Auditing Canadian Democracy
The nine-volume award-winning Canadian Democratic Audit represents one of the most ambitious examinations of Canadian democracy in recent political scholarship. Authored by a team of Canada’s leading political scientists, and published by UBC Press over a five-year period, the Audit evaluates the performance of our central democratic institutions, including elections, parliament, the executive, federalism, political parties, and interest groups.
This tenth volume, Auditing Canadian Democracy, marks the culmination of this landmark project. Using the Audit’s uniquely Canadian benchmarks of participation, responsiveness, and inclusiveness, the contributors synthesize and update their findings from the original volumes. A concluding chapter presents a synopsis of the various reform proposals put forth in the series.
The original Audit was conceived as a response to perceived voter discontent in the Canadian population. Unfortunately, voter participation continues to decline today, reminding us of the ongoing need to critically examine how well our democracy serves contemporary society. Lively and accessible, this volume offers a succinct and thoughtful examination of existing practices and reforms and should be of interest to all Canadians concerned with the health of their democracy.
This succinct and accessible volume is ideal for undergraduate students of Canadian politics, as well as researchers, politicians, bureaucrats, and anyone with an interest in the current state of democracy in Canada.
William Cross and his colleagues in the Canadian Democratic Audit are on to something important. Canadians are concerned, and interested, too, about the state of how we govern ourselves. And if the CDA doesn’t answer all the questions … it … raises most of them.
The Canadian Democratic Audit is an ambitious and important undertaking for Canadian social science … [which] demands careful consideration by scholars, concerned citizens and policy-makers … Its books certainly welcome readership; they are compact, well designed, well organized, and easy to ‘use’ – certainly some of the most accessible works of academic political science we’ve seen in years.
William Cross is the Hon. Dick and Ruth Bell Chair for the Study of Canadian Parliamentary Democracy at Carleton University in Ottawa.
Contributors: Darin Barney, André Blais, R. Kenneth Carty, John Courtney, William Cross, David Docherty, Joanna Everitt, Elisabeth Gidengil, Richard Nadeau, Neil Nevitt, Jennifer Smith, Graham White, and Lisa Young.
1 Introduction / William Cross
2 Federalism / Jennifer Smith
3 Cabinets and First Ministers / Graham White
4 Legislatures / David Docherty
5 Citizens / Elisabeth Gidengil, Richard Nadeau, Neil Nevitte and André Blais
6 Elections / John Courtney
7 Political Parties / William Cross
8 Advocacy Groups / Lisa Young and Joanna Everitt
9 Communication Technology / Darin Barney
10 The Audit’s Perspectives and Proposals / R. Kenneth Carty
Index
Reviving Social Democracy
The Near Death and Surprising Rise of the Federal NDP
Edited by David Laycock and Lynda Erickson
Imperfect Democracies
The Democratic Deficit in Canada and the United States
Edited by Patti Tamara Lenard and Richard Simeon
Canadian Democracy from the Ground Up
Perceptions and Performance
Edited by Elisabeth Gidengil and Heather Bastedo
