Shifting Boundaries: Aboriginal Identity, Pluralist Theory and the Politics of Self-Government, Tim Schouls., Vancouver: UBC Press 2003, pp. xiv, 224

This fine, taut contribution to the sprawling literature on Aboriginality, identity and self-government in Canada begins with a critique of what Schouls terms the “difference approach.” This approach sees the vigour of Aboriginal communal culture as fundamental to the wellbeing of Aboriginal individuals and nations, and accordingly, the retention of cultural traits as a basic goal of Aboriginal politics.

Pro-Family Politics and Fringe Parties in Canada, Chris MacKenzie, Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2005, pp. 292.

MacKenzie's title is misleading, for the major focus of the book is not pro-family parties across Canada. Rather, he uses an intensive study of a single provincial pro-family party—the Family Coalition Party of British Columbia (FCP)—as a starting point for an ambitious and successful attempt to chart the conceptual morass that lies between the literatures on social movements and political parties. He makes a strong argument that small, ideologically driven parties on either end of the ideological spectrum face two distinct sets of challenges: those of political parties and those of social movements. Understanding how this double jeopardy affects the success of what he terms party/movements is important. In this respect, the book is an important contribution to the literature on what political scientists more usually call minor parties. The second focus of the book is new right ideology in the English-speaking world, with the FCP standing in as an example of this ideology. Here, the book is shakier, as it is not clear that the FCP is representative of this ideology or that MacKenzie is entirely objective in approaching this aspect of his topic.

Advocacy Groups, Lisa Young and Joanna Everitt, Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2004, pp. xii, 174.

Advocacy Groups is one title in the Canadian Democratic Audit series. Addressing the “democratic malaise” that results from “a substantial decline in Canadians' confidence in their democratic practices and institutions,” (vii) the series “includes nine volumes examining specific areas of Canadian democratic life”; a tenth, synthetic volume “makes sense out of the different approaches and findings found in the rest of the series” (viii).

Québec : État et Société, Tome 2, Alain G. Gagnon (directeur), Montréal, Éditions Québec Amérique, 2003, pp. 588.

Le collectif Québec : État et Société, dirigé par Alain G. Gagnon, en est à sa deuxième mouture en français et publie déjà son troisième ouvrage en anglais. Le volume précédent, sorti en 1994, s'est imposé comme un incontournable pour quiconque s'intéresse aux grands débats politiques et sociaux marquant le Québec d'aujourd'hui. Signe de l'intérêt que suscitent les réflexions politiques sur le Québec à l'étranger, le tome 2, publié en français et en anglais, est également disponible en versions espagnole et portugaise. À l'instar du volume précédent, ce nouveau collectif peint un large portrait des différents enjeux qui sont au cœur de la politique québécoise actuelle, dans une perspective se voulant à la fois pédagogique et analytique. Puisqu'il est impossible de rendre justice à la totalité des vingt-deux textes du volume en quelques lignes, je me contenterai de souligner certains éléments qui, il me semble, donnent le ton à l'ensemble. Deux axes de réflexion dominent à cet égard : d'une part, si les rapports Québec-Canada occupent toujours une place importante, la “question nationale” y est d'abord abordée sous l'angle de la citoyenneté et du défi que représente, pour le projet nationaliste, la prise en compte de la profonde diversité du Québec contemporain. D'autre part, reflétant également l'évolution de l'ordre du jour politique, les défis engendrés par le processus de mondialisation occupent une place beaucoup plus significative dans ce nouveau collectif.

Citizens, Elisabeth Gidengil, André Blais, Neil Nevitte and Richard Nadeau, Vancouver, BC: UBC Press, 2004, pp. vii, 214.

Citizens is one volume in a series designed to evaluate the democratic performance of the institutions and practices affecting public decision-making in Canada. The Canadian Democratic Audit (CDA) is based on the premise that declining levels of public confidence in those institutions and anemic participation rates in political and community life dictate the need for a performance review. In Citizens, the state of democratic citizenship is evaluated according to levels of public involvement in civic and political activities, the extent to which these participatory opportunities represent social diversity, and the potential for these activities to reflect the collective interests of all Canadians. The volume also assesses reform proposals to improve public participation, inclusiveness and responsiveness.

Toward the Charter: Canadians and the Demand for a National Bill of Rights, 1929–1960, Christopher MacLennan, Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2003, pp. xii, 234.

This is an excellent and timely book, providing a review of the pivotal historical events and the actions of civil libertarians and parliamentarians that resulted in the statutory Canadian Bill of Rights in 1960. Indeed, the true value of this book is that it suggests the limited nature of the present debate on judicial power and of the tendency to see the Charter of Rights as simply an institutional dialogue between the Supreme Court and the Parliament of Canada. MacLennan's work reminds us that the entrenchment of the Charter cannot be understood without considering the historical legacy of the 1960 Canadian Bill of Rights, and the important struggles of interest groups, civil liberties organizations, academics such as F.R. Scott and members of Parliament such as John Diefenbaker, all of whom encountered strong resistance to the idea of a national bill of rights from the Liberal governments of Mackenzie King and Louis St. Laurent.

La compétence civique. Comment les citoyens informés contribuent au bon fonctionnement de la démocratie., Henry Milner., Laval : Les Presses de l'Université Laval, 2004, 388 p.

Pourquoi assiste-t-on à une crise de la participation ? Pourquoi le taux d'abstention aux élections augmente-t-il à chaque échéance électorale dans les démocraties contemporaines? Les explications avancées varient, mais le livre d'Henry Milner en suggère une nouvelle, à savoir le faible degré de connaissance civique des citoyens. L'auteur compare quinze pays industrialisés allant de l'Amérique du Nord à l'Europe occidentale en passant par l'Australie et la Nouvelle Zélande.

Littérature amérindienne du Québec. Écrits de langue française,, Maurizio Gatti, (Préface de Robert Lalonde)., Montréal : Hurtubise HMH, 2004, 271 p.

Les études littéraires portant sur les écrits amérindiens, en langues amérindiennes et en anglais, constituent depuis maintenant quelques années un champ intellectuel construit et créatif, animé principalement au Canada par les universités du Manitoba et de la Saskatchewan. Emma LaRocque et Thomas King œuvrent notamment depuis une trentaine d'années à rassembler, découvrir, faire connaître et traduire la littérature amérindienne et ses auteurs. Cette littérature s'est d'abord constituée comme une littérature de combat, un travail de décolonisation et de réappropriation (“ reinventing the ennemy's language ”, dira justement LaRocque à propos du passage des langues amérindiennes à l'anglais dans l'histoire de cette littérature), mais aussi comme un travail thérapeutique et comme le témoignage d'une expérience non documentée dans les livres d'histoire officielle. Cette littérature, devenue fiction, poésie, théâtre, humour, travail herméneutique, est maintenant, du moins dans le monde anglo-saxon, le fer de lance de ce qu'il n'est pas exagéré d'appeler la renaissance de la culture amérindienne. Ce corpus effervescent est donc d'un intérêt particulier pour les lecteurs de pensée et de théorie politiques, pour les artisans des cultural studies, pour les canadianistes et, pourquoi pas, pour les résidents de l'Amérique en général.

Federalism, Jennifer Smith, Vancouver: UBC Press, 2004, pp. xi, 192.

This slender volume is part of the Canadian Democratic Audit series examining how well Canadian democracy is performing at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The purpose is to investigate all major aspects of the Canadian political system according two three benchmarks: public participation, inclusiveness and responsiveness. The series includes ten volumes in all. This is the one on federalism.

Governing Ourselves? The Politics of Canadian Communities, Marie Louise McAllister, Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2004, pp. 334.

This book will become a reference text for urban students and scholars with an interest in the Canadian urban local governance system because of its outstanding and up-to-date bibliography, a significant achievement given the volume of academic contributions on recent municipal reforms. Marie Louise McAllister introduces the politics of Canadian communities as a topic of contention—the position that local politics matters is not obvious and, in fact, may actually be arguable. However, she makes a strong case for a far-reaching but nuanced answer.

Horizontalité et gestion publique., Jacques Bourgault (sous la direction de), Québec : Les Presses de l'Université Laval, 2002, 355 p.

Le livre “ Horizontalité et gestion publique ” par Jacques Bourgault a pour objectif de démontrer que la gestion horizontale peut prendre diverses formes et évoluer différemment selon les intervenants, la nature du projet, l'animation du projet et maints autres facteurs. Ce livre peut se diviser en trois parties. La première partie présente une analyse de la gestion horizontale, son émergence et son évolution, ses différences par rapport à la gestion de projet et la gestion matricielle, ses étapes dans l'évolution d'un projet, ses avantages et, finalement, les questions qui demeurent sans réponses. La deuxième partie analyse treize projets à gestion horizontale. Chaque projet fait appel à plusieurs départements ou ministères fédéraux et démontre l'optimisation du rapport entre l'allocation de ressources, les contraintes et les objectifs. L'analyse des projets et la rédaction du rapport correspondant furent dirigées par un chercheur responsable. Le titre de chacun des rapports ainsi que le nom du chercheur-auteur sont comme suit :

Second Growth: Community Economic Development in Rural British Columbia, Sean Markey, John Pierce, Mark Roseland and Kelly Vodden, Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2005, pp. 352.

This theoretically rich, community economic development (CED) work, written by four members of the Centre for Sustainable Community Development (formerly the Community Economic Development Centre) at Simon Fraser University, is the product of a three-year participatory-action-based research project involving four “forest-based” British Columbia communities. Two Aboriginal communities and two municipalities were case studied as part of an action-learning exercise in order to gain “insight into the apparent conflict between the economic imperative and fluidity of capital versus the lived worlds of rural and small time places” (3). Through their empirical studies of the four communities, the authors argue that CED, fostered at the local level, can allow for the kind of capacity building that is needed to create diversified, sustainable economic futures for resource-based rural and small-town communities. They are careful, however, to distinguish between the use of CED as a “localized and palliative strategy” for marginalized communities caught in the throes of political and economic dependency, and the possibilities for a more robust (theoretically balanced) version of CED, which can become part and parcel of rural and small-town locally-based planning and development. While recognizing the appropriateness of CED in either situation, they argue that a host of negative economic and political factors, which are intensifying under the direction of neo-liberal ideological thinking, have resulted in a pressing need for the more robust form of community development and corresponding revitalization strategies.

Establishing the Rules of the Game: Election Laws in Democracies, Louis Massicotte, André Blais and Antoine Yoshinaka, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004, pp. 191

Whatever one may think of the 2000 American presidential election, it did have one salutary effect: it drew worldwide attention to the importance of fair and impartially applied election laws. The authors of this work needed no such wake-up call; André Blais and Louis Massicotte enjoy a well-deserved international reputation for expertise in this arcane field. But it is likely that their new book, a compendium and analysis of election laws in 63 countries, will attract wider notice because of recent events in the United States. Unfortunately (though understandably), the extreme decentralization and complexity of American election laws prevented the authors from including the U.S. in their comparative database. Happily, the remaining countries in the sample offer more than enough food for thought. The field of election law has been sadly neglected by political scientists and legal scholars (outside the United States); if interest in the topic continues to grow over the coming years, this book should help to nurture a flourishing academic debate.

Between Colliding Worlds: The Ambiguous Existence of Government Agencies for Aboriginal and Women's Policy, Jonathan Malloy, Toronto: University of Toronto Press/IPAC, 2003, pp. x, 217.

This book explores the complex relationship between “special policy agencies” created to address the needs of specific social groups, and the social movements that arise to advocate for these groups. Its main premise is that special policy agencies exist in a state of permanent—and highly useful—ambiguity, forming a conduit that enables the conflicting worlds of social movements and governments to articulate their highly distinct agendas in a manner comprehensible to both “worlds.”

Contestation transnationale, diversité et citoyenneté dans l'espace québécois, Labelle, Micheline et François Rocher (sous la direction de) avec la collaboration de Anne-Marie Field, Sainte-Foy : Presses de l'Université du Québec, 2004, 223 p.

Cet ouvrage se penche sur les répercussions de la mondialisation sur l'action politique contestataire des acteurs sociaux québécois qui représentent et défendent les intérêts et les droits des minorités ethniques et racisées, des femmes et des nations autochtones. Les quatre textes, rédigés par des chercheurs du Centre de recherche sur l'immigration, l'ethnicité et la citoyenneté (CRIEC) de l'Université du Québec à Montréal, démontrent quels ont été les effets la mondialisation sur les revendications de ces groupes, sur leurs stratégies de mobilisation, sur leurs discours ainsi que sur la dynamique de leurs rapports avec l'État canadien et avec la communauté internationale. Ces études se basent sur une analyse documentaire et sur des entrevues effectuées entre août 2001 et juin 2002 auprès de soixante leaders et porte-parole d'organisations non gouvernementales (ONG) et porte-parole des nations autochtones. Il y a dans la littérature existante une idée très répandue qui insiste sur l'influence “ émancipatrice et contre-hégémonique ” (7) de la contestation transnationale des groupes minoritaires, sur “ l'effritement de l'État-nation ” (8) et sur l'émergence de la citoyenneté post-nationale accompagnant l'évolution de la mondialisation. Contrairement à cette idée, les auteurs affirment que la mondialisation n'a pas changé l'importance de l'État-nation qui, en tant que “ garant en titre de l'équité et des droits individuels et collectifs ” (8), demeure la cible principale de l'action politique de groupes minoritaires. Ils prétendent également que la mondialisation a plutôt transformé les stratégies de ces groupes qui font maintenant pression sur les États canadien et québécois en ayant recours aux activités transnationales afin de “ mieux influer sur l'approfondissement de la démocratie au sein de la société civile et sur les politiques publiques ” (8).

State of Struggle: Feminism and Politics in Alberta, Lois Harder, Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2003, pp. xi, 227.

State of Struggle is a fascinating study of feminist “claimsmaking” in Alberta. Lois Harder traces a rich history of women's organizing in Alberta, combined with a sharp analysis of the contemporary political context. Using an impressive range of sources—academic, government, women's organizations, and news media—with archival and interview research, Harder addresses many gaps in Canadian political science.

Elections, John C. Courtney, Vancouver: UBC Press, 2004, pp. ix, 201.

The expansion of the number of democratic regimes around the world and the decline of trust in government in established democracies have renewed interest in election laws and how these rules define the national community, allow citizens to express their preferences, and influence the composition of legislatures. In Canada, the study of electoral laws has frequently dealt with how electoral formulae translate votes into legislative representation.

From Subjects to Citizens: A Hundred Years of Citizenship in Australia and Canada, Pierre Boyer, Linda Cardinal and David Headon, eds., Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2004, pp. xvi, 328.

Citizenship is no longer viewed as a concept restricted to the relationship between an individual and the state. It is now seen as encompassing the series of overlapping identities that define an individual's relationship to a political community. This means that discussions of citizenship are now likely to involve an examination of individual and group rights, political participation and an individual's sense of belonging. The collection of conferences papers under review pushes this expanded notion of citizenship to its limits, and beyond. While the nominal topic is “a hundred years of citizenship in Australia and Canada,” the contents of the book include chapters on the Australian exploration of Antarctica, Nellie Melba as a famous Australian, the secret ballot and the franchise in Australia, government sponsorship of culture in Canada, and a fascinating (if depressing) study of evidentiary law relating to rape in two early twentieth-century cases. In addition to the startling range of topics, the styles of analysis and disciplinary backgrounds of the contributions vary widely, from literary to mainstream social science. A few chapters are more notable for their polemical approach than their content.

Démocraties métropolitaines, Bernard Jouve et Philip Booth (sous la direction de), Sainte-Foy, Québec : Presses de l'Université du Québec, 2004, 335 p.

Cet ouvrage collectif traite de gouvernance des métropoles, de politiques urbaines et de démocratie métropolitaine en France, en Grande-Bretagne et au Canada. Sa parution survient au moment où la province de Québec entend développer des partenariats publics privés, s'inspirant largement des exemples britanniques, afin de résoudre les problèmes de rénovation des infrastructures majeures des grandes métropoles du Québec. Il s'adresse aux géographes, aux urbanistes, aux économistes, aux politologues et aux sociologues curieux des multiples facettes du fait urbain, de la croissance et du développement des métropoles et de leurs habitants, ainsi que de l'évolution de la compréhension du concept de gestion démocratique du développement en Europe et en Amérique du Nord.

Micropolitics and Canadian Business: Paper, Steel and the Airlines, Peter Clancy, Peterborough: Broadview, 2004, pp. 336.

Given the scarcity of work on business-government relations in Canada any new academic monograph in this field is certainly welcome. Yet, even if the field were crowded, Peter Clancy's wide-ranging and multi-layered study would be a useful addition to the literature. As the subtitle indicates, the book is essentially a study of three important Canadian industries chosen from different economic sectors. For each of these it examines the character of industry politics across a variety of dimensions with a substantial emphasis on internal structure and historical development. It deals both with business-government interaction in the process of policymaking and with the nature of industrial policy outputs in a way that is sensitive to the complex and heterogeneous forces operating within each industry.