Showing papers in "Canadian Journal of Political Science in 1995"

Attentes économiques et linguistiques et appui à la souveraineté du Québec: une analyse prospective et comparative

Abstract: Why are Quebeckers favourably disposed or opposed to sovereignty? This choice partly depends upon the prospective evaluation of the costs and benefits of sovereignty and federalism. What are the relative contributions of economic and linguistic expectations in this choice? Does the impact of these expectations vary according to the time horizon in which they are set? The authors approach these questions from the perspective of the economic theory of voting and with the help of original measures of the determinants of support for sovereignty. They compare expectations of what would occur to the economy and to the French language were Quebec to become a sovereign country with expectations of what would occur if Quebec remained a province of Canada. These measures are taken from a survey of university students. Our logistic regression analysis shows that the implicit calculation of costs and benefits plays a significant role in the choice between sovereignty and federalism, and that economic expectations influence the formation of opinion to a somewhat greater degree than do linguistic expectations. Moreover, medium-term expectations are more important than short-term economic expectations and more important than long-term expectations about the situation of the French language in Quebec.

Referendum Voting: Attitudes and Behaviour in the 1992 Constitutional Referendum*

Abstract: Referendums are rare events in most parliamentary democracies, and when they do occur they present an analytical puzzle. Are they such unusual events that they fall outside of the theoretical frameworks familiar to students of elections? Or, even though they enter political life infrequently, can they be understood as something not entirely foreign to our thinking about electoral politics? Here, we argue that voting in referendums such as the constitutional referendum of October 26, 1992 is driven by many of the same factors that are present in elections—parties, leaders, issues, a campaign timetable, the interplay between long- and short-term forces and the dynamic of the campaign itself. In spite of their unique features, referendums can be understood in terms of models of voting behaviour familiar to students of elections in Canada and elsewhere. But, devoid of some of the long-term partisan and social anchors which play a role in elections, their outcome is even more dependent on the short-term elements of the campaign. As such, referendums are subject to greater volatility and uncertainty than that typically found in ordinary parliamentary elections.

The New World Order and the General Assembly: Bloc Realignment at the UN in the Post-Cold War World

Abstract: The demise of the Cold War and greater cooperation among the Security Council's permanent members have created a situation frequently characterized as a New World Order at the United Nations. This study examines whether that characterization can also be applied to the politics of the UN General Assembly. Using descriptive analysis of roll-call votes, the authors find that recent sessions, and in particular the 46th session, witnessed the end of a fairly stable decade of voting blocs in the General Assembly. An indicator of vote changing is developed which documents the rapid movement of the former Warsaw Pact members and Baltic states towards more western European positions. Hierarchical cluster and multidimensional scaling analyses are employed to identify the emerging voting alliances. The results suggest that the accommodation has not been as widespread in the General Assembly and that our longstanding conceptualizations of east/west/north/south polarizations are in need of revision.

Gains linguistiques anticipés et appui à la souveraineté du Québec

Abstract: This article compares various indicators in order to establish the weight of linguistic considerations in the constitutional choices of francophone Quebeckers. This comparison is made within a model which also takes into account the respondents' feelings of attachment to Quebec and Canada and their expectations of sovereignty's economic consequences. The results show that an adequate measure of the expected linguistic gains associated with sovereignty must take into account both the comparative and prospective dimensions of these expectations. The use of one such measure confirms the often-stated but previously unproven thesis that linguistic considerations play a crucial role in Quebeckers' constitutional choices.

The Party Agenda Model: Election Programmes and Government Spending in Canada*

Abstract: How important and useful are pre-election stances by political parties in projecting the policies enacted by the government after an election? Can voters rely upon prior campaign pronouncements as accurate predictors of the policies to come, or are party programmes only a charade aimed at confusing the stakes? This article examines how government actions have matched the content of federal party programmes over the past 40 years; it does not purport to explain government actions or to explore how the nuances of party programmes have been translated into government actions. Instead, the objective is to analyze how variations in party programme emphases in a number of policy areas have corresponded to changes in subsequent government expenditures in the same policy areas. Expenditure priorities are measured as percentages of total government outlays devoted to each of 12 substantive categories. The content of all election programmes by the Progressive Conservative, Liberal and New Democratic (NDP) parties' is measured by assigning each sentence in a programme to one and only one of the 12 policy categories used to record spending priorities. The actual figures used in the analysis are standardized for obvious variations in the length of the programmatic sources. The relationship between programmatic emphases and expendi

Rational Deterrence Theory Revisited: A Progress Report

Abstract: Progress in the debate over rational deterrence has always depended on the ability of scholars to identify a body of evidence that would be appropriate for testing a wide range of propositions derived from the theory. Notwithstanding the tremendous amount of time and energy spent on producing a suitable list of cases, and several noteworthy surveys of the literature, cumulative knowledge about deterrence, both as a theory and as a strategy, remains elusive. It still is unclear whether decision makers have acted according to the logic derived from standard applications of the theory. Moreover, the most prominent testing strategy, originally designed by Paul Huth and Bruce Russett, and later criticized and revised by Richard Ned Lebow and Janice Gross Stein, continues to be plagued by ongoing disputes over methods and case listings. Although debates over the accuracy of historical accounts are constructive, lingering divisions over coding of deterrence successes and failures have become counterproductive, primarily because each side has produced evidence to support their interpretation of events. Very little effort, by comparison, has been directed towards (a) developing alternative testing strategies that lie outside the success/failure framework, or (b) looking at a wider range of propositions derived from the theory. This analysis attempts the task, analyzing in the aggregate 28 cases of superpower rivalry.

The Role of Public Consultation in Shaping the Canadian Broadcasting System

Abstract: Canadian broadcasting is characterized by a tradition of public debate over policy issues that takes place through a range of formal and less formal consultation mechanisms. In a study of the broadcasting policy review process of 1985-1991, the transparency of public debate was seen to be essential in giving access to social groups who would otherwise have little influence on the process. Resume. La radiodiffusion canadienne se distingue par une tradition de d6bat public a propos des enjeux politiques, qui se d6roule a travers une gamme de m6canismes formels et informels de consultation. Lors d'une 6tude du processus de r6vision de la politique f6d6rale de la radiodiffusion qui a eu lieu entre 1985 et 1991, il est apparu que la transparence du d6bat public fut un 616ment essentiel d'acc s pour les groupes sociaux qui, en son absence, auraient eu peu d'influence sur ce processus. The government's other major objective, "national reconciliation," was also reflected in broadcasting policy proposals, which recognized the distinctiveness of French-language broadcasting and softened the requirement that the CBC promote Canadian national unity. Ironically, during the constitutional calm of the 1985-1990 period, there was virtually no contention surrounding the proposals dealing with language and national purpose. In the hotter climate of 1990-1991, however, these issues re-emerged and even dominated the debate in the final stages leading to adoption of the Act, as opposition MPs accused Prime Minister Brian Mulroney's government of "Meeching" the broadcasting system by acknowledging different conditions and requirements for Frenchand English-language broadcasting, and labelled then Minister of Communications Marcel Masse, a Quebec "separatist." But the new policy makes broadcasting a virtual operational model for the "distinct society." The fact that the policy review took place during the latter half of the 1980s, following the adoption of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982, brought a range of social issues onto the agenda and, ultimately, into broadcasting legislation. The specific rights of women, ethnic groups, first nations and persons with disabilities were enshrined in the new Act after much discussion. In this area particularly, as we shall see, the process produced tangible results-at least in the formal policy texts of Canada's broadcasting policy. In general, groups from the social sector made the case for considering broadcasting a basic public service, and this fundamental principle was written into the Act. Finally, politics surrounded the question of who was to control the levers of policy development, the government or the CRTC. After 15 years and several failed legislative attempts at reining in this behemoth of its own creation, the government succeeded in including in the new Act a "power of direction" authorizing it to instruct the CRTC on matters of general policy orientation, a power first used four years later on policy respecting direct satellite-to-home broadcasting. In certain respects, the outcome of the policy review process was a win-win situation, with all major players registering substantial gains. This was unquestionably the result of the mechanics of the proThis content downloaded from 157.55.39.217 on Mon, 18 Apr 2016 07:26:06 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms

North American Integration and International Relations Theory

Abstract: Although North American integration has been the topic of heated public debate, it has not yet received adequate theoretical attention from the field of international relations. This article reviews the movement to codify North American integration, and explores the implications for integration and international relations theory. The first section reviews the intellectual history of integration theory as it developed in the European context. The second considers the North American experience of codifying integration, 1982–1994. The third part returns to integration theory and international relations, offering some amendments and suggestions considering the North American experience. The article argues that the clearest understanding of regional integration in the 1990s can be achieved through an approach which stresses developments in the global political economy as catalysts for change, and looks to national and transnational institutions and social forces to explain variations in integration projects. Because other international relations theories such as neofunctionalism and interstate bargaining are unable to integrate these levels of analysis, they offer an incomplete view of present dynamics.

Critical Citizenship and Civil Society in Contemporary China

Abstract: In this investigation of civil society in China, the authors develop a new concept: “critical citizenship,” defined as the propensity of citizens to discriminate in their support for the political community, the regime and the authorities. Critical citizenship is employed to indicate the presence of civil society in contemporary China. Using survey data gathered throughout China by Min Qi, the authors test hypotheses about the propensity of Chinese citizens toward critical citizenship. They conclude that the Chinese indeed discriminate in their support for the three objects of political attention, and that youth are particularly likely to manifest critical citizenship.

The Struggle over The Valour and the Horror: Media Power and the Portrayal of War*

Abstract: The Valour and the Horror is a series of three documentary films describing Canadian participation during the Second World War which were aired by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in 1992. The series aggressively challenged “official” war history, arguing that while ordinary soldiers served with dignity and bravery, the incompetence and immorality of senior British and Canadian commanders produced terrible blunders and losses and grotesque assaults against civilian populations in Germany. This article analyzes the controversy that surrounded the series, a controversy that mushroomed into a political struggle over who had the right to control “memory” and who had the right to produce and interpret “reality.” The struggle produced a Senate subcommittee investigation, placed the CBC under intense pressure and scrutiny and evoked strong reactions from veterans' groups and the journalistic and artistic communities. Three frameworks are used to assess the forces that contend against each other in media production: the hegemonic view (that the media celebrate and reinforce the dominant interests in society); the organizational or institutional perspective (that media organizations pursue their own interests even if these interests do not necessarily coincide with those of other dominant groups in society); and the journalist-centred framework (that journalists as professionals exercise considerable discretion over their own work). The article suggests that each of these perspectives can provide valuable insights, but that each by itself fails to provide a satisfactory explanation for the events. By utilizing multiple perspectives for the analysis, a wider range of questions is addressed.

The Problem of Dirty Hands in Politics: Peace in the Vegetable Trade*

Abstract: Most treatments of the problem of dirty hands in politics assume that merely holding a position of great political power will require a political actor to violate important moral standards. They assume that the successful political leader must inevitably be morally corrupted by the iniquitous choices that must inevitably be made, and, further, that this casts a shadow upon political life as a moral enterprise. This article argues, instead, that the conventional dirty hands problem is not particularly significant and that a much more serious test of the moral quality of public life in a given polity is how it makes its arrangements for formal public retrospection upon and judgment of the inevitable episodes of unwise, intemperate or immoral political action by leaders. In short, it is the deliberate corruption of democracy that should attract our scrutiny, not the condition of the soul of the supra-ethical or maverick leader.

Bagehot, the Crown and the Canadian Constitution

Abstract: Through his writings, Walter Bagehot gave order and meaning to the institutions of parliamentary government. The English Constitution (1867) acknowledges the Crown as centrepiece but relegates it to the category of symbol. Institutions, Bagehot said, were “dignified” or “efficient” according to their constitutional function, and the Crown was the apotheosis of a dignified element. By contrast, the author argues that the Crown is an integral part of a practical form of government in Canada, and advances as proof three areas of Crown influence: representation, information and participation. The discussion concludes by noting the relevance of the Crown for the study of Canadian federalism.

Political Leadership and Liberal Economic Subsystems: The Constraints of Structural Assumptions *

Abstract: Theories of hegemonic leadership often begin with a constraining assumption: that international structure can explain both a state's capability to provide leadership and its interest in doing so. By conflating these explanations, traditional theories, even those from quite different approaches, share common problems. These problems are illustrated by examining three well-known models, and comparing their applications to the eighteenth century. This period provides difficult cases for all three, since countries with power did not provide political or economic leadership, and those which were attempting to provide leadership were not powerful. An alternative theory of leadership is then offered, using structural factors to explain capabilities, but domestic political economic factors to explain interests. The ability of this model to handle the historical cases with greater accuracy suggests that domestic factors could offer fresh insight into theories of leadership.

The Dynamic of Secessions: Scenarios after a Pro-Separatist Vote in a Quebec Referendum

Abstract: Vancouver: Fraser Institute, 1994, pp. x, 217 The Secession of Quebec and the Future of Canada Robert A. Young Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press with the Institute of Intergovernmental Relations, 1995, pp. xiv, 376 1 Robert Young, The Secession of Quebec and the Future of Canada (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press with the Institute of Intergovernmental Relations, 1995), 89.

Selling the Goods and Services Tax: Government Advertising and Public Discourse in Canada

Abstract: This note examines the Canadian federal government's attempts to use communication programmes to influence public opinion toward the Goods and Services Tax (GST). Using internal government documents and polling data, the authors describe the scope and objectives of the GST campaign, and assess its effectiveness in shaping public opinion. They then describe some of the weaknesses in popular discourse about the propriety of communication programmes of this kind.

New Forms of Political Representation: European Ecological Politics and the Montreal Citizen's Movement

Abstract: In his examinations of the ecological parties of Belgium and West Germany, Herbert Kitschelt argues that he has found a new form of political representation that defies patterns of behaviour outlined for political parties by all previous scholarly work. These parties, which Kitschelt calls "left-libertarian," are unique because they lack the organizational structures common to traditional parties, and include in their membership constituencies that are normally more comfortable in social movements. This article compares the political platforms of these parties and the sociological characteristics of their activists with those of the Montreal Citizen's Movement (MCM) and concludes that the MCM is indeed a left-libertarian party. However, an examination of the MCM reveals that although Kitschelt has found a new form of political representation in the left-libertarian party, this new form does not actually defy the developmental patterns outlined by the classical studies of political parties. Resume. Herbert Kitschelt a d6montr6 par ses etudes des partis 6cologistes de Belgique et d'Allemagne de l'Ouest qu'il existe maintenant de nouvelles formes de repr6sentation politique qui ne ressemblent en rien au type de comportement organisationnel g6n6ralement identifi6 par la litt6rature qui fait autorit6 e l'6gard des partis politiques. Ces partis, que Kitschelt qualifie de >, sont uniques en ce qu'ils n'affichent pas les structures organisationnelles que l'on retrouve g6n6ralement dans les partis traditionnels et s'appuient sur des effectifs qui s'identifient plus volontiers aux mouvements sociaux. Cet article compare les programmes politiques de ces partis et les caracteristiques sociologiques de leurs militants avec ceux du Rassemblement des citoyens de Montreal (RCM). Il conclut que le RCM s'apparente en effet ' un parti libertaire de gauche. Toutefois, bien que Kitschelt ait associ6 le parti libertaire de gauche typique a l'6mergence de nouvelles formes de repr6sentation, un examen attentif du RCM r6vele que ces nouvelles formes ne remettent pas n6cessairement en question le mode de d6veloppement organisationnel mis en relief par les etudes classiques des partis politiques. and with interest groups, a process over which voters have no control. They feel that while the Keynesian welfare state has muted class conflict, its institutions have given rise to new problems resulting from a crisis of political participation.5 As a consequence of the fact that they perceive an interdependence between the political form and the substance of policy making, leftlibertarian parties and their supporters try to enact new models of citizen mobilization that they hope will provide a more decentralized, participatory society which places less emphasis on economic competition and growth. Because members of this constituency have tended to engage in protest movements and in loose alliances of egalitarian organizations, with little hierarchy or formalized decision-making procedures, they have built their parties in the same mode.6 Kitschelt notes, however, that most conventional thinking on party organizations sees little hope for the development of new organizational forms and strategies. Weber, Downs and Duverger were all mesmerized by the role of electoral competition, and saw it as the final determinant of party behaviour. Such analyses argue that it is virtually inevitable that innovative parties will eventually succumb to the logic of electoral competition, and will adopt the organizational patterns of their more "effi-