The capacity to judge
Subtitle: public opinion and deliberative democracy in Upper Canada, 1791-1854
By: Jeffrey L. McNairn.
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Published: 2000
Place of publication: Toronto; Buffalo
Language: eng
Number of pages: 460
Subjects: Representative government and representation -- Ontario -- History -- 19th century; Constitutional history -- Ontario; Gouvernement représentatif -- Ontario -- Histoire -- 19e siècle; Ontario -- Politics and government -- 1791-1841; Ontario -- Politics and government -- 1841-1867; Ontario -- Histoire constitutionnelle; Ontario -- Politique et gouvernement -- 1791-1841; Ontario -- Politique et gouvernement -- 1841-1867
Description: "The Capacity to Judge asks what made widespread public debate about common issues possible; why it came to be seen as desirable, even essential; and how it was integrated into Upper Canada's constitutional and social self-image. Drawing on an international body of literature indebted to Jurgen Habermas as well as extensive research in period newspapers, Jeffrey L.

McNairn argues that voluntary associations and the press created a reading public capable of reasoning on matters of state, and that the dynamics of political conflict invested that public with final authority. He traces how contemporaries grappled with the consequences as they scrutinized parliamentary, republican, and radical options for institutionalizing public opinion.

The Capacity to Judge concludes with a case study of deliberative democracy in action that serves as a sustained defence of the type of intellectual history the book as a whole exemplifies."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [439]-447) and index.
Revision of the author's dissertation (Ph. D.)--University of Toronto, 1997.