Canada is on the threshold of a major transformation in its ethnic and racial profile. Relative rates of immigration from European and non-European countries have reversed during the past 40 years. What impact has this had on the attitudes of the dominant white majority? This article provides a partial answer to this question by examining the attitudes and voting behaviour of this majority when faced with increasing concentrations of visible-minority neighbours. Attitudinal data from the 1997 and 2000 Canadian Election Studies were combined with data from the 1996 census to measure socio-economic status and the visible-minority population of the neighbourhoods occupied by survey respondents. Regression analysis reveals two different contextual effects involving the attitudes of the majority toward visible minorities. Positive attitudes towards visible minorities increase with neighbourhood socio-economic status, a finding consistent with "social identity" theory. However, positive attitudes toward racial minorities decline when the visible-minority population increases, a finding consistent with "realistic conflict" theory. Both contextual effects have implications for voting. Independent of individual characteristics, white voters are more likely to support Reform/Alliance if they live in less-educated environments or among higher numbers of visible-minority neighbours.

Abstract. In this article, I study the conclusions of Mr. Justice David Wright's report on the inquiry into the death of Neil Stonechild, and discuss the incident in the context of Aboriginal-settler relations in Saskatchewan. I view these exemplars of the racism in Saskatchewan's, and Canada's, political culture. I argue that the processes of colonialism are the impulse for the racist ideology that is now encoded in social, political, economic, academic and cultural institutions and practices, and which functions to maintain the status quo of white dominance. Confronting systemic and institutional racism, and de- and re-constructing political culture, are essential for social health and for the possibility of a post-colonial future. Given Saskatchewan's demographic trajectory, which indicates a majority Aboriginal population in the near future, failure to deal with white racism will guarantee social stresses between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal populations, damaging the province's economic and social viability into the future. Therefore, a proactive, self-reflective, anti-racist policy and a strategy for building public support should be a priority for any Saskatchewan government. Social cohesion, a necessary condition for a healthy citizenship regime and a notion of considerable interest to provincial and federal politicians and to academics, cannot be constructed without tackling racism. I conclude by suggesting that decolonization is the necessary political project to eradicate the kinds of systemic practices that arguably killed Neil Stonechild and others.

Résumé. Dans cet article, j'examine les conclusions du rapport de l'enquête du juge David Wright sur la mort de Neil Stonechild. À mon avis, dans le contexte des relations entre Premières Nations et Blancs, l'incident est un exemple du racisme présent dans la culture politique de la Saskatchewan et du Canada. Selon moi, le processus du colonialisme est à la base de l'idéologie raciste qui est désormais encodée dans les institutions et pratiques culturelles, sociales, politiques, économiques et éducatives, et qui maintient le statu quo de la domination des Blancs. Il est essentiel de confronter le racisme institutionnel et systémique, de déconstruire et de reconstruire la culture politique afin de recouvrer une santé sociale et d'entrevoir un avenir postcolonial. Étant donné la trajectoire démographique de la Saskatchewan, qui suggère dans un avenir rapproché une population en majorité composée de Premières nations, l'incapacité d'enrayer le racisme des Blancs ouvrira la porte à des tensions sociales entre les populations des Premières nations et les autres, mettant en danger la viabilité économique et sociale de la province. Ainsi, établir une politique antiraciste, proactive, de même qu'une stratégie de soutien de la part du public devraient être des priorités pour le gouvernement de la Saskatchewan. La cohésion sociale, condition nécessaire d'une saine citoyenneté et notion d'un intérêt considérable pour les politiciens du provincial, du fédéral et pour les universitaires, est impossible sans qu'on s'attaque à la question du racisme. Je conclus en suggérant que la décolonisation est le projet politique indispensable pour mettre fin à des pratiques systémiques dont on peut soutenir qu'elles ont tué Neil Stonechild, parmi d'autres.

Although ministerial political advisors are prominent and influential actors within the core executive in Canada and elsewhere, information is scarce with respect to their personal and professional backgrounds and career trajectory. This article uses recent survey data and publicly available biographical information to analyse the demographic composition of senior ministerial policy advisors within the Government of Canada. It finds that, while ministerial policy staffers are young and politically committed, they are not so young nor so professionally inexperienced as sometimes thought. Nor are they always personally and tightly bound to their current ministers but often work for different ministers in different departments. This suggests that advisors are agents of the whole government as much as agents of their individual ministers and raises questions about the degree to which they are responsive to the Prime Minister's Office, thereby increasing centralization.

Abstract. This study examines the influence of constitutional clauses—which either establish religions (EOR) or separation of religion and state (SRAS)—on state religion policy as measured by the Religion and State (RAS) dataset's religious legislation variable for 166 states. The results show that, even when controlling for structural factors which have been shown to influence the level of religious legislation, constitutional clauses have a significant impact. However, this influence is small compared to structural factors and is limited to the presence or absence of EOR and SRAS clauses. The specific wording of these clauses has minimal, if any, impact on legislation. This study also finds that religious legislation is ubiquitous even in states with SRAS clauses in their constitutions.

Résumé. Cette étude examine l'influence exercée par les clauses constitutionnelles – qui régissent l'établissement d'une religion officielle (EOR) ou la séparation de l'Église et de l'État (SRAS) – sur la politique religieuse des États, telle que mesurée par les données de la législation religieuse de 166 États, celles-ci étant répertoriées dans la base de données RAS (l'Église et l'État). Les résultats montrent que même lorsqu'on étudie les facteurs structurels qui ont une incidence reconnue sur le niveau de législation religieuse, les clauses constitutionnelles ont un impact notable. Leur influence s'avère toutefois faible en comparaison de celle des facteurs structurels et elle se limite à la présence ou à l'absence de clauses EOR et SRAS. La formulation précise de ces clauses influe peu ou pas du tout sur la législation. L'étude conclut également que la législation religieuse est omniprésente, même dans les États dont la constitution comporte des clauses de séparation de l'Église et de l'État.

Résumé. La régionalisation de l'action publique est l'une des évolutions les plus marquantes des États européens depuis les années 1970. Cette évolution présente une opportunité pour examiner, dans le contexte européen, les théories de la compétition interrégionale. C'est ce que cet article se propose de faire à partir de la comparaison de deux cas les plus différents : les politiques d'éducation en France, un État anciennement centralisé où les régions disposent de compétences relativement étroites, et en Allemagne, un État fédéral où les régions possèdent des compétences étendues. L'article montre que ni une course vers le bas, ni une course vers le haut ne s'enclenchent. C'est au contraire une course vers le milieu qui caractérise les relations compétitives entre les régions françaises et allemandes, respectivement, où les gouvernements régionaux tentent de montrer qu'ils font comme les autres afin d'éviter le blâme des électeurs et de l'État central.

Abstract. The regionalization of public policy is one of the most remarkable transformations European states have undergone since the 1970s. Through an examination of this particular development, the article explores theories of interregional competition in two very different cases: education policy in France, a decentralized unitary state where regional governments are entrusted with limited policy competences in this field, and Germany, a federal state where regions have exclusive responsibility over secondary education. The paper shows that, in both cases, interregional competition lends itself neither to a race to the bottom nor a race to the top, but rather to a race to the middle. Regional governments aim, in fact, to demonstrate that they adopt similar policies to other regions so as to avoid being blamed by both the electorate and the central state.

The problem of multilateral international trade looms large in the present plans for the new world economy. The International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development as well as the agreement underlying the United States loan to the United Kingdom aim at establishing a workable system of multilateral international trade. Roughly speaking, the principle of multilateralism requires that each country should be guided in its purchases in other countries solely by the price and quality of goods without taking into consideration whether the supplying countries are or are not buyers of the produce of the country in question. It will be seen that the operation of such a system in balancing foreign trade may create serious difficulties for those countries which pursue a policy of maintaining full employment. Each country at full employment will require a certain volume of necessary imports. Now it is by no means obvious that it will be able to secure under a multilateral trade system a level of exports which will provide it with a sufficient amount of foreign exchange to pay for the volume of imports required at full employment. The country concerned may thus tend to achieve more security in its foreign trade by concluding a series of bilateral agreements with other countries relating in some way imports from and exports to those countries. Or it may enter together with other countries into a “regional block” expecting, on the basis of the economic characteristics of the participants, to be able to secure within the block a large part of the required imports in exchange for its exports. (The trade within the block would be operated on a multilateral basis, while the exchange proceeds from exports to countries outside the block would be “pooled” and allocated to the member countries of the block according to a certain schedule.)

Federal states like Belgium operate under conflicting pressures in the conduct of their international relations: centralizing pressures, on the one hand, imposed by the necessity of speaking with a single voice in order to forge a coherent international policy and decentralizing pressures, on the other, because globalization stimulates a qualitative and quantitative extension of the internal and international roles of substate players, mainly through the international deployment of substate paradiplomacy. This centralization of external affairs and the centrifugal forces introduced by globalization cause problems in this type of system, in which substate entities have numerous fields of jurisdiction. This new phenomenon is not without its risks because it leads to disorder and conflict. In many countries, the development of paradiplomacy by the substate actors creates conflict with the central government. The impression is created that the federal and the substate authorities are condemned to fight a zero-sum struggle for access to the international system, the former seeking to prevent the latter from playing a role in the development of foreign policy and to limit all international action by them. The case of Belgium is of particular interest since its substate entities are the most dynamic regions in the world in international relations. The objective of this article is to evaluate the impact of the Flemish identity paradiplomacy on the foreign policy of the federal state.

In this address, I argue that the organizational and ideational evolution of political science is closely interconnected with Canada’s history and unequal social relations since Confederation. This is because organized political science in Canada was really at heart a national venture. As a consequence, in order to understand the ideas animating early political scientists we have to consider Canada’s foundational status as a settler colony in the North American space, with a privileged place in the British Empire. This perspective may also help to highlight the distinct features of the colonial present which are giving rise to multiple sites of knowledge production-or multiple knowledges.

Résumé. Les théories de la gouvernance à paliers multiples ont tendance à minimiser le rôle du droit dans la structuration des systèmes de gouvernance. Or, la juxtaposition de deux évolutions récentes en matière de gouvernance territoriale au Québec, la gouvernance partagée avec les Autochtones et le projet de régionalisation du gouvernement du Québec, remet ce postulat en question. En effet, la protection constitutionnelle dont bénéficient les clauses de gestion territoriale de traités comme la Convention de la Baie James et du Nord québécois et, plus récemment, l'obligation de consulter découlant de l'arrêt Nation haïda, assurent aux Autochtones un pouvoir plus important que celui qui est offert aux acteurs régionaux par le gouvernement du Québec.

Abstract. Multi-level governance theories have a tendency to minimize the role of law in shaping governance systems. The study of two instances of territorial governance in Quebec, shared governance with the aboriginal peoples and the Quebec government's regionalization initiative, puts this premise in question. The constitutional protection afforded to the land management provisions of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement and, more recently, to the duty to consult flowing from the Haida Nation case give the aboriginal peoples more power than that recognized to regional actors under the Quebec government's initiative.

In December 1966 a study was conducted in the public and separate schools of Kingston, Ontario, to measure the development of political knowledge and attitudes of a group of young Canadian children. The research was patterned after the pioneering effort of F. Greenstein, and many questions similar to his were employed to enable the making of comparisons of patterns of socialization in groups of Canadian and American children.

Past studies have shown that religion plays an important role in voting behaviour in Canada. Yet, little is known about the changes this religious vote has undergone over the past few decades. Using Canadian Election Studies data, we analyze the evolving impact of religious affiliation and level of religiosity on vote choice in federal elections between 1965 and 2011. We find that, as the marginal impact of Catholic and mainline Protestant traditions has declined, the effect of level of religiosity has gained in importance. In 2011, religious citizens were overall more likely to vote Conservative and secular individuals were more likely to vote NDP both in Quebec and in the rest of Canada. Some distinct voting patterns also remain for non-mainline Protestant groups in the ROC and religious nones in Quebec.

This article critically examines the Conservative government's approach to official languages, through a policy instrument framework. Special attention is paid to the third federal roadmap for official languages—the first having been unveiled by the Liberal government in 2003 and the second by the Conservative minority government in 2008—and how this roadmap conveys a new representation of official languages in relation to Canadian identity and citizenship. The focus on the linguistic integration of new immigrants in the 2013 language roadmap generates interest. The policy instrument framework also shows how language roadmaps represent the fourth generation of official language policies in Canada; the first three generations found their respective bases in the 1969 Official Languages Act, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the 1988 Official Languages Act. The article concludes that an analysis of language roadmaps elucidates transformations initiated by the Conservative governments in the area of official languages in Canada. It also promotes further exploration and analysis of language policies through the policy instrument framework.

This article examines relations between organized feminism and the federal Conservative government of Brian Mulroney, focusing on elements of the Canadian women's movement that targeted federal policy change from 1984 to 1993. In questioning the main priorities of both sides and the potential for conflict between them, the discussion uses the conceptual literature on social movement evolution as a base. It assesses formal decision making across five major policy sectors identified by Canadian feminism and presents the perspectives of movement activists on the Mulroney period. Although comparisons with policy action under the Thatcher and Reagan governments indicate a more pro-feminist record in Canada than the United Kingdom or the United States, Canadian materials suggest a narrowing of common ground between the organized women's movement and federal elites during the Mulroney years.

Decades after Gad Horowitz's seminal article first appeared in 1966 in the Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science, fragment theory's capacity to make sense of phenomena for which it might otherwise be difficult to account, still appears relevant. Support for the Reform party/Canadian Alliance is most robust in provinces marked by immigration from the western United States. By contrast, provinces where United Empire Loyalists settled have proven most resistant to incursions by Reform. Using fragment theory to formulate a possible hypothesis to explain this puzzle has two incidental benefits. It probes the failure of new federal parties to emerge from Maritime Canada, and it allows speculation about the simultaneous demise of the Conservative and New Democratic parties.

We know how sex (rather than gender) structures political preferences, but researchers rarely take into account the salience or importance of gender identity at the individual level. The only similar variable for which salience is commonly taken seriously is partisanship, for which direction and importance or strength are both considered imperative for measurement and analysis. While some scholars have begun to look at factors that may influence intragroup differences, such as feminism (Conover, 1988), most existing research implicitly assumes gender salience is homogenous in the population. We argue that both the content of gender identity (that is, what specifically is gender identity, as opposed to sex) as well its salience should be incorporated into analyses of how gender structures political behaviour. For some, gender simply does not motivate behaviour, and the fact that salience moderates the impact of gender on behaviour requires researchers to model accordingly. Using original data from six provincial election studies, we examine a measure of gender identity salience and find that it clarifies our understanding of gender's impact on political attitudes.

In their efforts to analyse the behaviour of households and firms, economists have traditionally assumed that each of these units maximizes an index, such as a utility function, a profit function, or a present value function, which is taken to characterize its own interest. However, in analysing government policies these same economists have generally shied away from the maximization-of-own-interest assumption and have instead assumed that governments maximize a social welfare function or the common good; or they have proceeded by developing ad hoc hypotheses for each different problem. This is regrettable, for the returns to the maximization-of-own-interest assumption in the analysis of household and firm behaviour have been impressive, even when due consideration is given to the simplification of reality that is involved. One cannot help suspecting that they might also be high in the analysis of government behaviour.

In consequence, in the present paper, following the lead of Schumpeter and Downs, I suppose that governments are not primarily interested in maximizing a social welfare function, or the common good, or the public interest—whatever these may be—but that instead they seek to maximize their own interest. Specifically, following Downs and Wilson, I assume that governments maximize the probability of their re-election, a probability which is dependent on the policies that are implemented as well as on the degree to which they are implemented. This relationship rests on the view that governments and their electorates are engaged in a sort of exchange in which policies are traded for votes; to maximize the probability of their re-election, governments endeavour to “produce” those policies which can be exchanged for the largest possible quid pro quo, that is, for the largest number of votes. Thus an analysis of government behaviour following a change in the preferences of consumer-voters, for example, would be to a large extent an analysis of changes in government policies. The potential number and variety of these policies, however, is so large that at first glance it seems impossible to proceed with a systematic analysis.