Books Published by Faculty
Canadian
Local Government: An Urban Perspective
Written by Andrew Sancton
Canadian Local Government: An Urban Perspective by Andrew Sancton is a new ground-up text that focuses on local governments as political institutions. Its objective is to attempt to answer all of the big questions political scientists ask about other political institutions: How are local governments defined? Why do we have them? What do they do? How do they relate to other political institutions? How is power attained and distributed within them? With a strong and powerful voice, Sancton answers these questions by assuming that we need to know as much about how our local governments work as we do about other levels of government and their influences.
The
Three Stigmata of Friedrich Nietzsche:
Political Physiology in the Age of Nihilism
Written by Nandita Biswas Mellamphy
Since the early twentieth century, scholarly debate has revolved around the status of the ‘political’ in the thought of Friedrich Nietzsche. Following Nietzsche’s call for a ‘philosopher-physician’ and his own use of the bodily language of ‘health’ and ‘illness’ as tools to diagnose the ailments of the body politic, this book is the first to offer a reconstruction of the concept of ‘political physiology’ in Nietzsche’s thought. Biswas Mellamphy presents Nietzsche’s political physiology by inter-relating three concepts not usually treated together: great politics, eternal recurrence, and the philosopher of the future. By bridging some of the interpretive gaps between the Anglo-American, German and French schools of interpretation, Nietzsche’s political physiology is presented as a politics of subjective transmutation within the context of that pervasive pathological condition of modernity called ‘nihilism’. This book charts the pathology of nihilism in Nietzsche’s thought and argues that Nietzsche’s political physiology is, first and foremost, a politics of emergent ontology.
The
Politics of Acknowledgement: Truth Commissions in Uganda and Haiti
Written by Joanna R. Quinn
The Politics of Acknowledgement develops a theoretical framework of acknowledgement with which to explain and assess how instruments of transitional justice such as truth and reconciliation commissions should operate. Rather than applying this framework to successful tribunals, Joanna Quinn uses it to evaluate the difficulties encountered and the ultimate failure of truth commissions in two countries -- Uganda and Haiti. Analysis of these commissions reveals that if reconciliation is to be achieved, acknowledgement of past violence and harm -- by both victims and perpetrators -- must come before goals such as forgiveness, social trust, civic engagement, and social cohesion.
Voting
Behaviour in Canada
Edited by Cameron D. Anderson Laura B. Stephenson
Can election results be explained, given that each ballot reflects the influence of countless impressions, decisions, and attachments? Leading young scholars of political behaviour piece together a comprehensive portrait of the modern Canadian voter to reveal the challenges of understanding election results. By systematically exploring the long-standing attachments, short-term influences, and proximate factors that influence our behaviour in the voting booth, this theoretically grounded and methodologically advanced collection sheds new light on the choices we make as citizens and provides important insights into recent national developments.
Social
and Political Bonds A Mosaic of Contrast and Convergence
Written by F.M. Barnard
Is it possible to bridge the gap between the state’s secrecy and the people who are ruled? Social and Political Bonds argues that mediation between people and purposes, parts and wholes, voluntariness and coercion, not only can but must occur in a fair society and outlines a range of strategies that can be used to join seemingly irreconcilable social and political contexts.
Warning specifically against official moralistic rhetoric, the ignoring of civic demands, and hidden acts of power by anonymous governmental bureaucracies and lobbyists, F.M. Barnard uses an approach that blurs the boundaries of specialized fields of study in order to recognize the degree to which individual choice influences political force. He also shows how any attempt to achieve a balance between the state and society requires a developed political judgment and a measured view of what can be politically attained and demanded.
A masterfully clear work that synthesizes centuries of political theory, Social and Political Bonds makes a powerful and well-reasoned case for the benefits of civic involvement and governmental cooperation.
Frederick Barnard is professor emeritus in the Department of Political Science at Western.
La Subversión Ética de la Realidad: Crisis y Renovación del Pensamiento
Crítico Latinoamericano
Written by Andrés Pérez-Baltodano
The first part of the book offers an assessment of Latin American Marxism and analyzes the relationship between Marxism and Liberation Theology. The second part of the book articulates a normative foundation for "a new relation between critical theology and social science in Latin America".
Media,
Democracy and Freedom. The Post Communist Experience.
Edited by Marta Dyczok and Oxana Gaman-Golutyina
New publication, now available, Marta Dyczok and Oxana Gaman-Golutvina (eds.) Media, Democracy and Freedom. The Post Communist Experience (Peter Lang, 2009)
This volume brings together papers from an international group of scholars from various disciplines who, 'explore the complex relations between media, society, and the state, in this region over the past twenty years, and present theoretical arguments which challenge dominant views.'
Islam’s Predicament
Perspectives of a Dissident Muslim
by Salim Mansur
“In the face of Muslim extremism and terror that went global with 9/11, there remains the urgent need for Muslims to confront and repudiate those who have perverted their faith, or hijacked it, and made of Islam an ideology of bigotry and war (jihad).
Islam’s Predicament is a small effort in that urgently needed larger and wider struggle against radical Muslims, or Islamists, who have wrecked the Muslim world and have spread fear and violence indiscriminately among non-Muslims.”
- Salim Mansur, from the Preface
Entre
el Estado Conquistador y el Estado Nación
Written by Andrés Pérez-Baltodano
This book analyzes the impact of religious beliefs on Nicaraguan political culture and political institutions. More specifically, it provides an interpretation of the way in which ideas of God held by Nicaraguan elites have conditioned the way they understand history and their role in it.
The book uses a comparative-historical approach that elucidates the specificity of the religious and political culture of Nicaragua. This approach rejects the premise of secularism that is implied in most social science studies of Latin American political and institutional history.
Foundations
of Governance: Municipal Government in Canada's Provinces
Edited by Andrew Sancton and Robert Young
Municipalities are responsible for many essential services and have become vital agents for implementing provincial policies, including those dealing with the environment, emergency planning, economic development, and land use. In Foundations of Governance, experts from each of Canada's provinces come together to assess the extent to which municipal governments have the capacity to act autonomously, purposefully, and collaboratively in the intergovernmental arena.
Each chapter follows a common template in order to facilitate comparison and covers essential features such as institutional structures, municipal functions, demography, and municipal finances. Canada's municipalities function in diverse ways but have similar problems and, in this way, are illustrative of the importance of local democracy. Foundations of Governance shows that municipal governments require the legitimacy granted by a vibrant democracy in order to successfully negotiate and implement important collective choices about the futures of communities.
Do Think Tanks Matter? Assessing the Impact of Public Policy Institutes,
Second Edition (Revised and Expanded.)
Written by Donald Abelson
Think tank directors often credit their institutes with influencing major policy debates and government legislation and many journalists and scholars believe the explosion of think tanks in the latter part of the twentieth century indicates their growing importance in the policy-making process. Abelson goes beyond assumptions, identifying the influence and relevance of public policy institutes in today’s political arena in the United States, where they've become an integral feature of the political landscape, and in Canada, where, despite recent growth in numbers, they enjoy less prominence than their US counterparts. By focusing on the policy cycle, issue articulation, policy formation, and implementation, Abelson argues that individual think tanks have sometimes played an important role in shaping the political dialogue and the policy preferences and choices of decision-makers but often in different ways and at different stages of the policy cycle.
This revised and updated edition of the book includes up-to-date data (2000-08) on the growing visibility and policy relevance of think tanks in Canada and the United States.
Reconciliation(s)
Transitional Justice in Postconflict Societies
Edited by Joanna R. Quinn
The transformation of conflict and post-conflict societies through transitional justice is now key to the process of peacebuilding. Various mechanisms, including trials, truth commissions, and apologies, are now seen as essential in effecting societal change. It is widely argued that reconciliation is a key element of this process. Yet scholars and practitioners alike have little understanding as to what it is or how it works.
Reconciliation(s) considers the definition of the concept of reconciliation itself, which means different things to different people. The definitional dialogue that arises from the book attempts to situate “reconciliation” within a theoretical and analytical framework. The contributing authors espouse competing definitions, although all agree on its important function in building relationships of trust and cohesion. The essays in this book also consider the nature and utility of reconciliation in a number of contexts, evaluating both its function and efficacy.
This book provides a comprehensive evaluation of reconciliation as a means of bringing about social healing.
The
Limits of Boundaries: Why City-regions Cannot be Self-governing
Written by Andrew Sancton
Andrew Sancton combines his own broad knowledge of global changes with an outline and comparison of the viewpoints of prominent social scientists to argue that city regions in western liberal democracies will not and cannot be self-governing. Self-government requires a territory delineated by official boundaries, but the multiple boundaries of city-regions, unlike the clear and undisputed boundaries of provinces and states, continue to move outward due to the constant growth and expansion of urban populations and services.
The Limits of Boundaries clearly shows that difficulties in reaching agreements on boundaries fatally limit the capacity of city-regions to be self-governing.
Lectures on the Relations between Law and Public Opinion in England during the Nineteenth Century
by A.V. Dicey, edited by Richard VandeWetering
Dicey's Law and Public Opinion is a famous attempt by our Edwardian Liberal to make sense of nineteenth-century British legal and political trends. This Liberty Fund edition, edited and with an introduction by Richard VandeWetering, makes the book available to 21st century students of Liberalism.
Governing the Post-Communist City: Institutions and Democratic Development in Prague
Written by Martin Horak
When faced with the rapid and disorienting transition from communism to democracy, many eastern European leaders sought simple, immediately rewarding answers to complex policy problems. Through an analysis of urban politics in Prague between 1990 and 2000, Governing the Post-Communist City shows how this phenomenon affected post-communist democratic development at the local level.
Focusing on the issues of road infrastructure and downtown development, Martin Horak demonstrates that political leaders’ reliance on short-term policy solutions in the early 1990s enabled pre-democratic institutional forms to survive the early post-communist period, with negative consequences for the quality of local democracy in the longer term.
Do Think Tanks Matter? Assessing the Impact of Public Policy Institutes
Written by Donald Abelson
Do Think Tanks Matter? Assessing the Impact of Public Policy Institutes (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2002) has been published in Arabic by the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research. This book makes a comparative study of research institutes in the United States and Canada by studying their development, their various kinds, and the prominent institutes that represent them in the two countries.
The author approaches the subject by focusing on the impact of these institutes on public policies of the two countries and employs a distinctive method of comparison that is different from the conventional methods that are usually limited to historical studies on the development of these institutes, a description of their organizational structures, etc.
Continuity and Change in Canadian Politics
Edited by Cristine de Clercy, et al
The state of Canadian politics is in constant flux. Current and recent issues and events have led to a host of changes in the way politics is done in this country and there are no signs of this trend coming to an end. In Continuity and Change in Canadian Politics, Hans J. Michelmann and Cristine de Clercy, along with some of the leading names in Canadian political scholarship, provide a many-sided assessment of contemporary Canadian government and politics to honour the career of their eminent colleague, David E. Smith.
A Capitol Idea Think Tanks and U.S. Foreign Policy
Written by Donald Abelson
A Capitol Idea Think Tanks and U.S. Foreign Policy reveals the extent to which think tanks in the United States have become active and vocal participants in the foreign policy-making process. In this timely exploration, Donald Abelson re-evaluates the role of these complex organizations and looks at how political influence is achieved on Capitol Hill and in the White House.
Science & International Environmental Policy: Regimes and Nonregimes in Global Governance
Written by Radoslav S. Dimitrov
The book explores the connection between ideas and collective action in world politics, by investigating the role of expert information in creating environmental treaties. It compares successful negotiations (on ozone depletion and acid rain) with failures to create policy agreements (on deforestation and coral reefs degradation). The findings clarify which types of knowledge motivate cooperation and shape the emergence of multilateral institutions.
Drifting Together: The Political Economy of Canada-US Integration
Written by John N. McDougall
This book examines the effects of North American free trade on Canada-US relations beyond the dimensions of trade and investment flows. Specifically, its chapters trace the impact of the FTA/NAFTA on Canada’s cultural policies; communications regulations; cross-border regional interactions; social policy; defence and security policy; and foreign policies beyond the Canada-US relationship. Distinctively, the study sets the transformation of Canada-US relations resulting from free trade against the backgrounds of both economic history and theories of economic and political integration. In doing so, it argues the case that, while the members of the NAFTA are highly unlikely ever to undertake the form of political integration adopted by the European Union, Canada is already engaged a process of policy harmonization with the United States that amounts to political integration by stealth. Thus, the “integration question” in North America is, for Canada, essentially a question of preserving its democracy.
Do Think Tanks Matter?
Written by Don Abelson
Explores how and to what extent think tanks in the United States and Canada have become entrenched in the policy-making process. Among other things, the book argues that think tanks in both countries matter, but often in different ways and at different times in the policy cycle.
The Myth of the Sacred
Edited by Donald E. Abelson, et al
The Myth of the Sacred is a collection of articles by leading experts in Canada and the United States who challenge many of the underlying normative principles of the Canadian constitution. In short, it examines how various domestic groups have used the Constitution to advance their own political interests at the expense of the public interest.
Workplace Equality: International Perspectives on Legislation, Policy and Practices
Edited by Carol Agócs
As a unique international comparative survey and assessment of affirmative action and employment equity policies, Workplace Equality is a sourcebook for researchers, practitioners and students in the fields of public policy, employment law, sociology, industrial relations and human rights.
NATO and the Bomb
Written by Erika Simpson
During the Cold War, the Canadian government's approach to NATO and nuclear weapons raised eyebrows, provoked newspaper headlines, and angered Americans and Europeans alike. In NATO and the Bomb, Erika Simpson explains contemporary defence decisions and Canada's support—or lack thereof—for NATO.
The Grand Alliance and Ukrainian Refugees
Written by Marta Dyczok
This study explores the role of refugees in international relations by looking at the largest involuntary migration of Ukrainians in history. Using both Western and newly available Soviet sources it sheds light on Grand Alliance policies towards World War II Ukrainian refugees. It demonstrates how the activities of this particular group of refugees had an impact on international refugee policy and provides insight into the origins of the Cold War.
Ukraine: Change Without Movement, Movement Without Change
Written by Marta Dyczok
Ukraine has surprised many international observers. Few anticipated its declaration of independence in 1991 or its determination to move out of Russia's shadow. Dyczok redresses the continuing dearth of information on the country. Aimed at nonspecialists and specialists alike, it presents an overview of the main government policies, and the social and cultural issues facing the new state. These are placed within their historical, regional and global framework. In contrast with the generally bleak picture that international media reports present, the book suggests that Ukraine has actually accomplished a great deal in a short time. In seven years, from 1991 to 1998, Ukraine went from being a little-known nation within a non-democratic state to an internationally recognized independent country. During this period of change, it contributed to the geopolitical shift which occurred with the implosion of the Soviet Union. As such, it may be argued, Ukraine has a role to play in the search for the new international order.
Merger Mania
Written by Andrew Sancton
Merger Mania began as a consultant's report for the City of Westmount, Quebec. At a time when the Mayor of Montreal was urging that the Government of Quebec sponsor legislation merging all the municipalities on the Island of Montreal, I was asked to write a comprehensive summary of past debates about municipal amalgamation throughout the democratic world, with an emphasis on Canada. The report was initially published privately and then by McGill-Queen's University Press.
Canada and the Beijing Conference on Women
Written by Elizabeth Riddell-Dixon
Elizabeth Riddell-Dixon relates the findings of her study to two broad concerns in the literature on Canadian foreign policy making. First, she assesses the relative importance to foreign policy of developments in the international arena, on the one hand, and domestic pressures, on the other. Second, she considers the effectiveness of government efforts to democratize foreign policy.
Political Morality: A Theory of Liberal Democracy
Written by Richard Vernon
This book, which continues Richard Vernon's work on citizenship, discusses the relationship between freedom and equality in contemporary political theory. Rejecting the foundational claims of liberalism, it situates political freedom within a model of discursive democracy, and in doing so raises questions about the legitimacy of current political institutions.
The Politics and Economics of Eric Kierans: A Man for All Canada
Written by John McDougall
Eric Kierans appealed to me a subject for several reasons. For one, he was a major voice for Canadian nationalism during the 1970s and early 1980s and, in particular, had opposed the Mackenzie Valley pipeline proposal, a subject I had written about. For another, he was one of the few members of the first Trudeau government who had also served – together with René Levesque – as a minister in Quebec, so I thought he would have some interesting thoughts on national unity. Finally, I had met him several times, and had come to admire him as a man of conviction and integrity – a model politician in fact.
Thanks for your efforts on this project.
Canada and the International Seabed
Written by Elizabeth Riddell-Dixon
Canada’s policy on deep seabed mining. Elizabeth Riddell-Dixon argues that Canada’s position was determined by certain influential actors in the federal government. Lawyers in the Department of External Affairs and officers from the Department of Energy, Mines, and Resources formed the dominant coalition in the interaction between federal-provincial decision-makers, labour unions, and business groups.
Global Justice
Written by Charles Jones
What obligations do wealthy people have to ensure that the world's poor achieve a quality of life that is recognizably human? This is the fundamental question of international distributive justice and one that has only been seriously debated in the last twenty-five years. This highly informative work analyzes the relative merits of the core moral perspectives framing the debates, including the universalist, nationalist, patriotism, and relativist. It presents an engaging argument for universal basic human rights, making it an ideal resource for anyone interested in political theory, philosophy, international relations, development studies, and moral philosophy.
Return to the State
Written by Adam Harmes
In 1999, the growing backlash against free-market globalization became visible in the "battle of Seattle" and other large-scale protests around the world. Now, anti-globalization is going mainstream as concerns over terrorism and the offshore outsourcing of jobs provoke a new wave of economic nationalism and trade protectionism. Many see these trends as foreshadowing the 'end of globalism'. In contrast, The Return of the State charts the emergence of a new global compromise to show why neither the free-market status quo nor the end of globalization are likely scenarios. More likely, it argues, is a return of the state on a more extensive and international scale.
Unseen Power
Written by Adam Harmes
Part economic and political analysis, part journalistic exposéé, Unseen Power shows how the explosion in mass investment through mutual funds and pension funds represents far more than the growth of a particular industry. Rather, it represents a sea change in the power of the financial markets and an economic, political, and cultural phenomenon that lies behind many recent trends in the new global economy. Many pundits of globalization have focused on the growing power of large multinational corporations. Unseen Power takes a different tack, explaining how fund managers, and not CEOs, have come to wield the greatest clout in the new global economy. In economic terms, this clout has made our financial markets much less efficient and much more prone to booms, busts, and financial crises. In political terms, it has led to a massive shift in the balance of power between Wall Street and Main Street – in favour of the former.
Also from this web page:
