
Class Voting in the First Alberta Social Credit Election
Authors: Bell Edward
Published: November 2009

Many interpretations of the Social Credit movement in Alberta are based on assertions regarding the class basis of its popular support. Since no previous study of Social Credit has offered an empirical account of its popular class base, such an account is provided here. The author analyzes the provincial election of 1935, in which Social Credit first gained power, by comparing party support in the cities, towns and countryside. Within the cities, a district-by-district analysis measures the pattern of class voting in urban areas. Class is found to have been a powerful determinant of voting in this election.
The Consistency of Inconsistency: Tracing Ontario's Opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement
Authors: Abelson Donald E. , Lusztig Michael
Published: November 2009

Employing a rational choice perspective, this article seeks to explain the shift in the trade policy position of the Canadian province of Ontario during negotiations that led to the North American Free Trade Agreement. In doing so it highlights an important, though often overlooked, phenomenon: issue linkage in public policy construction. Early in 1993, Premier Bob Rae's New Democratic party government significantly shifted its position on the proposed agreement. While never actively supportive of the accord prior to 1993, the provincial government maintained close contact with federal trade negotiators as a means of advancing its core trade objectives. By February 1993, however, the government's position hardened perceptibly. Specifically, the government actively undertook to derail the proposed agreement. This article suggests that this shift cannot be understood in terms of growing dissatisfaction with the impending trade agreement, nor solely to a change in Ontario's trade policy preferences. Rather, it suggests that a broader perspective is needed, and argues that Ontario's position on NAFTA was linked to other priorities of the Rae government: namely, those in the fiscal policy arena.
Issue-Attention and Punctuated Equilibria Models Reconsidered: An Empirical Examination of the Dynamics of Agenda-Setting in Canada
Authors: Howlett Michael
Published: November 2009

Most of the work on policy dynamics focuses on the agenda-setting stage of the policy cycle and argues that policy issues wax and wane in public attention, generating either a cyclical or evolutionary pattern of governmental activity in particular policy sectors. Anthony Downs's notion of a periodic “issue-attention cycle” and Frank Baumgartner and Bryan Jones's notion of a stepped or “punctuated equilibrium” pattern of policy change are prominent in the literature, but have received little empirical and virtually no cross-national verification. Utilizing the analysis of time-series data gathered on nuclear energy and acid rain issues appearing on government and public agendas in Canada over the period 1977–1992, this article elaborates the elements of the two models and subjects both to empirical testing. The article finds little support for either model in the Canadian case and argues the assumptions behind the models must be altered to account for this anomalous case.