The instructors in the Political Science Department not only teach you potential ways to analyze world affairs, but they also motivate you to learn more, research more, and question more. Through a Research Opportunity Course, I had the rare opportunity to conduct primary research in Washington DC. I met with political affairs ministers and ambassadors from the Canadian and Mexican Embassies, policymakers from the US government, researchers from leading think tanks, professors, and a variety of other experts on my topic. The discussions I had in Washington provided a rich context for my research. — Sarah Yun, Winner of the Alexander Mackenzie Scholarship in Political Science and graduated with a Major in Political Science
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Recent Faculty Publications
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Boaris dego eana - Eamialbmogiid diehtu, filosofiijat ja dutkan
Rauna Kuokkanen
CalliidLagadusa Authors Publisher
The first book-length study of the Indigenous knowledge, philosophies and research written in the Sami language, called Boaris dego eana. Eamialbmogiid diehtu, filosofiijat ja dutkan, which translates into English as As Old as the Earth: Indigenous Knowledge, Philosophies and Research. This book explains the significance of the Sami language, culture and philosophy by drawing on feminist, postcolonial and indigenous theories
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Comparing Democracies, Third Edition
Lawrence LeDuc, Richard G Niemi, and Pippa Norris
Sage Publications
The benchmark First and Second Editions of Comparing Democracies represented essential guides to the global study of elections. Reflecting recent developments in the field, this timely new edition gives an indispensable state-of-the art review of the whole field from the world's leading international scholars. With a completely new thematic introduction which explores how democracy is built and sustained, thoroughly updated chapters (many of which are also new) , the Third Edition provides a theoretical and comparative understanding of the major topics related to elections and introduces important work on key new areas. Comparing Democracies, Third Edition will remain a must-read for students and lecturers of elections and voting behavior, comparative politics, parties, and democracy.
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Language Matters: How Canadian Voluntary Associations Manage French and English
David Cameron and Richard Simeon
University of British Columbia Press
Canada is an officially bilingual country. But how do the voluntary associations that make up civil society manage linguistic diversity? In the 1960s, a study by Vincent Lemieux and John Meisel for the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism Commission revealed that Canadian associations were often paralyzed by internal conflicts over language. Language Matters examines whether this remains the case.
The contributors present case studies or life histories of diverse associations, ranging from business organizations and municipal associations to groups concerned with equality and social justice. Several replicate Lemieux and Meisel/s pioneering enquiry; others look at newer groups. Each contribution examines key turning points in the given association's history and explores how its mandate, leadership, relationship to the federal and provincial governments, and shifting options in the political arena -- independence, sovereignty association, or symmetrical and asymmetrical federalism -- shaped its response to linguistic diversity.
Voluntary associations have found diverse ways to accommodate linguistic differences in a manner acceptable to Canada's two great linguistic communities. Language Matters provides a deeper understanding of the language dynamic in Canada and offers solutions to groups and governments trying to manage difference.
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Direct Democracy: The International IDEA Handbook
Larry LeDuc
International Idea
While many books on direct democracy have a regional or national approach, or simply focus on one of the many mechanisms associated with direct democracy, this Handbook delves into a global comparison of direct democracy mechanisms, including referendums, citizens' initiatives, agenda initiatives and recall. A detailed look into each of these instruments is discussed in a chapter by chapter analysis of each tool, including comprehensive definitions, how each instrument can be used to shape political decisions and an outline of the steps most often involved in planning any given procedure.
Also included as a chapter in the Handbook are possible measures for best practices of implementation, designed for those who wish to tailor direct democracy instruments to their specific needs. In order to further complement the best practices, a variety of global case studies detail the practical uses of direct democracy mechanisms in specific contexts. These country case studies allow for in depth discussion of particular issues, including signature collection and voter participation, campaign financing, media coverage, national variations in the usage of direct democracy procedures and national lessons learned.
In addition, the uniquely comprehensive world survey outlines direct democracy provisions in 214 countries and territories and indicates which, if any, of these provisions are used by each country or territory at both the national and sub-national levels. Furthermore, the world survey includes valuable information regarding the binding or non-binding nature of referendums, as well as issues that can be brought forth to a referendum.
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Comparative Politics: Interest, Identities and Institutions in Changing Global Order
Jeffrey Kopstein
Cambridge University Press
Now in a completely updated second edition, this textbook has become a favorite for the introductory undergraduate course in comparative politics. It features ten theoretically and historically grounded country studies that show how the three major concepts of comparative analysis - interests, identities, and institutions - shape the politics of nations. Throughout the presentation, countries appear in the context of a changing global order that creates challenges to each country's path of development. These challenges frequently alter domestic interests and identities, and force countries to find new institutional solutions to the problems of modern politics. Written in a style free of heavy-handed jargon and organized to address the concerns of contemporary comparativists, this textbook provides students with the conceptual tools and historical background they need to understand the politics of our complex world.
* Ten country case studies with 'stop and compare' sections, drawing out comparisons between the countries in each group and those in other groups
* Explicit discussion of the international challenges to each country's chosen path of development: the book has a 'globalist' slant
* Written in a jargon-free style that is highly accessible to students.
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Fire and Fury: The Allied Bombing of Germany 1942-45
Randall Hansen
Random House
An enlightening and utterly convincing re-examination of the allied aerial bombing campaign and of civilian German suffering during World War II - an essential addition to our understanding of world history.
During the Second World War, Allied air forces dropped nearly two million tons of bombs on Germany, destroying some 60 cities, killing more than half a million German citizens, and leaving 80,000 pilots dead. Much of the bombing was carried out against the expressed demands of the Allied military leadership. Hundreds of thousands of people died needlessly.
Focusing on the crucial period from 1942 to 1945, and using a compelling narrative approach, Fire and Fury tells the story of the American and British bombing campaign through the eyes of those involved: military and civilian command in America, Britain, and Germany, aircrew in the sky, and civilians on the ground.
Acclaimed historian Randall Hansen shows that the Commander-in-Chief of Bomber Command, Arthur Harris, was wedded to an outdated strategy whose success had never been proven; how area bombing not only failed to win the war, it probably prolonged it; and that the US campaign, which was driven by a particularly American fusion of optimism and morality, played an important and largely unrecognized role in delivering Allied victory.
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Does North America Exist?: Governing the Continent after NAFTA and 9/11
Stephen Clarkson
University of Toronto Press
In the wake of the North American Free Trade Agreement and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, renowned public intellectual and scholar Stephen Clarkson asks whether North America ?exists? in the sense that the European Union has made Europe exist.
Clarkson?s rigorous study of the many political and economic relationships that link Canada, the United States, and Mexico answers this unusual question by looking at the institutions created by NAFTA, a broad selection of economic sectors, and the security policies put in place by the three neighbouring countries following 9/11. This detailed, meticulously researched, and up-to-date treatment of North America?s transborder governance allows the reader to see to what extent the United States? dominance in the continent has been enhanced or mitigated by trilateral connections with its two continental partners.
An illuminating product of seven years? political-economy, international-relations, and policy research, Does North America Exist? is an ambitious and path-breaking study that will be essential reading for those wanting to understand whether the continent containing the world?s most powerful nation is holding its own as a global region.
Stephen Clarkson is Professor of Political Economy at the University of Toronto, Senior Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
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Opening Doors Wider: Women's Political Engagement in Canada
Sylvia Bashevkin (ed)
University of British Columbia Press
From the days of the fur trade through the contemporary period, women have played important roles in the public life of Canada. Until the 1970s, however, these contributions were generally overlooked. Opening Doors Wider looks at the progress made in the last forty years to raise the profile of women's involvement in public life. The contributors focus on two questions with reference to community activism, the politics of feminist organizing, parties and elections, and the communications environment in which politicians operate. First, are the doors to participation presently open wider than they were in the past? Second, how can these doors be opened wider, both in terms of real-world participation and our scholarly understanding of public engagement? These tightly argued essays shed new light on the quality of public involvement of women in one of the world's most stable democracies. The nuanced discussion of solutions as well as problems makes it an indispensable resource for students and practitioners of politics at all levels.
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Political Transitions in Dominant Party Systems: Learning to Lose
Joseph Wong
Routledge
This is a path-breaking study by leading scholars of comparative politics examining the internal transformations of dominant parties in both authoritarian and democratic settings. The principle question examined in this book is what happens to dominant political parties when they lose or face the very real prospect of losing? Using country-specific case studies, top-rank analysts in the field focus on the lessons that dominant parties might learn from losing and the adaptations they consequently make in order to survive, to remain competitive or to ultimately re-gain power.
Providing historical based, comparative research on issues of theoretical importance, Political Transitions in Dominant Party Systems will be invaluable reading for students and scholars of comparative politics, international politics and political parties.
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A Companion to Greek and Roman Political Thought
Ryan Balot (ed)
Wiley
Comprises 34 essays from leading scholars in history, classics, philosophy, and political science to illuminate Greek and Roman political thought in all its diversity and depth.
* Offers a broad survey of ancient political thought from Archaic Greece through Late Antiquity
* Approaches ancient political philosophy from both a normative and historical focus
* Examines Greek and Roman political thought within historical context and contemporary debate
* Explores the role of ancient political thought in a range of philosophies, such as the individual and community, human rights, religion, and cosmopolitanism
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Internationalization and Canadian Agriculture: Policy and Governing Paradigms
Grace Skogstad
University of Toronto Press 2008
In recent decades, Canada's agricultural industry, one of the world's largest, has had to adjust to global trade developments such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the World Trade Organization. Internationalization and Canadian Agriculture examines the patterns of continuity and change in Canadian agricultural policy making in important areas like farm income support programs, prairie grain marketing, supply management, animal and food product safety, and the regulation of genetically modified crops and foods.
Arguing that the effects of internationalization have been mediated by Canada's political institutional framework, Grace Skogstad demonstrates how the goals and strategies of authoritative political actors in Canada's federal and parliamentary systems have been decisive to policy developments. Skogstad details the interaction between agriculture and the political economy of Canada, shows how international and domestic trade shape Canadian agricultural policies, and argues that while agricultural programs have changed, the post-war state assistance agricultural paradigm has persisted.
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Women, Power, Politics: The Hidden Story of Canada's Unfinished Democracy
Sylvia Bashevkin
Oxford University Press 2009
In this engaging, no-nonsense, and witty book, Sylvia Baskevkin argues that Canadians have a profound unease with women in positions of political authority--what she calls the "women plus power equals discomfort" equation. She explores the specific reasons why this discomfort is particularly severe in Canada. Bashevkin also evaluates a range of barriers faced by women who enter politics, including the media's role in assessing the leadership styles, personal appearances, and private lives of female politicians. In clear, accessible terms, Bashevkin explains concepts such as "gender schemas" and "media framing" in terms of key examples, such as Belinda Stronach and Hillary Clinton.
Finally, Bashevkin outlines some compelling solutions to address the stalemate facing women in Canadian politics.
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Business and the State in Africa: Economic Policy-Making in the Neo-Liberal Era
Antoinette Handley
Cambridge University Press 2008
The dominant developmental approach in Africa over the last twenty years has been to advocate the role of markets and the private sector in restoring economic growth. Recent thinking has also stressed the need for 'ownership' of economic reform by the populations of developing countries, particularly the business community. This book studies the business-government interactions of four African countries: Ghana, Zambia, South Africa and Mauritius. Employing a historical institutionalist approach, Antoinette Handley considers why and how business in South Africa and Mauritius has developed the capacity to constructively contest the making of economic policy while, conversely, business in Zambia and Ghana has struggled to develop any autonomous political capacity. Paying close attention to the mutually constitutive interactions between business and the state, Handley considers the role of timing and how ethnicised and racialised identities can affect these interactions in profound and consequential ways.
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The Moral Force of Indigenous Politics
Courtney Jung
Cambridge University Press 2009
Tracing the political origins of the Mexican indigenous rights movement, from the colonial encounter to the Zapatista uprising, and from Chiapas to Geneva, Courtney Jung locates indigenous identity in the history of Mexican state formation. She argues that indigenous identity is not an accident of birth but a political achievement that offers a new voice to many of the world's poorest and most dispossessed. The moral force of indigenous claims rests not on the existence of cultural differences, or identity, but on the history of exclusion and selective inclusion that constitutes indigenous identity. As a result, the book shows that privatizing or protecting such groups is a mistake and develops a theory of critical liberalism that commits democratic government to active engagement with the claims of culture. This book will appeal to scholars and students of political theory, philosophy, sociology, and anthropology studying multiculturalism and the politics of culture.
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Bringing the Passions Back In: The Emotions in Political Philosophy
Rebecca Kingston and Leonard Ferry
University of British Columbia Press 2008
Combining intellectual history and political theory, the contributors to Bringing the Passions Back In illuminate the place of emotions in modern liberal and democratic politics. Bringing the Passions Back In will interest scholars and students in political theory, the history of ideas, sociology, psychology, cultural studies, and philosophy.
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Montesquieu and His Legacy
Rebecca Kingston
State University of New York Press 2008
Montesquieu (1689-1755) is regarded as one of the most important thinkers of the Enlightenment. His Lettres persanes and L'Esprit des lois have been read by students and scholars throughout the last two centuries. While many have associated Montesquieu with the doctrine of the "separation of powers" in the history of ideas, Rebecca E. Kingston brings together leading international scholars who for the first time present a systematic treatment and discussion of the significance of his ideas more generally for the development of Western political theory and institutions. In particular, Montesquieu and His Legacy supplements the conventional focus on the institutional teachings of Montesquieu with attention to the theme of morals and manners. The contributors provide commentary on the broad legacy of Montesquieu's thought in past times as well as for the contemporary era.
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Growing Apart? America and Europe in the 21st Century
Jeffrey Kopstein and Sven Steinmo
Cambridge University Press 2007
This book explores the forces pushing America away from its democratic friends and neighbors. It examines the underlying forces shaping the democratic states of the West. Individual chapters pose questions such as: Why is religion so powerful in America? How will the flow of immigration shape politics across the West? Why is Europe rejecting America's version of capitalism? How is the media changing in Europe and America? Why are "Conservatives" so different on each side of the Atlantic? And, finally, what do these competing forces portend for the future of the transatlantic relationship?
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Queer Inclusions, Continental Divisions: Public Recognition of Sexual Diversity in Canada and the United States
David Rayside
University of Toronto Press 2008
No area of public policy and law has seen more change than lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and trans-gender rights, and none so greatly needs careful comparative analysis. Queer Inclusions, Continental Divisions explores the politics of sexual diversity in Canada and the United States by analyzing three contentious areas -- relationship recognition, parenting, and schooling. It enters into long-standing debates over Canadian-American contrasts while paying close attention to regional differences.
David Rayside's examination of change over time in the public recognition of sexual minorities is based on his long experience with the analysis of trends, as well as on a wide-ranging search of media, legal, and social science accounts of developments across Canada and the United States. Rayside points to a "take off" pattern in Canadian policy change on relationship recognition and parenting, but not in schooling. At the same time, he explores the reasons for a "pioneering" pattern in early gains by American LGBT activists, a surprising number of court wins by American lesbian and gay parents, and changes in American schooling that, while still modest, are more substantial than those instituted by the Canadian system.
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Social Democracy in the Global Periphery: Origins, Challenges, Prospects
Richard Sandbrook, Marc Edelman, Patrick Heller and Judith Teichman
Cambridge University Press 2007
Social Democracy in the Global Periphery focuses on social-democratic regimes in the developing world that have, to varying degrees, reconciled the needs of achieving growth through globalized markets with extensions of political, social and economic rights. The authors show that opportunities exist to achieve significant social progress, despite a global economic order that favours core industrial countries. Their findings derive from a comparative analysis of four exemplary cases: Kerala (India), Costa Rica, Mauritius and Chile (since 1990). Though unusual, the social and political conditions from which these developing-world social democracies arose are not unique; indeed, pragmatic and proactive social-democratic movements helped create these favourable conditions. The four exemplars have preserved or even improved their social achievements since neoliberalism emerged hegemonic in the 1980s. This demonstrates that certain social-democratic policies and practices - guided by a democratic developmental state - can enhance a national economy's global competitiveness.
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The Birthright Lottery: Citizenship and Global Inequality
Ayelet Shachar
Harvard University Press 2009
In The Birthright Lottery, Ayelet Shachar argues that birthright citizenship in an affluent society can be thought of as a form of property inheritance: that is, a valuable entitlement transmitted by law to a restricted group of recipients under conditions that perpetuate the transfer of this prerogative to their heirs. She deploys this fresh perspective to establish that nations need to expand their membership boundaries beyond outdated notions of blood-and-soil in sculpting the body politic. Located at the intersection of law, economics, and political philosophy, The Birthright Lottery further advocates redistributional obligations on those benefiting from the inheritance of membership, with the aim of ameliorating its most glaring opportunity inequalities.
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The Unexpected War: Canada in Afghanistan
Janice Gross Stein and Eugene Lang
Viking Canada Press 2007
With our troops now committed until 2009, The Unexpected War exposes the poverty of Canadian foreign policy, arguing that Canada's various military missions in Afghanistan have been ad hoc in nature and made on the basis of political calculations -- often flawed -- about Canadian-American relations. Drawing upon interviews with key decision makers and advisors, and a first-hand account by a former Defence Ministry insider, the book offers a gripping account of how Canada became embroiled in a new kind of war -- fighting insurgency in a failed state. Winner of the 2007 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize and shortlisted for the 2007 Donner Prize.
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The Comparative Turn in Canadian Political Science
Linda White, Richard Simeon, Rob Vipond and Jennifer Wallner
University of British Columbia Press 2008
Over the past decade, the study of Canadian politics has changed profoundly. The introspective, insular, and largely atheoretical style that informed Canadian political science for most of the postwar period has given way to a deeper engagement with, and integration into, the global field of comparative politics.
This volume is the first sustained attempt to describe, analyze, and assess the "comparative turn" in Canadian political science. Canada's engagement with comparative politics is examined with a focus on three central questions: In what ways, and how successfully, have Canadian scholars contributed to the study of comparative politics? How does study of the Canadian case advance the comparative discipline? Finally, can Canadian practice and policy be reproduced in other countries?
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In Search of Canadian Political Culture
Nelson Wiseman
University of British Columbia Press 2007
What do we really mean by phrases such as "western Canadian political culture," "the centrist political culture of Ontario," "Red Toryism in the Maritimes," or "Prairie socialism"? What historical, geographical, and sociological factors came into play as these cultures were forged? In this book, Nelson Wiseman addresses many such questions, offering new ways of conceiving Canadian political culture.
The most thorough review of the national political ethos written in a generation, In Search of Canadian Political Culture offers a bottom-up, regional analysis that challenges how we think and write about Canada. It will interest specialists in Canadian political culture and generalists in Canadian politics.
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