Democratic Reform in New Brunswick
Democratic Reform in New Brunswick

Author: William Paul Cross

Publisher: Canadian Scholars’ Press

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 1551303264

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Democratic Reform in New Brunswick is a comprehensive collection of research papers written initially for the New Brunswick Commission on Electoral Democracy. The essays provide detailed consideration of the many issues relating to democratic and electoral reform currently on the public policy agenda in Canada. Topics covered include: electoral system change, gender and representational issues, questions relating to party democracy, the role of legislators, concerns around drawing electoral boundaries, fixed election dates, direct democracy, and political disengagement among young voters. All of the essays examine the implications of various reform proposals in these areas and most draw upon the experiences of other jurisdictions in addressing how they might play out in the Canadian context. Many chapters also draw specifically upon the New Brunswick experience in considering how democratic reform might impact upon the province's politics. New Brunswick is Canada's only bilingual province with two vibrant linguistic communities and is in many ways a microcosm of the Canadian state. These readings provide insight into how issues related to democratic and electoral reform may play out on the national stage.

Stalled
Stalled

Author: Linda Trimble

Publisher: UBC Press

Published: 2013-05-31

Total Pages: 286

ISBN-13: 0774825235

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Following significant increases in women’s electoral representation in the 1980s and '90s, progress has stalled. Despite some high-profile successes at the provincial level, there are now only a few more women in Canada’s parliament and legislatures than a decade ago. What has happened to the representational gains for women and why does gender parity remain so elusive? To answer these questions, Stalled provides a provides a detailed roadmap of women’s political representation as candidates, office-holders, cabinet ministers, party leaders, and as representatives of the Crown at all levels of government across Canada. Prospects for gender parity in political office are assessed in each jurisdiction and institution. Explanations are re-examined and analyzed using data from across the country. The representation of women in elected and appointed offices is an important indicator of both gender equality and the overall health of democratic governance. By this measure Canada continues to fall short.

Parties and Party Systems
Parties and Party Systems

Author: Richard Johnston

Publisher: UBC Press

Published: 2015-11-15

Total Pages: 333

ISBN-13: 0774829583

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Party systems. Party organization. For too long, scholars researching in these two areas have worked in isolation. This book bridges the divide by bringing together leading political scientists from both traditions to examine the intersection of rules, society, and the organization of parties within party systems. Blending theory and case studies, Parties and Party Systems builds upon the pioneering work of R. Kenneth Carty, whose ideas about brokerage politics have influenced a generation of scholars. The contributors explore four thematic pathways: How does brokerage work across lines of division in society? How do partisan teams hold together in the face of the centrifugal pressures that necessitate brokerage? How can parties withstand the complicated principal-agent relations that inevitably arise? And, how does the institutional context constrain a multitude of competing interests when it, itself, is quite fragile? By providing new perspectives on parties as organizations that exist within political systems and by raising key questions about the sustainability of brokerage politics, this volume will provoke theoretical reconsideration, prompt further integrative thinking, and inspire future research at the political organization-system nexus.

Big Worlds
Big Worlds

Author: Jared J. Wesley

Publisher: University of Toronto Press

Published: 2016-01-01

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 1442603925

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The Oxford Handbook of Electoral Systems
The Oxford Handbook of Electoral Systems

Author: Erik S. Herron

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 1017

ISBN-13: 0190258659

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No subject is more central to the study of politics than elections. Electoral systems--the rules about how voters' preferences are translated into election results--profoundly shape important political outcomes, including party systems, candidate selection, and policy choices. This volume provides an in-depth exploration of the origins and effects of electoral systems.

We Shall Persist
We Shall Persist

Author: Heidi MacDonald

Publisher: UBC Press

Published: 2023-04-15

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 077486320X

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Women in Atlantic Canada won the right to vote and to run for office only after long, vigorous, and exhausting campaigns for the Great Cause. We Shall Persist explores the distinctive political contexts and common problems faced by advocates for women’s suffrage and wider rights in the Maritime provinces and Newfoundland. Despite virulent opposition in public and at home, most nonindigenous women in the region won enfranchisement in the immediate post–First World War era. This victory curbed the most blatant political misogyny and prepared the way for other rights, such as improved social assistance and access to birth control. Yet progress was uneven and even the movement itself was marked by class and racial inequities. We Shall Persist captures both the long campaign and the years of disappointment. Suffrage victories across Atlantic Canada were steps in an unfinished march toward full gender, race, and class equality.

Understanding Electoral Reform
Understanding Electoral Reform

Author: Reuven Y. Hazan

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-06-03

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 1317978919

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The field of elections and electoral systems, and particularly electoral reform, has exhibited tremendous growth and cross-national appeal over the last two decades. However, beyond an increased knowledge of voting rules and their consequences for political representation, little attention has been devoted to the question of why electoral systems have recently undergone substantial change in several liberal democracies. This book addresses several new approaches to electoral reform. First, the scope of the study of electoral reform has been expanded. Second, contrary to previous studies of electoral reform, the conviction that the determinants of reform can be explained by one single approach has been replaced by a belief in a more comprehensive framework for analysis. Third, we move beyond political parties (acting in parliament and government) as the most significant source of electoral reform. Fourth, a focus on the determinants of electoral reform allows us to include motivations and objectives of electoral reform. A final advancement in the study of electoral reform is the inclusion of countries other than ‘established’ democracies. This book was published as a special issue of West European Politics.

100 Questions about Women and Politics
100 Questions about Women and Politics

Author: Manon Tremblay

Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

Published: 2018-09-30

Total Pages: 334

ISBN-13: 0773555447

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Both yesterday's suffragists and today's feminists have battled for women to vote and hold office, and their successes have made it possible for countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Iceland, Liberia, and the United Kingdom to have female heads of state. Despite these notable advances, women are still largely underrepresented in parliaments and governments around the world. Why, after so many years of feminist struggle, are women still obstructed from full political citizenship by a glass ceiling? Manon Tremblay's 100 Questions about Women and Politics discusses electoral politics in Canada and abroad, focusing on women's rights to vote and run for office in legislative elections, political parties, voting systems, electoral quotas for women, and participation in parliaments and governments. Against a background of observations taken from academic research, Tremblay uses an innovative approach by dividing her book into 100 questions and answers to address a range of important issues. Are electorates sexist or lesbophobic? Are family responsibilities a real obstacle to women's engagement in politics? What strategies are available to increase the number of female politicians? Are gender quotas democratic? Once elected to office, do women represent women? How does women's political citizenship in Canada compare to that in other countries? A timely book on the unfinished work of representative democracy, 100 Questions about Women and Politics takes a comprehensive yet concise approach to demystifying the major issues dominating the study of gender and government.

National Democratic Reforms in Africa
National Democratic Reforms in Africa

Author: Said Adejumobi

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2015-12-27

Total Pages: 307

ISBN-13: 1137518820

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From putative 'success stories' such as Ghana and Rwanda to failed efforts in Zimbabwe and other countries, this volume brings together seven incisive case studies from diverse contexts including post-war Sierra Leone, Uganda, and the new nation of South Sudan to distil insights into the troubled progress of reform across the African continent.

Canadian Parties in Transition, Fourth Edition
Canadian Parties in Transition, Fourth Edition

Author: Alain-G. Gagnon

Publisher: University of Toronto Press

Published: 2017-01-01

Total Pages: 513

ISBN-13: 1442634707

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Canadian Parties in Transition examines the transformation of party politics in Canada and the possible shape the party system might take in the near future. With chapters written by an outstanding team of political scientists, the book presents a multi-faceted image of party dynamics, electoral behaviour, political marketing, and representative democracy. The fourth edition has been thoroughly updated and includes fifteen new chapters and several new contributors. The new material covers topics such as the return to power of the Liberal Party, voting politics in Quebec, women in Canadian political parties, political campaigning, digital party politics, and municipal party politics.