Download or read book Citizens written by Elisabeth Gidengil and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2011-11-01 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Citizens are central to any meaningful definition of democracy. What does it say about the health of Canadian democracy when fewer citizens than ever are exercising their right to vote and party membership rolls are shrinking? Are increasingly well-educated citizens turning away from traditional electoral politics in favour of other forms of democratic engagement or are they simply withdrawing from political participation altogether? The first comprehensive assessment of citizen engagement in Canada, this volume raises challenging questions about the interests and capabilities of Canadians as democratic citizens, as well as the performance of our democratic institutions. It is essential reading for politicians and policy-makers, students and scholars of Canadian politics, and all those who care about the quality of Canadian democracy.

Download or read book Auditing Canadian Democracy written by William Cross and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2010-10-27 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Authored by a team of Canada's leading political scientists, the award-winning Canadian Democratic Audit represents one of the most ambitious examinations of Canadian democracy in recent political scholarship. Auditing Canadian Democracy marks the culmination of this landmark project. Using the uniquely Canadian benchmarks of participation, responsiveness, and inclusiveness, the contributors synthesize and update their findings from the original volumes. A concluding synopsis considers the various reform proposals put forth in the series. A lively and accessible examination of existing practices and reforms, this book's timely analysis should interest all citizens concerned with the health of our democracy.

Download or read book Federalism written by Jennifer Smith and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a world where federal states seem to exist precariously, politicians and academics from around the globe continue to look to Canada as a model of federalism. And yet, our own system of organization and governance also appears strained: Quebec nationalism, First Nations’ claims, the regionalization of party politics, and the uneven and shifting delivery of essential services have all altered the face of federal politics. Federalism explains how Canada came to be a federation (what reasons there were for it, and against it, historically); what the challenges to federalism currently are; and how we might fortify some areas of weakness in the federal system. Jennifer Smith argues that federalism is part of the democratic problem now; however, reformed, it can be part of the solution. Since theorists disagree on the democratic credentials of federalism, it is essential to look at how a real federal system operates. Smith examines the origins of Canadian federalism and its special features, then analyzes it in relation to the benchmarks of the Canadian Democratic Audit project: responsiveness, inclusiveness, and participation. Finding that Canadian federalism falls short on each benchmark, she recommends changes ranging from virtual regionalism to a Council of the Federation that includes Aboriginal representatives. Democracy is about more than the House of Commons or elections. It is also about federalism. This sparkling account of Canadian federalism is a must-read for students and scholars of Canadian politics, politicians and policymakers, and those who care about Canadian democracy.

Download or read book Canadian Democracy from the Ground Up written by Elisabeth Gidengil and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2014-06-25 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Canada is often held up as an example of a healthy democracy. However, the Canadian public is less enthusiastic about the way our democracy works. Rather than focusing on institutional performance, this book approaches the “democratic deficit” from the perspective of the Canadian public and assesses the performance of political leaders and the media in light of Canadians’ perceptions and expectations. In doing so, a number of chapters highlight the disjuncture between perceptions and performance. For example, governments do keep many of their election promises, and media coverage is not as negative as we are apt to believe. Similarly, the book provides new insights into political apathy by drawing on focus group discussions that represent the first attempt to ask politically marginalized Canadians why they have turned their backs on politics. By introducing the voice of everyday Canadians, this book adds a new perspective to political discussions in this country. Canadian Democracy from the Ground Up is essential for anyone who would like to learn how to build a better democracy – one that meets the expectations of the Canadian public.

Download or read book Imperfect Democracies written by Patti Tamara Lenard and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2012-10-01 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Canada and the United States are consistently ranked among the most democratic countries in the world, yet voices expressing concern about the quality of these democracies are becoming louder and more insistent. Critics maintain that the two countries suffer from a “democratic deficit,” a deficit that raises profound questions about the legitimacy and effectiveness of their democratic institutions. Imperfect Democracies brings together Canadian and American scholars to compare how the democratic deficit plays out in the two nations. An important contribution to the field of democratic theory and the study of democratic institutions, this timely book will spark debate on both sides of the border.

Download or read book Elections written by John C. Courtney and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2011-11-01 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Open and competitive elections governed by widely accepted rules and procedures are essential to the legitimacy of any political system. Elections assesses the history and development of five building blocks of the Canadian electoral regime: the franchise, electoral districts, voter registration, election machinery, and plurality voting. Arguing that on balance the Canadian electoral system is truly democratic, John Courtney demonstrates its vast improvements over the years. The right to vote is now generously interpreted. The process of redrawing electoral districts is no longer in the hands of elected officials. Voter registration lists include all but a small share of eligible voters. And those who manage and supervise elections on behalf of all citizens are honest and trustworthy officials. Using the recent push for reform of the plurality vote system as one example, Courtney also examines why certain electoral institutions have been amenable to change and others have not.

Download or read book Political Parties written by William Cross and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2011-11-01 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Political parties are at the centre of Canadian democracy. They choose our prime ministers, premiers, and candidates for public office; they decide which policy issues are considered in the provincial and federal legislatures; they dominate our election campaigns. As a result, a democracy that is participatory, responsive, and inclusive can only be achieved if Canadian political parties share these values and operate in a manner respecting them. In a concise and accessible manner, this book delves into the history, structure, mechanisms, and roles of Canada's political parties, and assesses the degree to which Canadians today can rely on political parties as vehicles for grassroots participation.

Download or read book Reviving Social Democracy written by David Laycock and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2014-11-13 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the 2011 general election, the New Democratic Party stunned political pundits by becoming the Official Opposition in the House of Commons. After near collapse in the 1993 election, how did the NDP manage to win triple the seats of its Liberal rivals and take more than three-quarters of the ridings in Quebec? Reviving Social Democracy examines the federal NDP’s transformation from “nearly dead party” to new power player within a volatile party system. Its early chapters – on the party’s emergence in the 1960s, its presence in Quebec, and the Jack Layton factor – pave the way for insightful analyses of issues such as party modernization, changing ideology, voter profile, and policy formation that played a significant role in driving the “Orange Crush” phenomenon. Later chapters explore such future-facing questions as the prospects of party mergers and the challenges of maintaining support in the long term.

Download or read book Citizens Adrift written by Paul Howe and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2011-07-01 with total page 363 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many political observers, struck by low turnout rates among young voters, are pessimistic about the future of democracy in Canada and other Western nations. Citizens in general are disengaged from politics, and young people in particular are said to be adrift in a sea of apathy. Building on these observations, Paul Howe examines patterns of participation and engagement from both the past and present, concluding that young Canadians are, in fact, increasingly detached from the political and civic life of the country. Two key trends underlie this development: waning political knowledge and attentiveness and generational changes in the norms and values that sustain social integration. As Citizens Adrift shows, putting young people back on the path towards engaged citizenship requires a holistic approach, one which acknowledges that democratic engagement extends beyond the realm of formal politics.

Download or read book Cabinets and First Ministers written by Graham White and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2011-11-01 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What place do first ministers and their cabinets have in democratic life in Canada? Has cabinet become a prime ministerial focus group? Do political staff and central agency bureaucrats enhance or diminish democracy? Do private members have any say in the cabinet process? Graham White renders a clear account of the development, structure, and operation of cabinet and the role of first ministers at the federal, provincial, and territorial levels. He discusses how the processes that support cabinet are affected by the considerable power of the first minister, and looks at the ways in which they permit the involvement of other elected members and the public. Taking the view that characterizing our Westminster-style government is an oversimplification, White examines first ministers and cabinets in terms of accountability and transparency and proposes realistic improvements to this aspect of Canadian democracy.

Download or read book Voting Behaviour in Canada written by Cameron D. Anderson and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2011-01-01 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can election results be explained, given that each ballot reflects the influence of countless impressions, decisions, and attachments? Leading young scholars of political behaviour piece together a comprehensive portrait of the modern Canadian voter to reveal the challenges of understanding election results. By systematically exploring the long-standing attachments, short-term influences, and proximate factors that influence our behaviour in the voting booth, this theoretically grounded and methodologically advanced collection sheds new light on the choices we make as citizens and provides important insights into recent national developments.

Download or read book Curbing Corruption written by Rick Stapenhurst and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1999-01-01 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Part III: Three case studies.

Download or read book Quality Matters written by John Winston Mayne and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-12-12 with total page 389 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Information--regular, systematic, reliable--is the life-blood of democracy and the fuel of effective management. Surely today there is no problem with information, for this is the age of information overload. It pours onto our computer screens and out of our printers. Indeed, many governments claim, often with some justification, to be more open and transparent than ever before. But what if the life-blood is contaminated, or the fuel polluted? Then the body politic sickens and the engine of public management runs rough. It is the vital issue of the quality of the information we receive that this book addresses. Quality Matters compares approaches across different jurisdictional settings and across three different types of information evaluation. The chapters describe and analyze quality assurance in a number of countries and within a variety of international organizations. These have been selected either because they are widely considered to be leaders in evaluating information or because they have experience with assuring quality information that can instruct others. Contributors are from Australia, Canada, the European Union, France, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States, and the World Bank. This pioneering study analyzes practices for assuring the quality of evaluation, performance auditing, and reporting in the face of political, organizational, and technical obstacles. A final chapter addresses the extent to which quality assurance systems become bothersome rituals or remain meaningful mechanisms to ensure quality control. This well-structured volume will be of particular interest to policymakers and adds much to the literature on program evaluation and performance auditing.

Download or read book Harperism written by Donald Gutstein and published by James Lorimer & Company. This book was released on 2014-08-31 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Margaret Thatcher transformed British political life forever. So did Ronald Reagan in the United States. Now Canada has experienced a similar, dramatic shift to a new kind of politics, which author Donald Gustein terms Harperism. Among its key tenets: A weakened labour movement--and preferably the disappearance of unions--will contribute to Canada's economic prosperityCutting back government scientific research and data collection will improve public policy-makingEliminating First Nations reserves by converting them to private property will improve conditions of life for aboriginal peoplesInequality of incomes and wealth is a good thing--and Canada needs more of it These and other essential elements of Harperism flow from neo-liberal economic theories propounded by the Austrian economist Friedrich von Hayek and his U.S. disciples. They inspired Thatcherism and Reaganism. Stephen Harper has taken this neo-liberalism much further in many key areas. As Donald Gutstein shows, Harper has successfully used a strategy of incremental change coupled with denial of the underlying neo-liberal analysis that explains these hard-to-understand measures. The success of Harperism is no accident. Donald Gutstein documents the links between the politicians, think tanks, journalists, academics, and researchers who nurture and promote each other's neo-liberal ideas. They do so using funds provided by ultra-rich U.S. donors, by Canadian billionaires like Peter Munk, and by many big corporations--all of whom stand to gain from the ideas and policies the Harperites develop and push. This book casts new light on the last ten years of Canadian politics. It documents the challenges that Harperism--with or without Stephen Harper--will continue to offer to the many Canadians who do not share this pro-market world view.

Download or read book Policy Analysis in Canada written by Laurent Dobuzinskis and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2007-06-30 with total page 625 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The growth of what some academics refer to as 'the policy analysis movement' represents an effort to reform certain aspects of government behaviour. The policy analysis movement is the result of efforts made by actors inside and outside formal political decision-making processes to improve policy outcomes by applying systematic evaluative rationality to the development and implementation of policy options. This volume offers a comprehensive overview of the many ways in which the policy analysis movement has been conducted, and to what effect, in Canadian governments and, for the first time, in business associations, labour unions, universities, and other non-governmental organizations. Editors Laurent Dobuzinskis, Michael Howlett, and David Laycock have brought together a wide range of contributors to address questions such as: What do policy analysts do? What techniques and approaches do they use? What is their influence on policy-making in Canada? Is there a policy analysis deficit? What norms and values guide the work done by policy analysts working in different institutional settings? Contributors focus on the sociology of policy analysis, demonstrating how analysts working in different organizations tend to have different interests and to utilize different techniques. They compare and analyze the significance of these different styles and approaches, and speculate about their impact on the policy process.

Download or read book The UK s Changing Democracy written by Patrick Dunleavy and published by LSE Press. This book was released on 2018-11-01 with total page 521 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The UK’s Changing Democracy presents a uniquely democratic perspective on all aspects of UK politics, at the centre in Westminster and Whitehall, and in all the devolved nations. The 2016 referendum vote to leave the EU marked a turning point in the UK’s political system. In the previous two decades, the country had undergone a series of democratic reforms, during which it seemed to evolve into a more typical European liberal democracy. The establishment of a Supreme Court, adoption of the Human Rights Act, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish devolution, proportional electoral systems, executive mayors and the growth in multi-party competition all marked profound changes to the British political tradition. Brexit may now bring some of these developments to a juddering halt. The UK’s previous ‘exceptionalism’ from European patterns looks certain to continue indefinitely. ‘Taking back control’ of regulations, trade, immigration and much more is the biggest change in UK governance for half a century. It has already produced enduring crises for the party system, Parliament and the core executive, with uniquely contested governance over critical issues, and a rapidly changing political landscape. Other recent trends are no less fast-moving, such as the revival of two-party dominance in England, the re-creation of some mass membership parties and the disruptive challenges of social media. In this context, an in-depth assessment of the quality of the UK’s democracy is essential. Each of the 2018 Democratic Audit’s 37 short chapters starts with clear criteria for what democracy requires in that part of the nation’s political life and outlines key recent developments before a SWOT analysis (of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) crystallises the current situation. A small number of core issues are then explored in more depth. Set against the global rise of debased semi-democracies, the book’s approach returns our focus firmly to the big issues around the quality and sustainability of the UK’s liberal democracy.

Download or read book The Courts written by Ian Greene and published by University of British Columbia Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Academic and policy circles have been abuzz lately over the political involvement of groups in the judicial process – the "court party thesis." But how can we understand this debate without understanding the fundamentals of how courts actually operate? The Courts addresses this question by providing a well-informed account of the judicial system and its relation to democratic life. Ian Greene covers all the dimensions of the judicial system that have a significant bearing on the quality of Canadian democracy. He offers an insider’s perspective on the workings of the court: the role of judges, lawyers, and expert witnesses; the cost of litigation; the representativeness of juries; legal aid issues; and questions of jury reform. Greene also examines judicial activism, though within a much wider context. The book moves the debate about the role of the courts beyond its most well-travelled aspects, such as judicial appointment, discipline, independence, and review, to consider the ways in which the courts affect daily life and to examine these effects in terms of democratic principles. The Courts acknowledges that although courts are often viewed as elitist and unaccountable, democratic components of their operation nevertheless make them a more valuable aspect of democratic practice than most citizens realize. A valuable addition to the Canadian Democratic Audit series, this clearly written and engaging account of the court system will be welcomed by those studying law and politics.