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Calls for the provision of group rights are a common part of politics in Canada. Many liberal theorists consider identity claims a necessary condition of equality, but do these claims do more harm than good? To answer this question, Caroline Dick engages in a critical analysis of liberal identity-driven theories and their application in cases such as Sawridge Band v. Canada, which sets a First Nation’s right to self-determination against indigenous women’s right to equality. She contrasts Charles Taylor’s theory of identity recognition, Will Kymlicka’s cultural theory of minority rights, and Avigail Eisenberg’s theory of identity-related interests with an alternative rights framework that account for both group and in-group differences. Dick concludes that the problem is not the concept of identity itself but the way in which prevailing conceptions of identity and group rights obscure intragroup differences. Instead, she proposes a politics of intragroup difference that has the power to transform rights discourse in Canada.
In the coming decade, we may see the advent of multinational federalism on an international scale. As great powers and international organizations become increasingly uncomfortable with the creation of new states, multinational federalism is now an important avenue to explore, and in recent decades, the experiences of Canada and Quebec have had a key influence on the approaches taken to manage national and community diversity around the world. Drawing on comparative scholarship and several key case studies (including Scotland and the United Kingdom, Catalonia and Spain, and the Quebec-Canada dynamic, along with relations between Indigenous peoples and various levels of government), The Legitimacy Clash takes a fresh look at the relationship between majorities and minorities while exploring theoretical advances in both federal studies and contemporary nationalisms. Alain-G. Gagnon critically examines the prospects and potential for a multinational federal state, specifically for nations seeking affirmation in a hostile context. The Legitimacy Clash reflects on the importance of legitimacy over legality in assessing the conflicts of claims.
Jocelyn Maclure provides a critical reflection on the ways in which Quebec's identity has been articulated since the 1960s' Quiet Revolution. He shows how neither the melancholic nationalism of the Montreal school, Hubert Aquin, Pierre Valli res, Fernand Dumont and their followers, nor the individualist anti-nationalism of Pierre Trudeau and his followers provide identity stories and political projects adequate for contemporary Quebec. In articulating an alternative narrative Maclure reframes the debate, detaching the question of Quebec's identity from the question of sovereignty versus federalism and linking it closely to Quebec's cultural diversity and to the consolidation of its democratic sphere. In so doing, he rethinks the conditions of authenticity, leaves space for First Nations' self-determination and takes account of globalization. This edition has been expanded for English-Canadians with additional references as well as a glossary of names, institutions, and concepts."
In this book, political scientists provide a collaborative study of multinational democracies and the difficulties in governing them.
This book explores the debates centred on diversity through a normative and empirical analytical assessment of the political sociology of multinational democracies and the institutional possibilities associated with federalism.
Since the Charter of Rights and Freedoms was introduced, Canada has experienced more than twenty-five years of constitutional politics and countless debates about the future of Canada. There has, however, been no systematic attempt to identify general theories about Canada's constitutional evolution. Patrick James corrects this oversight. By adding clarity to familiar debates, this succinct assessment of major writings on constitutional politics sharpens our vision of the past � and the future � of the Canadian federation.
Nationalism has long been a potent political force in Scotland and Quebec. Hierarchies of Belonging explores the construction of national identity and nationalism and its effect on how citizens of Scotland and Quebec understand their relationship to the nation and the state.
Including contributions from leading scholars in the field from both Australia and North America, this collection explores diverse approaches to writing the lives of historians and ways of assessing the importance of doing so. Beginning with the writing of autobiographies by historians, the volume then turns to biographical studies, both of historians whose writings were in some sense nation-defining and those who may be regarded as having had a major influence on defining the discipline of history. The final section explores elements of collective biography, linking these to the formation of historical networks. A concluding essay by Barbara Caine offers a critical appraisal of the study of...
To revitalize politics we need to abandon the idea that ideologies evolve from "right" to "left", from conservatism to socialism, and look at our political differences in terms of the distinction, more familiar in the arts, between classicism and romanticism. She argues that by abandoning our current modes of debate and rediscovering the Enlightenment liberalism that is an enduring part of our political tradition we will help to recreate Canada as a place of debate on fundamentals, not one in which a monolithic definition of identity answers all questions in advance.
Beginning with an examination of the role of traditional institutions such as Parliament, Cabinet, the Supreme Court, and political parties, Canada: State of the Federation 2002 affirms the long-held belief that these bodies do not provide effective forums for interregional bargaining, creating a void that has been filled at least in part by executive federalism. Contributors conclude that the performance of traditional institutions, taken as a whole, has deteriorated over the last several decades, placing more pressure on the processes of executive federalism.