Garth Stevenson

Bio: Garth Stevenson is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Politics & Nationalism. The author has an hindex of 7, co-authored 14 publications receiving 301 citations.

Perforated sovereignties and international relations : trans-sovereign contacts of subnational governments

Abstract: Preface Introduction Trans-Sovereign Contacts Among Subnational Government Quebec, United States, and France Transborder Regionalism Bibliography Index

Unfulfilled Union: Canadian Federalism and National Unity

Abstract: In "Unfulfilled Union" Garth Stevenson examines such topics as the origins and objectives of Confederation and the British North America Act of 1867, the interpretation of Canada's federal constitution by the courts, the impact of economic regionalism and Quebec nationalism, financial relations between the federal and provincial levels of government, the consequences of federalism for economic policy, the sources of federal-provincial conflicts and the means to resolve them, and the lengthy but inconclusive efforts to reform the constitution through federal-provincial agreement, particularly since Quebec's Quiet Revolution in the 1960s. Although institutional factors such as the defects of the original constitution and the sometimes questionable interpretations of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council are given due attention, Stevenson emphasizes the political economy of Canada, including its relationship with the United States, and the vitality of Quebec nationalism as the major reasons Canada has not achieved the same level of centralization and stability as other federations in the industrialized world. Originally published in 1989, "Unfulfilled Union" includes a new introduction that discusses the extensive changes that have taken place in Canadian federalism since that time.

Community Besieged: The Anglophone Minority and the Politics of Quebec

Abstract: In Community Besieged Garth Stevenson describes the unusual circumstances that allowed English-speaking Quebecers to live in virtual isolation from their francophone neighbours for almost a century after Confederation. He describes their relations with Maurice Duplessis and the Union Nationale and their ambivalent response to the Quiet Revolution. New political issues - language policy, educational reform, sovereignty, and the constitution - undermined the old system of elite accommodation in Quebec, causing conflicts between anglophones and francophones and creating a new sense of anglophone identity that transcends religious differences. The changing relations of Quebec anglophones with the major political parties, as well as the role of newer entities such as Alliance Quebec and the Equality Party, are also examined. Stevenson concludes with a look at the future of anglophones in Quebec. Based in part on interviews with more than sixty English-speaking Quebecers who have played prominent parts in Quebec's political life, Community Besieged is a comprehensive and up-to-date description of the political life of this unique minority at both the federal and provincial level.

Ex Uno Plures: Federal-Provincial Relations in Canada, 1867-1896

Abstract: Beginning with brief accounts of the origins of Confederation and the economic, social, and political characteristics of late nineteenth-century Canada, Stevenson recounts the major issues that occupied the intergovernmental agenda. Liquor regulation in Ontario, land reform in Prince Edward Island, reluctant acceptance of Confederation in Nova Scotia, chronic financial problems in Quebec, controversy over Catholic schools in New Brunswick, and the roots of Western alienation in Manitoba and British Columbia are all described in detail. Stevenson then examines the process of intergovernmental relations and the significance of particular practices and institutions such as disallowance, reservation, federal-provincial conferences, and judicial review. In the final chapter he summarizes the evolution of Canadian federalism up to 1896 and briefly relates it to the current state of Canadian federalism. Based on extensive archival research, this book will interest political scientists, historians, and anyone curious to know the background of Canada's federal crisis.

Parallel Paths: The Development of Nationalism in Ireland and Quebec

Abstract: In an innovative survey, Garth Stevenson contrasts Irish and Quebec nationalism, from British conquest to the present-day struggles for unity in Ireland and sovereignty in Quebec. Predominantly Catholic societies subjected to British conquest and partial colonization, Ireland and Quebec rebelled unsuccessfully and entered the modern era with populations divided by language and religion. Ireland failed to achieve home rule within the United Kingdom and chose armed resistance, which led to independence for most of the country at the price of partition. Quebec achieved home rule as a province within the Canadian federation, which led to a century of relative stability followed by the Quiet Revolution and the rise of an independence movement. Almost simultaneously with increased pressure for independence in Quebec, the Irish question erupted again with an armed struggle between supporters and opponents of partition in the six northern counties. "Parallel Paths" offers a provocative analysis of the parallel but contrasting histories of the development of nationalism in Ireland and Quebec.

World society and the nation-state

Abstract: The authors analyze the nation‐state as a worldwide institution constructed by worldwide cultural and associational processes, developing four main topics: (1) properties of nation‐states that result from their exogenously driven construction, including isomorphism, decoupling, and expansive structuration; (2) processes by which rationalistic world culture affects national states; (3) characteristics of world society that enhance the impact of world culture on national states and societies, including conditions favoring the diffusion of world models, expansion of world‐level associations, and rationalized scientific and professional authority; (4) dynamic features of world culture and society that generate expansion, conflict, and change, especially the statelessness of world society, legitimation of multiple levels of rationalized actors, and internal inconsistencies and contradictions.

Cross-Border Regions in Europe: Significance and Drivers of Regional Cross-Border Cooperation

Abstract: The 1990s have seen a strong surge in the number of cross-border regions all over Western and Eastern Europe. The article analyses the emergence of these local cross-border institutions in public governance by addressing their context, dimensions and causal underpinnings. First, it offers a brief background on the history of cross-border regions in Europe and related EU policies to support them. Second, it provides a conceptual definition of crossborder regions and their various forms and positions within the wider context of other transnational regional networks. Third, it analyses the empirical dimensions of European cross-border regions, including their frequency, geographic distribution and development over time. It concludes by linking cross-border regions and their various forms to institutional conditions in specific countries as well as the effects of European regional policy. It is argued that small-scale cross-border regions have flourished in particular because of their increasingly relevant role as implementation units for European regional policy in a context of multi-level governance.

Comparative Politics: Rationality, Culture, and Structure

Abstract: 1. Paradigms and pragmatism: comparative politics during the past decade Mark I. Lichbach and Alan S. Zuckerman 2. Thinking and working: discovery, explanation, and evidence in comparative politics Mark Irving Lichbach 3. Advancing explanation in comparative politics: social mechanisms, endogenous processes, and empirical rigor Alan S. Zuckerman 4. Strong theory, complex history: structure and configuration in comparative politics revisited Ira Katznelson 5. Reconsiderations of rational choice in comparative and historical analysis Margaret Levi 6. Culture in comparative political analysis Marc Ross 7. Researching the state Joel S. Migdal 8. An approach to comparative analysis, or a sub-field within a sub-field? Political economy Mark Blyth 9. The global context of comparative politics Etel Solingen 10. Comparative perspectives on contentious politics Doug McAdam, Sidney Tarrow and Charles Tilly 11. Citizenship in democratic politics: density dependence and the micro-macro divide Robert Huckfeldt 12. Macropolitics and microbehavior in comparative politics Christopher J. Anderson 13. Back to the future: endogenous institutions and comparative politics Jonathan Rodden 14. The comparative political economy of the welfare state Isabela Mares 15. Making causal claims about the effect of 'ethnicity' Kanchan Chandra.

Building Governance Institutions Across European Borders

Abstract: This paper examines cross-border co-operation (CBC) and associated cross-border regions (CBRs) emerging within the European Union (EU). It analyses both as processes of institution building utilizing recent theories of governance and networks. The discussion is organized in four parts: (1) an overview of CBC in the EU to date and a suggested theoretical framework for understanding it; (2) a specification of CBC governance institutions as an articulation of horizontal and vertical networks; (3) an outline of the interests and agendas of the main actors involved in CBC, including the EU Commission as well as local, regional and central state authorities; and (4) an assessment of CBC governance as the outcome of the aggregate effects of the institutions and actors involved. The concluding section locates CBC within the emerging EU polity, arguing that it represents an example of the building of multi-level governance networks. CBRs, although loosely articulated, are characterized as terrains for producing new transnational actors and new opportunities for existing actors.

List of publications on the economic and social history of Great Britain and Ireland published in 2007

Abstract: (The place of publication is London and the date 2007 unless otherwise stated.)