All federal systems of government have been subjected to severe strain in recent years. It is not Canada alone that has felt the onslaught of economic and social change. The German federation went down before the Nazi tidal wave. The Australian federation was hard put to it to weather its difficulties in the early thirties. The United States of America, the greatest of them all, has been through continuous rack and strain in the past decade. What the permanent ravages of depression and the New Deal on the federal structure will be is as yet far from clear. The devices of navigation to which the national and state governments have been driven are described by some as the rise of a new federalism to meet the challenge of new conditions and by others as the destruction of the independence of the states. Observers in the other countries concerned are equally at variance in their interpretations, except, of course, in Germany where the results are fairly conclusive. There have been so many bad guesses in predicting political trends in the past few years that the prudent will hesitate to lay bets. But the nature of the predicament which generates strain in federal systems has become sufficiently clear that the main elements can be outlined with some confidence.

To illuminate the debate about the traditional role of the state in Quebec, the article suggests Quebec's traditional political culture prior to the Quiet Revolution was shaped by the “dialectic of patronage.” Economic need encouraged Québécois to exploit the political process for advancement. The resulting preoccupation of the political process with patronage prompted two contradictory impulses—devotion to, yet suspicion of, the political process—and efforts to insulate “government” from “politics.” This perspective helps to reveal the thematic and chronological continuities in Quebec history, to illuminate the Quiet Revolution, and to evaluate competing theories of Quebec's social evolution.

It is no longer in style to develop typologies of political regimes based on their party systems. Systematic studies today are interested in parties only in terms of their role in the functioning of the political system as a whole. No doubt it is an insoluble problem to determine whether parties and the party system are variables which are independent or dependent in relation to the political system. Besides, without being able to rule out a relationship of interdependence, the two terms display a certain degree of independence and are not in a relationship of co-variance. Thus it is that the political system is shaped to a certain extent by the opposition of the parties to the system, the parties in turn having been conditioned by three other kinds of forces.

The problem of specifying the functions of parties remains a central one, even though there is much confusion in the use of the language of functionalism. It is therefore important to clarify the notion of the functions of political parties. If one defines the political system as a set of processes and mechanisms which bring about the convergence or neutralization of irresistible social pluralisms without exploding the balance of these pluralist forces, then one can distinguish three functional requirements: (1) the legitimation-stabilization function; (2) the tribunician function (integration or neutralization of centrifugal forces); (3) the function of providing governmental alternatives.

Where there is interaction between parties and the political system, one can discern an aspect of non-dependence between the two terms. In the first place, the parties (and not only the anti-system or revolutionary parties) do not develop solely in accordance with their relationship to the political system. Secondly, the system too has a certain degree of self-determination, even when confronted with anti-system parties.

The literature on Canadian Foreign Policy has often been characterized as overly descriptive and theoretically weak. This type of characterization, advanced most recently by Maureen Molot, is no longer wholly accurate. By reviewing several relatively recent contributions and debates in this literature, it is demonstrated that in pockets, the subfield has advanced substantially in theoretical sophistication. Nevertheless, it continues to manifest important gaps and limited cumulation. The article speculates on why this should be so, and on how the theoretical condition of the subfield can be advanced. Approaches which incorporate the interplay of internal and external influences on policy, which borrow from important developments in the wider fields of International Relations and Comparative Politics, and which engage in comparison across issue-areas, countries and time are advocated. Applications drawing on “historical materialist,” regime, and epistemic community literatures are specifically promoted.

Who runs and is elected is one of the most fundamental questions in political science as it pertains to the issue of descriptive representation. Despite the importance of this issue, until recently there were no longitudinal datasets on candidates in Canadian elections. This article presents two novel datasets including information on all candidates who ran in Canadian federal and Ontario provincial elections from 1867 to 2019. I present how these data were collected and how they can be used to gain new insights. I expect these data will be a valuable resource to Canadian political scientists for both research and teaching purposes.

Research on the political preferences of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) voters shows that they are more progressive than heterosexuals. However, few studies consider differences between heterosexual, gay/lesbian, and bisexual men and women. Furthermore, little is known about how these preferences have changed as society has become more accepting of diverse sexualities. We offer an analysis of Canadian LGB voters’ political preferences a decade and a half after same-sex marriage was legalized. Consistent with prior research, we find that gay men, and, to a lesser extent, bisexual men, are more left-wing than heterosexual men. A more novel finding is that bisexual women are the most left-wing group. Lesbian women are only slightly to the left of heterosexual women. While left-wing bisexual women are growing in number, the overall gap between LGB and heterosexual voters has remained stable across generations, because marriage narrows some of the preference gaps.

According to Hayek the rule of law constitutes the foundation of liberalism's political and legal theory. General and abstract laws, as opposed to concrete measures, protect individual freedom from prerogative and arbitrariness (normativism versus decisionism). Hayek maintains that Carl Schmitt's decisionism explains his attacks on liberalism and the prominent role he played in support of Hitler's regime. Two general observations should shorten the distance that Hayek seeks to establish between his posture and that of Schmitt. Firstly, Schmitt's critique is primarily aimed against the tendency that neutralizes the state and makes it vulnerable to democratic pressures. Secondly, Hayek's normativism is seen to contain a decisionist potential.

Identifying the effect of macro-economic performance on levels of partisan support in Canada has attracted considerable attention. Findings in Canada, as elsewhere, often diverge depending upon whether aggregate or individual-level data are used. This study employs individual-level data from 1974 to 1984 to examine the effect of changes in unemployment and inflation on support for the various parties. Controlling for partisan and leader effects, we find that the electoral effect of inflation and unemployment is highly variable over time, and is in an unstable partisan direction. Indeed, at times the partisan effect was perverse.

In their much-quoted typology of Western media systems, Hallin and Mancini (2004) associate Canada's media system with what they call the “Liberal model,” given its strong professionalization and limited politicization. They also hypothesize the existence of a more professional and more politicized media subsystem in Quebec. This article tests their hypothesis with data from a 2018 survey of 209 experts across Canada. The findings do not support the hypothesis of a media subsystem in Quebec. However, they show a diversity of ideological and political orientations among news media organizations, which has important empirical and theoretical implications for the study of political communication in Canada.

Abstract. Over the last few decades, non-territorial forms of national self-government have attracted increasing interest in political science, especially in the guise of national cultural autonomy. National cultural autonomy is a model of self-government that was pioneered by Austrian theorists and politicians Karl Renner and Otto Bauer in the waning days of the Habsburg Empire, yet was never implemented in Austria–Hungary. This paper will examine some of the problems and possibilities that may attend a transfer of national cultural autonomy as a model of self-government into Canadian political discourse, especially as regards Quebec nationalism, Francophone communities outside Quebec, Anglophone Quebecers, self-government for Aboriginal peoples, and political values in English-speaking Canada.

Résumé. Au cours des dernières décennies, les formes non territoriales d'autonomie gouvernementale nationale ont fait l'objet d'un intérêt croissant en science politique, en particulier le concept de l'autonomie culturelle nationale. L'autonomie culturelle nationale est un modèle autonomiste développé par les théoriciens et politiciens autrichiens Karl Renner et Otto Bauer lors du déclin de l'Empire habsbourgeois, mais qui ne fut jamais mis en place dans l'Empire austro-hongrois. Cet article examinera quelques-uns des problèmes et quelques-unes des possibilités qui pourraient émerger d'un transfert de ce modèle dans le discours politique canadien sur l'autonomie gouvernementale, en particulier en ce qui a trait au nationalisme québécois, aux communautés francophones situées à l'extérieur du Québec, aux Québécois anglophones, à l'autonomie gouvernementale des peuples autochtones et aux valeurs politiques du Canada anglais.

Abstract. Do differences in levels of political information affect the vote calculus? Do differences in the decision process along informational divides affect vote choice? Using data from the 2004 Canadian Election Study this research tests the influence of political information on both the vote decision process and incumbent vote shares through a series of analyses that compare actual and simulated behaviour across information levels. The proposition being tested contends that information heterogeneity produces differences in the vote calculus that in turn lead to systematic and significant variation in vote choice. The results suggest that information does indeed affect the decision calculus and outcome, but not necessarily as one might expect.

Résumé. Le niveau d'information politique des électeurs a-t-il une incidence sur leur vote? Les différences dans le processus décisionnel associées au niveau d'information influent-elles sur les électeurs? Grâce aux données tirées de l'édition 2004 de l'Étude électorale canadienne et à une série d'estimations et de simulations statistiques, cet article propose de tester l'influence du niveau d'information politique sur le processus décisionnel des électeurs et sur le soutien accordé aux urnes au parti sortant. La proposition testée ici stipule que la présence d'hétérogénéité dans l'information politique des électeurs influe sur leurs mécanismes de décision, ce qui entraîne une variation systématique et significative dans le choix du vote. Les résultats suggèrent que l'information politique a une incidence sur le processus décisionnel des électeurs et sur leur vote, bien que cet impact n'aille pas nécessairement dans le sens attendu.

This article discusses difficulties in recent works advocating differentiated rights for ethnic groups based on the vulnerability of their cultures. Concentrating on the recent works of Will Kymlicka, the author suggests that such culturalist theories are based on an anachronistic vision of the relation between ethnos and culture and underestimate the depth and extent of the pluralism we face. The author focuses on two central difficulties. One is the tendency to overplay the contrast between the vulnerability of mainstream and minority cultural groups, overestimating the importance of ethnic institutions compared to other cultural infrastructures. The other is the problem of territory. Kymlicka's theory supports a model of ethnic hegemony over particular territories. The author suggests that in an era of densely overlapping cultures a model of ethnic hegemony over territory cannot be sustained as part of a theory which takes cultural fairness seriously. The article concludes with suggestions for an alternative perspective which might allow us to address the predicaments of culturally vulnerable individuals without incurring the difficulties that culturalism entails.

This article cautions against facilely casting Oakeshott's thought in the mold of either Kantian liberalism for its account of civil association as purely formal association to which rational individuals could consent, or Burkean liberalism for its emphasis on the continuity of general practices and traditions in diurnal politics. Oakeshott's work is then thematically summarized with an eye to showing its artfulness and originality as a synthesis of modern European individualism, providing a theoretical account of civil association which combines, without logical contradiction, the Aristotelian idea of politics as the activity of attending to the arrangements of the whole, and the liberal (and Christian) idea of the individuality of value, mediated (and made logically possible) by the Roman idea of civil obligation to the form of authority.

Abstract. This study examines the enduring claim that firms exert influence on immigration policies, prompting governments to open the doors to foreign labour. Although intuitively appealing, this claim has received little empirical support so far, the actual channels of influence from special interests to policy makers being usually opaque to public scrutiny. To address this problem, I rely upon the vector autoregression methodology and make use of fine-grained quarterly data on lobbying, skills-based immigration and temporary workers in Canada, between 1996 and 2011. A key result is the positive and robust response of temporary worker inflows to the intensity of corporate lobbying, even after accounting for labour market conditions. In contrast, there is no conclusive evidence that lobbyists carry weight when it comes to permanent migrants.

Résumé. Cette étude examine la thèse voulant que le secteur privé exerce une influence sur les politiques d'immigration, poussant les gouvernements à accroître le nombre d'immigrants. Malgré son attrait, cette thèse n'a reçu qu'un soutien empirique très limité à ce jour, notamment puisque l'influence des groupes d'intérêt s'exerce souvent à huis clos. Afin de surmonter ce problème, je recours à la méthode des vecteurs autorégressifs et utilise des données trimestrielles détaillées sur le lobbying, l'immigration économique et les travailleurs temporaires au Canada entre 1996 et 2011. Un résultat clé est la réponse positive des influx de travailleurs temporaires à l'intensité du lobbying des entreprises, même après avoir pris en compte les conditions du marché du travail. En comparaison, la conclusion que les lobbyistes influencent les niveaux d'immigration permanente apparaît peu robuste.

This article documents an ethnographic case study designed to provide deeper insight into the manifestation of political opinion in the rural areas of Alberta, Canada. Employing “a method of listening,” the study demonstrates that rural Albertans, like rural Americans, are feeling politically alienated and angry in ways that go beyond ideological preference, age or income level. In fact, the grievances unveiled in this study are connected directly to key aspects of their social identites: to thier sense of belonging as Albertans, as “ordinary citizens” and as explicitly rural. Importantly, these forms of alienation are often experienced as being layered, frequently melting into each other and strongly informing both these citizens’ strong support for anti-establishment politics and the rather negative fashion in which they interpret the plight of newcomers to Canada and of Indigenous Canadians.

This article offers an improved understanding of the often-neglected religious cleavage in Canada. Using data from the 1988 Canadian Election Study, the authors examine the questions of voting intentions, opinion on abortion, support for unions and support for military spending. This article first shows that Roman Catholics have different opinions on these questions than Protestants, but that these differences disappear as Catholics' exposure to the news media increases. The authors also demonstrate that the more religious the Catholics, the more resistant they are to media messages. The largest differences between Catholics and Protestants are thus found between regular churchgoers with low media exposure, while the smallest differences are found between heavily exposed non-practisers.

The Canadian Constitution contains several distinctive rights not found in the United States Constitution. Indeed, the collective and community-based rights Canadians take for granted are inimical to American liberal traditions. Negative rights or interpretive provisions, such as the non obstante clause, are unique to Canada among Western democracies. The author argues that these rights derive from the country's historical concerns with religious and linguistic communities—especially in Quebec—and that they in turn condition how politics must be conducted in Canada.

The construction of national survey samples in Canada involves a number of theoretical and practical problems that range well beyond purely statistical considerations. Sample sizes for instance will tend to be large in comparison with those employed in many other nations not for greater accuracy but primarily because of the sheer diversity and geographical dispersion of the Canadian population. Likewise, the high cost of survey research at the national level in Canada virtually dictates that substantial efforts be made to achieve an “optimum” design for any single study. The purpose of this note therefore is to outline in brief the several considerations which underlay the design of a national sample for the post-election survey which will be carried out under our direction following the federal election of July 1974. It is offered as a commentary on the steps that were taken to provide a sample design consistent with the research focus of the project. The design has a number of important implications for both primary and secondary analysis of what will be the third national election study to be carried out in Canada. Each of these studies has followed particular theoretical interests, in all cases having important implications for potential use of the data set by other analysts.

This study examines the retrospective economic voting model for Canadian federal elections, 1930 through 1979. The analysis shows that change in personal or disposable income has a significant, direct impact on incumbency voting while inflation enters the voting calculus indirectly, as a (partial) deflator of nominal income, and unemployment has no effect. Disposable income is a better predictor of incumbency voting than is personal income, nominal income variables predict better than real values and variability in income performance is negatively related to incumbency voting. The study concludes that voter attribution of responsibility for income performance is focussed and specific, income stability as well as income growth are demanded through incumbency voting, and voters are affected by money illusion.