Suchergebnisse

AbstractIn contrast to recent commentators on Quentin Skinner's Foundations of Modern Political Thought, this work argues that Skinner's approach to the development of the modern theory of the state is strictly consistent with his earlier methodological proposals. But it is also established that Skinner's consistency ultimately leaves him without a "genuinely historical" basis for a unified state-tradition within late medieval and early modern Europe. The article proposes an alternative historical methodology which allows for the explanation of persisting traditions of discourse (such as that of the state) within a coherent historical framework.

AbstractSeveral phenomena which have been separately observed in Canada are linked: namely the diffusion of power within the executive-administrative branch, the proliferation and expanded role of pressure groups, and the increased attention parliament has been receiving from interest organizations. Suggesting that this last may reflect fundamental changes in the policy system as a whole, it is argued that a tendency toward bureaucratic pluralism has led agencies to develop extra-governmental support at the interest group level; and that both interest groups and agencies have found it useful to exploit the legitimating and publicizing capacities of parliament. In so doing they have contributed to the enhancement of parliament's role in the policy process.

AbstractThe rise of the provincial rights movement in the generation after Confederation forms an important chapter in Canadian constitutionalism. In their attempts to understand the provincial rights movement, however, historians and political scientists have paid insufficient attention to the precise constitutional doctrine that was developed to thwart the centralizing designs of Sir John A. Macdonald. This article shows that the sources of this provincialist constitutional doctrine can be found in the Confederation settlement itself. It further shows how the provincial rights movement subsequently was able to use this doctrine to discredit one of the key centralizing devices of the Macdonald constitution—the veto power of disallowance. And it concludes that the legacy of the provincial rights movement continues to inform the way Canadians think about federalism.