According to several authors, the politics of recognition are at an impasse. The politicization of identity, they claim, relies on a hermetic and essentialist conception of culture. Although this critique hits the target in some specific circumstances, nevertheless it misrepresents the more general process of intercultural mediation triggered by the politics of recognition. That said, the emphasis on the end-state of substantive recognition does seem to lead to an impasse. The struggles for recognition, and the identities that underlie these struggles, are too plural, convoluted and fluid to be theorized as quests for definitive recognition. Thus, identity politics ought also to be seen as agonic games of mutual disclosure which participate in the ongoing reconfiguration of the norms of public recognition inherent in democratic politics.

This article critically analyzes Carole Pateman's novel and provocative reading of social contract theory in her now-classic work, The Sexual Contract. Pateman posits the existence of a sexual contract prior to the social contract which she argues has been suppressed in the tradition of Western political thought. The article indicates some of the potential weaknesses with constructing a gendered critique of contract theory through the lens of a sexual contract. The author specifically focuses on Pateman's re-interpretation of the patriarchalism of Hobbes and Locke to make this case.

This article follows Hobbes's distinction between man as the artificer of a commonwealth and man as the material of the commonwealth, by exploring the meaning of natural right and consent from the perspective of an artificer or potential sovereign. From this perspective, natural rights are transformed from alleged attributes of humans into decisions by a victor in war to treat the defeated as if they had natural rights. Similarly, consent is transformed from actions of subjects or citizens into a decision by a victor to recognize the defeated as if they had a right to consent and to treat them as if they had consented. Moreover, Hobbes's concept of a commonwealth by institution is understood as a definitional standard for the creation of commonwealths by force or acquisition, rather than as a possible historical event. Hobbes sought to explain and substantiate this view of natural right and consent by comparing the emergence of political authority from victory in war to the emergence of authority of a mother over her infant in a state of nature. According to Hobbes, just as maternal authority rests on a mother's recognition of the right of her infant to consent, political authority rests on the victor's recognition of the right of the defeated to consent. The practical policy thrust of Hobbes's thought emerges from his comparison of the authority of mothers and conquerors.

This article attempts to clarify the controversies Charles Taylor's thoughts on group rights and identity politics have generated by exploring the constitutional and normative dimensions of Taylor's approach to the problem of political fragmentation, what he calls "deep diversity." In doing so, it makes a qualified defence of Taylor against his critics while also sketching an alternative route to deep diversity. The latter responds to the critics' concerns about the actual forms of accommodation or recognition that Taylor's thought sanctifies while preserving the normative core of his model.

In order to remedy the difficulties arising from his lifeworld/system distinction, such as the inability of his theory to account for the possibility of legitimate political power, Jürgen Habermas' attention turned toward greater abstraction through an appeal to legal theory as the basis of political consensus in the face of problems of diversity, complexity and pluralism in the modern world. This turn is made possible by an appropriation of some concepts of liberal theory, specifically John Rawls's ideas of "overlapping consensus" and "reflective equilibrium." The author argues that Habermas' insufficiently critical appropriation of these concepts leads to an inadequate account of political power that takes the existing political order as already legitimate, thereby compromising the critical thrust of his own theory.

This article considers the question: should rights extended to cultural communities to help them preserve themselves include the right to discipline dissident members who violate cultural norms? The case of the Pueblo Protestants is employed to consider two important defences of cultural rights (revisionist liberal and cultural communitarian) that offer conflicting answers. Both are found unsatisfactory because of their implicit reliance on "cultural monism" (that is, the assumption that individuals identify with only one cultural community). An approach to defining cultural rights is then outlined that avoids this assumption and its application is illustrated with respect to the Pueblo case.

The role played by the middle powers in international economic negotiations is neglected by the literature on the subject. However, in an international trade negotiation characterized by a configuration of global asymmetry but with a relative symmetry between the dominant actors, the role played by the middle powers such as Canada constitutes a central factor in the success of the negotiation. Taking the example of the prenegotiations of the Free Trade Area of the Americas, this article shows how the middle powers facilitated the success of this crucial phase for the continuation of the negotiations. Le rôle joué par les puissances moyennes dans les négociations économiques internationales n'a pas beaucoup retenu l'attention des chercheurs. Pourtant, dans une négociation commerciale internationale caractérisée par une configuration d'asymétrie globale de pouvoir mais de symétrie relative entre les acteurs dominants, le rôle joué par les puissances moyennes comme le Canada constitue un facteur central dans la réussite de la négociation. Prenant l'exemple des pré-négociations de la Zone de libre-échange des Amériques, cet article démontre comment les puissances moyennes ont facilité la réussite de cette phase cruciale de la poursuite des négociations.

This article reports on a subset of results from a field-based research project that interviewed rural women community leaders in Atlantic Canada about their experiences and perceptions of leadership, public life and running for elected office. The project is motivated in part by an effort to understand why relatively few women are elected to public office in rural regions in general, and in Atlantic Canada in particular. This article focuses on a theme that emerged consistently and intensely during the interviews: participants' moral disapproval of, and aversion to, political life as they understand it in their local environment. Interviewees in all four Atlantic provinces describe deeply entrenched networks of patronclient relations that are played out in the administration of regional economic development programmes, and identify deterrents to their own electoral ambitions therein. These results are brought to bear on the question of what distinguishes the nature of political representation in rural communities from that in urban centres.

BLAIS, ANDRÉ, ELISABETH GIDENGIL, RICHARD NADEAU AND NEIL NEVITTE. Anatomy of a Liberal Victory: Making Sense of the Vote in the 2000 Canadian Election. By Linda Trimble 187

NEVITTE, NEIL, ed. Value Change and Governance in Canada. By Donald E. Blake 188

MONIÈRE, DENIS. Pour comprendre le nationalisme au Québec et ailleurs. Par François- Pierre Gingras 190

LAMOUREUX, DIANE. L'amère patrie. Féminisme et nationalisme dans le Québec contemporain. Par Édith Garneau 192

MACLURE, JOCELYN. Récits identitaires. Le Québec à l'épreuve du pluralisme. Par Geneviève Nootens 195

MASSOLIN, PHILIP. Canadian Intellectuals, The Tory Tradition, and the Challenge of Modernity, 1939-1970. By William Christian 197

BETCHERMANN, LITA-ROSE. Ernest Lapointe: Mackenzie King's Great Quebec Lieutenant. By Robert Bothwell 198

BRODIE, IAN. Friends of the Court: The Privileging of Interest Groups Litigants in Canada. By Miriam Smith 200

ROACH, KENT. The Supreme Court on Trial: Judicial Activism or Democratic Dialogue. By Gerald Baier 202

BERNIER, ROBERT. Un siècle de propagande? Information. Communication. Marketing gouvernemental. Par Anne-Marie Gingras 203

JOFFRIN, LAURENT. Le gouvernement invisible. Naissance d'une démocratie sans le peuple. Par Réjean Pelletier 205

LUXTON, MEG AND JUNE CORMAN. Getting By in Hard Times: Gendered Labour at Home and on the Job. By Stephanie Ross 207

VILLALBA, BRUNO ET XAVIER VANDENDRIESSCHE, sous la direction de. Le Front National et le Droit. Par Alain Baccigalupo 209

HAYNES, JEFF. Democracy in the Developing World: Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. By Bruce Morrison 212

DEFFONTAINES, JEAN-PIERRE ET JEAN-PIERRE PROD'HOMME. Territoires et acteurs du développement local : de nouveaux lieux de démocratie. Par Guy Chasson 214

CORRALES, JAVIER. Presidents without Parties: The Politics of Economic Reform in Argentina and Venezuela in the 1990s. By Anil Hira 215

JEFFREY, LESLIE ANN. Sex and Borders: Gender, National Identity, and Prostitution Policy in Thailand. By Teri Caraway 216

GAUDREAULT-DESBIENS, JEAN-FRANÇOIS. Le sexe et le droit. Sur le féminisme de Catharine MacKinnon. Par Ann Robinson 218

HAFFNER, SEBASTIAN. Allemagne, 1918. Une révolution trahie. Par Augustin Simard 220

CRAIG, LEON HAROLD. Of Philosophers and Kings: Political Philosophy in Shakespeare's Macbeth and King Lear. By Edward Andrew 223

LECA, JEAN. Pour(quoi) la philosophie politique : petit traité de science politique, Tome 1. Par Chedly Belkhodja 225

PIOTTE, JEAN-MARC. Les neufs clés de la modernité. Par Gilles Labelle 227

NARDIN, TERRY. The Philosophy of Michael Oakeshott. By Jeremy Rayner 228

RAEDER, LINDA C. John Stuart Mill and the Religion of Humanity. By Richard Vernon 230

FROESE, KATRIN. Rousseau and Nietzsche: Toward an Aesthetic Morality. By Sophie Bourgault 231

TOURAINE, ALAIN. Beyond Neoliberalism. By Pascale Dufour 233

BAUDRILLARD, JEAN. D'un fragment l'autre. Entretiens avec François L'Yvonnet. Par Yves Laberge 234

WYN JONES, RICHARD, ed. Critical Theory and World Politics. By Jacqueline Best 235

DERRIENNIC, JEAN-PIERRE. Les guerres civiles. Par Hugo Loiseau 236

O'LEARY, BRENDAN, IAN LUSTICK AND TOM CALLAGHY, eds. Right-Sizing the State: The Politics of Moving Borders. By Tobias Theiler 237

BARNETT, MICHAEL. Eyewitness to a Genocide: The United Nations and Rwanda. By John Hickman 239

GOLDSTEIN, AVERY. Deterrence and Security in the 21st Century: China, Britain, France and the Enduring Legacy of the Nuclear Revolution. By David G. Haglund 240