There are numerous definitions of power, but none of them has succeeded in promoting fruitful empirical research. To take steps in this direction a preliminary condition has to be fulfilled: to put the definition of power in the context of an important theory. The concept of voting power developed within collective choice theory fulfills this condition. Such a concept may be extended to all collective decisions. A systems approach to voting or non-voting power is concerned less with the notion of winning coalitions, or the notion of pivot within a winning coalition, than it is with the power structure which takes shape in the making of collective decisions. After a presentation of the power resources, the article closes with a case study bearing on the decision made by the Quebec cabinet, in 1962, to hold an election on the issue of nationalization of electric companies.

Leadership succession in the Soviet Union has always had some impact on the composition of the ruling Communist party, which is otherwise determined normally by the force of social status. As the CPSU constitutes the pool from which the Soviet political elite is drawn, changes in that pool brought about by the succession of Gorbachev are bound to have implications for the future. Apparently unable at the beginning of his term to stem the intake of new members, Gorbachev has made dramatic use of expulsions to regulate the composition of the party. In their overall effect, his policies have shown a remarkable continuity with the Brezhnev period. This includes the enhancement of workers’ and peasants’ chances of being drawn into full-time political roles at the expense of white-collar persons. The net effect is likely to be a widening of the gap between the party and the intelligentsia, who are effectively excluded from membership in the political elite.

The apparent defeat of the medical profession on the issue of extra-billing presents an anomaly, in light of the historical and comparative literature on the political power of medicine and the more general interest group literature regarding the disproportionate political influence of concentrated interests. On closer examination, the extra-billing episode suggests some modifications to theories of the political advantage of concentrated interests, but does not present a deviant case. It rather provides an example of the political vulnerability of concentrated interests on issues of broad symbolic appeal; it illustrates the ability of a concentrated group to use its traditional advantages in processes of negotiation and accommodation with policy-makers to achieve tangible and positional gains in compensation for symbolic losses; and (in the case of the conflict in Ontario) it demonstrates the susceptibility of such negotiations over symbolic values to problems of misperception, miscalculation and “face.” In longer-term perspective, moreover, the extra-billing issue is best understood as an episode of conflict in a long history of accommodation between medicine and the state under comprehensive medicare.

The article assesses the utility of Eric Nordlinger's statist approach in explaining Canada's policies on deep seabed mining at the United Nations Third Conference on the Law of the Sea. Nordlinger argues that government decision-makers in liberal democratic societies enjoy considerable autonomy in translating their preferences into public policies even when opposition is mounted by major groups outside government circles. Nordlinger's thesis on state autonomy is useful in explaining Canada's deep seabed mining policies since government decision-makers determined policy outcomes. Nevertheless, the approach requires important modifications to enhance its relevance to the Canadian parliamentary system. It needs to distinguish between politicians and government bureaucrats, to identify the sources of their policy preferences and to recognize provincial involvement.

Does the fact that Canadian women obtained the suffrage in 1918 mean that the members of parliament agreed with the principle of equality between men and women? Through an analysis of the debates, we may easily see that equality was not at issue, that many other questions were related to the suffrage issue and that a debate on the fundamental problematic of equality never took place. This is the case in 1885 and 1918, when there is a semblance of debate, but it is all the more obvious in 1898 and 1917 in which cases one witnesses a game of hide-and-seek on the issue of women's suffrage. In conclusion, the consequences regarding women's citizenship are discussed.

In Book V of the Republic Socrates appears to abandon one of the most fundamental characteristics of Socratic philosophy, that is, the attempt to understand what makes human beings distinct, in favour of an understanding of human life in terms of the activity of animals. This suggests that the purpose of Book V is not to present the best political order as Socrates understands it but rather to illustrate the dangers of any attempt to understand political life from a perspective which, in simplifying the complexities of human life, distorts that life. As the drama of Book V indicates, such proposals are dangerous because of their appeal to those whose desire for control can lead them to embrace radical but simplistic reforms.

The study explored the sources of political knowledge using data from the 1984 Canadian National Election Study. Two dimensions of political knowledge were measured: factual knowledge, in which respondents were asked to name the 10 provincial premiers; and conceptual knowledge, in terms of respondents’ abilities to define and use the concepts of left and right. The authors tested four explanations of people's levels of political knowledge; these dealt with education, political participation, media effects and region, with controls for income, residency in several provinces, age and sex. Education was significantly associated with both forms of knowledge, but especially with conceptual knowledge. Reading about politics in newspapers and magazines was strongly related to the two knowledge variables. The effects of reliance on television for political information, however, were much weaker. There were significant effects for region, with the patterns depending on the type of knowledge. The study concludes with some observations about the role of knowledge in political behaviour.