Evidence from other advanced industrial societies indicates that the traditional ideological contours of old states are being reshaped by the advance of a new political agenda. Using attitudinal survey data, this article explores the ways in which “new politics” has shaped the political belief systems of a segment of the Canadian population born after 1945. Findings indicate the presence of postmaterialist orientations among the young and a structuring capacity of postmaterialism versus left/right with respect to attitudes in different policy domains. Postmaterialism is also linked to greater mobilization potential and, among left identifiers, is shown to predict New Democratic party versus Liberal party support.

This article analyzes the legislative cohesion of political parties in Quebec between 1867 and 1989. The unveiling of frequent and widespread dissent within the two parties throughout the nineteenth century, and its gradual elimination thereafter, stand out as its major finding. Various explanatory factors are then reviewed: the confidence convention, the decrease of the number of divisions that did not involve confidence in the government or approval of its policies, the advent of universal suffrage, sanctions against dissenters and the role of party leaders. All these factors seem to have had some influence. The author argues that studies of this kind must distinguish between the various formal categories of divisions, a dimension often neglected in such studies.

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.

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.

This study develops a dependency interpretation of the interplay between class and region in influencing Canadian voting. The weakness of any national class cleavage in voting is linked to the socially disintegrative effects of regional dependency. Class cleavages are not consistently manifested in Canadian voting because consistent class interests are lacking. Log-linear analyses confirm that class does affect voting but this effect differs in both form and intensity depending on a region's location in the centre-periphery system. The impact of union membership and language on the interplay between class and region is also examined.

The European appropriation of Indian land in North America has often been justified through versions of the “agricultural argument” to the effect that the Indians did not need the land and did not really own it because they did not permanently enclose and farm it. Thus the European settlers could resort to original appropriation as described in Locke's Second Treatise. This article examines the agricultural argument as exemplified in the writings of John Winthrop, John Locke and Emer de Vattel. Analysis shows that the argument is formally consistent with the premises of natural rights philosophy because it assumes the equal right of both Indians and Europeans to engage in original appropriation. But the historical record shows that the argument actually applied to only a small portion of the land acquired by the Europeans. Sovereignty is the issue that should receive further inquiry.

The Politburo since its formation in 1919 has been the ruling elite of the Communist party of the Soviet Union. The traditional wisdom is that a blood purge is just around the corner and that a member's tenure is incalculably chaotic. This wisdom of “Evil Empire” is simply mistaken with respect to the Politburo. A statistical review of Politburo membership from 1919 to 1987 shows that the tenure of members is and was virtually the same as that found for elites in many democratic countries and that violence towards members and ex-members is and was rare, except during the Great Purge of 1936–1939. The traditional wisdom was never correct with respect to members' tenures and, with respect to blood purges, it was only correct during the Great Purge.