Rules, Rules, Rules, Rules: Multilevel Regulatory Governance, G. Bruce Doern and Robert Johnson, eds., Studies in Comparative Political Economy and Public Policy; Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006, xi, 372.

The first stated purpose of this edited collection is to “clarify conceptually the nature, causes, and dynamics of regulatory governance in, or affecting, Canada” in a world where the international, federal, provincial and local spheres are “interacting, reinforcing and colliding.” The second is to “contribute practically to the debate on what kinds of principles and institutional approaches and changes can lessen the problems of multilevel regulatory governance” (3).

Mondialisation et bien être, Helliwell, John F., Presses de l'Université Laval, 2005, 105 pages.

L'ouvrage de John Helliwell est la compilation de trois conférences données par l'auteur en 2000 ; retravaillées et mises à jour, elles présentent la réflexion de Helliwell sur la mondialisation et le bien-être, ce dernier sujet étant le thème principal de l'ouvrage. Le lien entre la mondialisation et le bien-être est faible, les deux sujets étant traités souvent de façon séparée. Par conséquent, le lecteur qui s'attendrait à une analyse approfondie des effets de la mondialisation sur le bien-être humain en sortira peut-être déçu. Le phénomène de la mondialisation est l'un des sujets de la réflexion de Helliwell, mais c'est loin d'être le plus important – le livre concerne par exemple beaucoup plus les relations bilatérales entre le Canada et les États-Unis ou encore le rôle du Canada dans le monde actuel et il faut attendre le troisième et dernier chapitre qui constitue une réflexion sur la façon de “ combiner bien-être national et bien-être mondial ” pour voir la relation entre le contenu des deux premiers chapitres et la mondialisation. Cependant, il faut rendre justice à l'auteur qui prévient le lecteur que “ cet ouvrage met l'accent sur le bien-être comme centre d'intérêt pour les chercheurs et les responsables de l'élaboration des politiques publiques ” (p. 1). En effet, ce serait une erreur grave de nier que l'ouvrage de Helliwell a ses points forts et la réflexion de l'auteur ne décevra pas un lecteur intéressé par le sujet. Je me concentrerai d'abord sur la troisième partie du livre, qui me semble la plus féconde.

Digital State at the Leading Edge, Sandford Borins, Kenneth Kernaghan, David Brown, Nick Bontis, Perri 6 and Fred Thompson, Toronto, Buffalo and London: University of Toronto Press, 2007, pp. 446.

There is a small but dedicated community of scholars who work in the field of Canadian public administration. These researchers have produced research of outstanding interest and quality. Digital State at the Leading Edge is no exception to this rule; it is an excellent example of evidence-based research.

Brazilian Politics, Alfred P. Montero, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2005, pp. 167.

Brazil is a country of contrasts. This is one of the first, and most ubiquitous, phrases that one encounters with respect to this intriguing country. Visitors to Brazil soon echo this sentiment as they note its cultural sophistication in the arts, technological expertise in a number of industries, its vast, diverse territory, as well as its extreme economic and social disparity. It is the ninth-largest economy in the world, yet it is also one of the most inequitable; the top 1 per cent of the population retains 40 per cent of the country's wealth (5). It is fitting then that this reality provides the integrative theme in Alfred Montero's primer on Brazilian politics. The topic is first introduced with an effective depiction of Brazilian president “Lula” da Silva as he struggles to bridge competing social and economic imperatives when he attends the World Social Forum held at Porto Alegre, Brazil, and the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland. The text concludes with an observation that the president's adoption of a pragmatic agenda in order to secure economic growth through global markets will not adequately satisfy the desperate and immediate need for social reform where millions suffer and comparatively few prosper. Montero asserts that the root of this misery can be traced to the state's historic pattern of clientelistic politics, oligarchical rule and bureaucratic-authoritarianism (25).

De la démocratie au Québec 1940–1970. Anthologie des débats autour de l'idée de démocratie de la Seconde Guerre mondiale à la Crise d'octobre, Lévesque, Michel (avec la collaboration de Lucie Blanchet), Montréal : Lux Éditeur, 2005, xxxvi, 338 pages.

La réflexion théorique et les débats idéologiques entourant la notion de démocratie ne sont pas près de s'épuiser. Il s'agit d'un thème important, sinon central, dans nos sociétés libérales, qui ne perd jamais de son actualité. La littérature contemporaine en philosophie politique, ainsi que les études comparées des politiques canadienne et québécoise, abordent régulièrement le thème de la démocratie, des conditions de sa réalisation et des mécanismes institutionnels qui lui donnent corps. L'ouvrage de Michel Lévesque nous rappelle que les enjeux idéologiques qui y sont associés ont aussi fait l'objet de réflexions et de débats au Québec entre 1940 et 1970. La lecture de ces textes illustre bien le fait que la démocratie se présente toujours comme un idéal à réaliser, mais surtout que les évaluations que l'on peut en faire sont en grande partie déterminées par le contexte historique. Michel Lévesque note “ une tendance manifeste chez plusieurs auteurs à présenter leur présupposés comme des vérités établies en s'appuyant sur une interprétation empirique de l'histoire en lieu et place d'analyses approfondies et étoffées ” (p. xxxv). Le passage du temps nous permet de réaliser la pertinence de cette remarque à la lumière des préoccupations qui dominaient au milieu du 20e siècle au Québec et au Canada. Toutefois, il pourrait tout aussi bien s'agir d'un rappel méthodologique à l'endroit des jugements qui sont posés aujourd'hui sur l'état de la démocratie canadienne et québécoise.

Suicide Terrorism, Ami Pedahzur, Cambridge: Polity, 2005, pp. 264.

With the issue of terrorism continuing to dominate media reports, there are renewed calls for a better understanding of the most deadly weapon employed by these organizations: suicide bombing. Ami Pedahzur, in his book Suicide Terrorism, successfully meets this challenge head on. It has long been accepted by those who study this issue that suicide terrorism has been a potent tool both for making grandiose public statements and as a means of engaging militarily superior opponents or difficult targets. Pedahzur outlines various methods, including historical tracing and the analysis of case studies, to further the understanding of this issue as well as the academic debate which surrounds it.

Political Culture and Institutional Development in Costa Rica and Nicaragua: World-Making in the Tropics, Consuelo Cruz, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp. 281.

Political Culture and Institutional Development is a groundbreaking historical analysis that seeks to understand the role of political culture, rhetorical discourses and identity formation in explaining the divergent dynamics of democratic development in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. In the same critical vein through which Jeffery Paige, Edelberto Torres, Deborah Yashar, and Andres Perez-Baltodano—each from different theoretical perspectives—have sought to discern the contrasting dynamic of polities' formation in Central America, Cruz advances an integrative, in-depth study nurtured by “elements of rationalist, structural and cultural theories” (1).

Construire le politique. Contingence, causalité et connaissance dans la science politique contemporaine, Laurent McFalls (avec la collaboration de Nicolas Liorzou, Julie Perreault et Anca Mot), Presses de l'Université Laval, 2006, 319 pages.

Il y aura toujours un risque à encourir dans la préparation d'un manuel dont l'ambition est de présenter l'unité d'une discipline dont la convergence n'est souvent qu'artificielle ou institutionnelle. Très au fait de ce risque, Laurent McFalls précise d'emblée que, la plupart du temps, les manuels proposent “ un tour d'horizon plus ou moins superficiel et aléatoire ” (p. xiv) ou versent dans le dogme brutal du “ il y a ” (il y a des idéologies, il y a des problèmes politiques, il y a des théories des relations internationales) sans égard à la construction épistémologique de cette “ réalité ”. Dans Construire le politique. Contingence, causalité et connaissance dans la science politique contemporaine, McFalls et son équipe relèvent le défi imposé par une synthèse désireuse d'éviter ce pragmatisme qui dissimule davantage qu'il ne révèle, pour inviter le lecteur à une réflexion épistémologique et philosophique sur les présupposés d'une discipline dont le pluralisme engendre certainement une science saine, à défaut d'un gai savoir.

Clan Politics and Regime Transition in Central Asia, Kathleen Collins, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006, pp. 376.

The long isolation of Central Asia finally ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Five new independent states emerged from the ashes of the Soviet Union, the very first time in history that the peoples of Central Asia gained their own independent states modelled on the modern state. This development caught the world, including Central Asians themselves, by surprise. It changed the geopolitics of the entire Eurasia. In the ensuing years, the Central Asian republics have undergone simultaneous multiple transformations: state building; political regime transformation; and transition from Soviet communism. Thus the new states in Central Asia have provided scholars with new cases of multiple economic and political transitions to study and compare. In recent years, there has been a significant proliferation of English-language publications on Central Asia. Kathleen Collin's book, a comparative historical study of political development in Central Asia, is a major contribution. While its focus is on Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, it often provides examples from the other two Central Asian republics, namely Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. It is thoroughly researched and rich in information and details. It also makes a significant contribution to the political science literature on democratization, regime transition and consolidation.

Women and Politics in Chile, Susan Franceschet, Boulder CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2005, pp. x, 203.

The Pinochet dictatorship in Chile (1973–1990) was marked by a high degree of women's activism focusing on human rights, economic survival and feminism. Many women expected that their active role during the dictatorship would lead to a new way of doing politics and greater inclusion of women in the political process once democracy was restored. But despite the recent election of Michelle Bachelet as president of Chile, Chilean women continue to be vastly underrepresented in political party leadership and elected office. In this clearly written and cogently argued book, Susan Franceschet addresses the important question of the marginalization of women from Chilean politics under democracy.

Norms of Liberty: A Perfectionist Basis for Non-Perfectionist Politics, Douglas B. Rasmussen and Douglas J. Den Uyl, University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2005, pp. xviii, 358.

As the sub-title here suggests, Rasmussen and Den Uyl seek to defend a liberalism that does not shy away from deep moral commitments. Instead they seek one with a “robust moral framework,” one that rejects “the claim that … liberalism is necessarily connected to moral minimalism or skepticism” (15). As they point out, this is not an especially new idea, and indeed much of their argument for a more philosophically invested liberalism is in general sympathy with the vision Mill articulated 150 years ago. (They happily go back even further, to Spinoza.)

Political Thought in Canada: An Intellectual History, Katherine Fierlbeck, Peterborough ON: Broadview Press, 2006, pp. 178.

Katherine Fierlbeck's project to provide “a brief exegesis of some of the more important political and philosophical debates in Canada's history” (6) is a difficult one, as she herself notes, because the criteria for determining which thinkers and ideas to include are contested. Fierlbeck selects a rich range of well known and under-theorized thinkers and, more importantly, she historicizes the links between political ideas and events so as to contextualize the development of political thought. Although she recognizes that there is no single school of Canadian thought, the unifying theme of the book is that of national identity.

Political Parties and Political Systems: The Concept of Linkage Revisited, Andrea Römmele, David M. Farrell, Piero Ignazi, eds., Westport CN: Praeger/Greenwood, 2005, pp. x, 181.

This is a book of nine short essays that develop and extend the ideas of linkage theory. The nature of the relationship between citizens and the state, through political parties and other organizations, has been a focus of study in a range of democratic regimes at least since de Tocqueville. Kay Lawson has dedicated a career to the study and classification of linkage relationships and to developing theories about how citizens and subjects are linked to the state. Lawson's best-known works included The Comparative Study of Political Parties (1976), Political Parties and Linkage: A Comparative Perspective (1980), When Parties Fail: Emerging Alternative Organizations (co-edited with Peter H. Merkl, 1988), and How Political Parties Work: Perspectives from Within (1994).. This volume does not claim to be a festschrift but it celebrates, applies and extends her work.

Discourses of Denial: Mediations of Race, Gender, and Violence, Yasmin Jiwani, Vancouver: UBC Press, 2006, pp. viii, 255.

At first glance many political scientists may not see Discourse of Denial as an intervention that speaks to their discipline. After all, Jiwani's examination of racism, sexism and violence in Canada is explicitly directed to those who traverse multiple and interdisciplinary boundaries, racialized young women and immigrant women, front-line feminist anti-violence, anti-racist and anti-poverty activists, as well as policy makers. However, political scientists can gain much from this persuasively argued, methodologically diverse, innovative and well-researched book. Jiwani addresses how certain institutions—in particular, the dominant media—serve to “mediate” violence. Mediations involve discursive strategies that give recognition to certain expressions of violence and completely erase others, especially racism. Since political scientists frequently rely on the media in their research and teaching, and serve as media commentators as part of their community service, there is much here that is thought-provoking.

La comparaison dans les sciences sociales : pratiques et méthodes, Vigour, Cécile, Paris, La découverte, 2005, 335 pages.

Cet ouvrage, rédigé par une sociologue française rattachée à l'Institut des sciences sociales du politique (une unité du CNRS), se présente comme un “ guide repère ” sur la comparaison en sciences sociales.