In a recent article, “An Environmental Case Against Equality of Right,” Professor Lewis argues for no less than the complete rejection of those highly-prized liberal values upon which much of the institutional framework of Western societies has been built, the values of civil peace, unlimited acquisition, and equality of right. This radical recommendation is urged on the basis of the mundane and, until very recently, much-ignored problem of environmental destruction. Lewis’ environmental case is (1) that equality of right, which is recommended by Hobbes as the necessary condition of civil peace, “logically entails”—and this is clear, he contends, from Locke's use of the concept in the Second Treatise—the right of unlimited appropriation; (2) that unlimited appropriation destroys nature and ultimately man; and (3) that we must consequently rethink our allegiance to unlimited appropriation, to equality of right (because it logically entails unlimited appropriation), and to civil peace (whose necessary condition is equality of right), and be prepared to accept alternative theoretical foundations upon which to reconstruct our major social institutions. While this attack on unlimited acquisition will undoubtedly strike a responsive chord among many social critics, the concomitant rejection of the Hobbesian hope of civil peace and of equality of right will receive a much less hospitable welcome. But the catch in Lewis’ argument is that we cannot get rid of the former without jettisoning the latter two at the same time. If his analysis of this matter is correct, then the costs of preventing the further destruction of nature and the future demise of man are extremely high, much higher than most critics have yet been willing to recognize.

This article seeks to contribute to the debate on the ethical and political meaning of the French Enlightenment, more specifically concerning the religious implications of the idea of popular sovereignty as it is put in place at the time of the French Revolution. The study of the social status of religion in two thoughts elaborated before and after the Revolution shows the clear opposition between Rousseau's “civil religion” with its perspective of a moral regeneration of man, and Tocqueville's “democratic religion” with its liberal perspective. But it also reveals the ambivalence they share in their attempt to think through the problem of the “common soul” of a society where legitimacy rests only on its self-institution.

Cette note de recherche a deux objectifs. Premièrement, nous présentons l'index relatif de confiance (IRC), une nouvelle mesure du potentiel de croissance et de la solidité du vote basée sur la probabilité exprimée par les électeurs de voter pour l'ensemble des partis dans leur circonscription. Nous nous penchons en détail sur les avantages de l'IRC et montrons qu'il permet d’évaluer le potentiel de croissance et la solidité du vote des partis politiques au niveau des circonscriptions et au niveau provincial. Deuxièmement, nous appliquons cet index au cas du Parti québécois à l'aide d’échantillons de grandes tailles récoltés pendant les campagnes électorales québécoises de 2012, 2014, et 2018. Cela nous permet d'illustrer et de tirer des constats sur le potentiel de croissance du Parti québécois.

Comparative Constitutionalism and Good Governance in the Commonwealth: An Eastern and Southern African Perspective, John Hatchard, Muna Ndulo and Peter Slinn, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. xxv, 361

This is a magisterial tome in both substance and style. It is comprehensive, almost encyclopaedic; it also presents the perspective of “constitutional lawyers” (4), at least until the “retreat” towards the political science in the concluding, thirteenth chapter (310). Reflective of their trade, the trio of authors include lists of cases, constitutions, statutes and other instruments, with page references, as well as a comprehensive index of almost 20 pages. The volume presents the significant conceptual advances in comparative constitutionalism in anglophone Africa since independence, including democratic pressures towards “good governance” advanced through the Commonwealth nexus (1); but it also comes to lament the continuing existential constraints on “constitutional governance” (308). It offers welcome comparative analysis of a dozen countries and myriad regimes over four decades.

Je tiens à remercier André Blais qui a dirigé le mémoire de maîtrise à l'origine de cet article, ainsi qu'Anne–Marie Gingras et Louis Massicotte qui l'ont évalué. Je remercie aussi Angelo Élias pour avoir lu et commenté une version antérieure de ce texte, de même que les évaluateurs anonymes de la Revue. Je tiens à souligner que la réalisation de cette recherche a bénéficié de l'aide financière du Département de science politique de l'Université de Montréal et du Fonds québécois de la recherche sur la société et la culture.

Filibuster: Obstruction and Lawmaking in the US Senate, Gregory J. Wawro and Eric Schickler, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006, pp. xx, 326.

The US Senate presents observers with a paradox. It is a strong and influential legislative chamber, whose strength and influence derive in great part from unique rules and norms that not only allow but genuinely celebrate obstructionism, and techniques that encourage the frustration of the democratic majority by unrestricted parliamentary gamesmanship. The filibuster—a tactic whose purpose is to prevent the accomplishment of legislative business—is a fundamental, defining characteristic of both Senate procedure and the Senate's institutional self-image. How does the Senate—with its jealously guarded traditions of unlimited debate, universal recognition, and disregard for germaneness—ever manage to get anything done?

Histoire des relations internationales du Québec, Stéphane Paquin (dir.), 2006, Montréal : VLB Éditeur, 357 pages.

Les relations internationales désignent généralement les rapports entre pays indépendants sur la scène internationale. Or, Histoire des relations internationales du Québec illustre le fait que les relations internationales ne sont pas exclusivement du domaine fédéral. L'ouvrage admet d'emblée qu'elles sont aussi animées par des États provinciaux. Dans le cas présent, ce sont les relations internationales du Québec qui intéressent les 20 auteurs de ce collectif.

Le développement et l'institutionnalisation de la statistique sociale sont intimement liés à l'État. En effet, trés tôt dans l'histoire de l'État moderne, celui–ci devint un important patron de la production statistique et l'État est aujourd'hui un producteur direct de statistiques via ses organismes nationaux. Quels facteurs ont bien pu motiver les gouvernements à investir le champ de la mesure de la société?

The Politics of Free Markets: The Rise of Neoliberal Economic Policies in Britain, France, Germany, and the United States, Monica Prasad, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006 pp. 328, ix.

Following the Second World War many western democracies embarked on an expansion of their respective welfare states. This effort would be effectively stopped, even reversed, with the development of neoliberal policies within established parties of the right. In other states, neoliberalism was effectively blocked from affecting public policy. Monica Prasad's book is an effort to explain the success or failure of neoliberalism in western democracies.

Le débat public en apprentissage—Aménagement et environnement : Regards croisés sur les expériences française et québécoise, Louis Simard, Laurent Lepage, Jean-Michel Fourniau, Michel Gariépy et Mario Gauthier (sous la direction de), Paris : L'Harmattan, collection Villes et entreprises, 2006, 315 pp.

L'ouvrage collectif franco-québécois, Le débat public en apprentissage—Aménagement et environnement, se propose de faire un bilan des mécanismes de consultation publique au Québec et en France. Les institutions qui encadrent ces débats publics, surtout en environnement, en énergie et en construction routière, nous semblent relativement récentes, mais dans certains cas, comme dans celui du BAPE (Bureau d'audiences publiques sur l'environnement) au Québec, elles fonctionnent depuis maintenant plusieurs décennies, et l'heure est donc aux bilans. Ou, comme le soulignent des contributeurs français, on est prêt à un “ débat sur le débat ”. Pour dresser ce bilan, on a eu la bonne idée de faire appel à des praticiens et à des universitaires, et ce, des deux côtés de l'Atlantique. Le résultat est un volume riche en pistes et en idées dont l'intégration est cependant laissée au soin des lecteurs.

I have a high regard for Frank Cunningham and his work, on socialism, on democratic theory—and on C.B. Macpherson. To take one example, his new introductions to the recent reissues of Macpherson's books from Oxford University Press, including The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism and Democratic Theory: Essays in Retrieval, are excellent. Lucid and informative, they highlight the value Macpherson's ideas hold for contemporary political thought. So I am grateful that he has offered so fulsome a critical response to my book—even though he finds my approach, based on the idea that there is a suppressed philosophical dimension in Macpherson's work, though (dubiously) audacious, to be of limited accuracy or usefulness—indeed ultimately misguided. It results, he claims, in an analysis that “detracts from Macpherson's political-theoretical and political strengths.”

Training the Excluded for Work: Access and Equity for Women, Immigrants, First Nations, Youth, and People with Low Income, Marjorie Griffin Cohen, ed., Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2003, pp. 276.

Training the Excluded for Work is an important contribution to debates about the importance and viability of job training policies and programmes that are directed to those who are “excluded” in the Canadian labour market. It is also timely insofar as job training, in contrast to post-secondary education policy, remains somewhat underexamined in Canada. This is particularly ironic, as job training has emerged as a key issue for policy makers, industry, workers and activists. Training is frequently touted as a panacea that will address a host of economic ills including unemployment, low productivity levels and lagging investment. On the one hand, many employer and industry groups view training measures as part of a larger strategy to address the imperatives of a global economy. Here, neoliberal rationales tend to prevail—job training becomes an investment in individual human capital. But on the other hand, job training can also be an important means by which marginalized groups, including youth, women, indigenous groups and racialized minorities, address the terms of their exclusion from (or limited inclusion in) the labour market. In doing so, other rationales come to the fore, most notably the need to address social inequities in the labour market. This edited book addresses this latter aspect of the training policy debate.