Suchergebnisse

RÉSUMÉ. La participation aux élections scolaires québécoises est constamment inférieure à 20%. Cet article examine de façon critique divers moyens de l'accroître, à la lumière des recherches de science politique sur la participation électorale. On y conclut qu'une réforme du processus de préparation des listes électorales aura un effet marginal. D'autres réformes proposées, tout en garantissant le résultat recherché, comportent des effets secondaires qui risquent d'être mal acceptés par une portion importante du public: c'est le cas du vote obligatoire, de l'exclusion du corps électoral des non-usagers, et de l'implication directe des partis politiques provinciaux dans les élections scolaires. L'introduction du vote par correspondance et surtout la tenue simultanée des élections scolaires et municipales paraissent les voies les plus prometteuses pour atteindre l'objectif sans susciter de levée de boucliers. ABSTRACT. Turnout at school board elections in Québec is lower than 20%. In this article, the author reviews critically, in view of the political science literature on electoral turnout, various reforms options which might be introduced in order to increase that figure, and what their impact would be. Better registration procedures will likely have a marginal impact. Other proposals like compulsory voting, the disfranchisement of those who are not parents of children enrolled in schools, or the direct involvement of provincial parties in school board elections, will likely be conducive to higher tumout, but would imply side effects the public seems unlikely to accept. Voting-by-mail, and holding municipal and school board elections on the same day, emerge as the best prospects for increasing turnout at the latter level at minimal cost.

AbstractThis article analyzes the legislative cohesion of political parties in Quebec between 1867 and 1989. The unveiling of frequent and widespread dissent within the two parties throughout the nineteenth century, and its gradual elimination thereafter, stand out as its major finding. Various explanatory factors are then reviewed: the confidence convention, the decrease of the number of divisions that did not involve confidence in the government or approval of its policies, the advent of universal suffrage, sanctions against dissenters and the role of party leaders. All these factors seem to have had some influence. The author argues that studies of this kind must distinguish between the various formal categories of divisions, a dimension often neglected in such studies.