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What Kind of Democracy Do Canadians Want?*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2009

Michael M. Atkinson
Affiliation:
McMaster University

Abstract

This article analyzes the recent constitutional turmoil in Canada by arguing that disenchantment with political institutions can be traced to confusion and indecision about the kind of democratic regime Canadians want. Using the work of Johan Olsen and James March, the author outlines two models of democratic political institutions, both centred on the concept of popular sovereignty but each offering its own version of how popular rule is to be achieved and legitimated. While the Canadian state was originally established on “integrative” principles and processes, recent years witnessed the rise of “aggregative” ideals. This development has had a profound effect on constitutional politics as well as on “normal” politics. The result is that Canadians now have a different democracy than the one they inherited from their British forebears, one with its own capacity to generate stalemate and disappointment.

Résumé

Cet article analyse les bouleversements constitutionnels récents au Canada. Il soutient que l'on peut retracer les origines du désenchantement des Canadiens vis-à-vis de leurs institutions dans la confusion et l'indécision qui règnent au sujet du genre de régime démocratique que les Canadiens désirent. En s'appuyant sur les travaux de J. Olsen et de J. March, l'auteur expose deux modèles d'institutions politiques démocratiques, centrés tous les deux sur le concept de souveraineté populaire, mais offrant chacun sa propre version sur des moyens requis pour obtenir un gouvernement du peuple et le rendre 1égitime. À l'origine, l'Ètat canadien a été établi sur des principes et processus « d'intdération », alors que nous avons assisté récemment à une croissance des idéaux « d'agrégation ». Ce développement a eu des conséquences profondes sur la politique constitutionnelle ainsi que sur la politique « normale ». Il en réquite pour les Canadiens une démocratie difféiente de celle que leur avait léguée la culture politique britannique, une démocratie capable d'aboutir à un cul-de-sac et de générer du désenchantement.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

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References

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32 It is open to debate how much aggregative thinking has affected these institutions. It might be argued, for example, that since the introduction of the Charter the courts have become increasingly politicized by Charter proponents. See F. L. Morton and Rainer Knopff, “The Supreme Court as the Vanguard of the Intelligentsia: The Charter Movement as Postmaterialist Politics,” in Ajzenstat, ed., Canadian Constitutionalism, 79, and, for a postreferendum assessment of the Supreme Court, F. L. Morton, “Judicial Politics Canadian-Style: The Supreme Court's Contribution to the Constitutional Crisis of 1992,” in Cook, ed., Constitutional Predicament, chap. 5.

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65 As March and Olsen put it: “There is no reason to believe that incentives and personal values will be arranged so that entry into debate will be differentially attractive to those whose contributions would be most valuable” (Rediscovering Institutions, 133).