Political Parties, William Cross, The Canadian Democratic Audit series; Vancouver, UBC Press, 2004, pp. 218.

Political Parties is part of the Canadian Democratic Audit series. The expressed aim of the series is to “examine the way Canadian democracy functions” using three benchmarks, “public participation, inclusiveness and responsiveness,” with the principle output being not so much a report card but the desire to “encourage ongoing discussion of how best to fashion Canada's democratic institutions and practices well into the new century” (http://www.mta.ca/faculty/arts-letters/canadian_studies/cda/pdf/demaudit_overview_15aug.pdf). Cross's short, readable volume achieves these objectives.