Winner of the Harold Adams Innis Prize, Politics and Ideology in Canada examines a period of crucial historical change in Canada, beginning in the mid-1970s when the crisis of the Keynesian welfare state precipitated a transition to a new political order based on the progressive "downsizing" of state involvement in the economy and society. Using class and ideology as key concepts, Michael Ornstein and Michael Stevenson examine this transition in terms of the nature of hegemony and hegemonic crisis and the conditions of political order and instability. These concepts guide the interpretation of three large surveys of representative samples of the Canadian public and two unique elite surveys, conducted between 1975 and 1981. The surveys cover an exceptionally broad spectrum of political issues, including social programs, civil and economic rights, economic policy, foreign ownership, labour relations, and language issues and sovereignty. A wide-ranging analysis of public and elite attitudes reveals a hegemonic order through the early 1980s, built around public support for the institutions of the Canadian welfare state. But there was also widespread public alienation from politics. Public opinion was quite strongly linked to class but not to party politics. Regional variation in political ideology on a broad range of issues was less pronounced than differences between Quebec and English Canada. Much deeper ideological divisions separated the elites, with a dramatic polarization between corporate and labour respondents. State elites fell between these two, though generally more favourable to capital. The responses of the business elites reveal the ideological roots of the Mulroney years in support for cuts in social programs, free trade, privatization, and deregulation.

Bringing together political theorists and specialists in Canadian politics, Applied Political Theory and Canadian Politics combines conceptual frameworks from political theory and empirical evidence to offer fresh perspectives on political events in contemporary Canada. Examining complex and timely subjects such as equality, social justice, democracy, citizenship, and ethnic diversity, contributors present current and archival research supplemented with insights drawn from political theory to give readers a deep and nuanced understanding of increasingly pressing issues in Canadian society. For scholars and students seeking a work of political theory that is tangible, focused, and connected to the real world of everyday politics, Applied Political Theory and Canadian Politics will be an important resource, combining philosophical insights and empirical evidence to enhance our understanding of contemporary Canadian politics.

Ideologies in Action: Morphological Adaptation and Political Ideas explores how political ideas move across geographical, social and chronological boundaries. Focusing on North American and European case studies ranging from populist tax revolts through parenting advice manuals to online learning environments, the contributors propose new methods for understanding how political entrepreneurs, intellectuals and ordinary citizens deploy and redefine ideologies. All of these groups are consumers of ideology, drawing on pre-existing, transnational ideological concepts and narratives in order to make sense of the world. They are also all producers of ideology, adapting and reconfiguring ideological material to support their own political aims, desires and policy objectives. In doing so, they combine common conceptual elements – interpretations of freedom, order, national identity, democracy, community or equality – with sentiments and imaginations deeply embedded in cultural and social practice. To render these ideological practices intelligible, the contributors to this volume blend conceptual morphology, which emphasizes how meaning emerges in and through connections between political ideas, with close readings of the vernacular and experiential dimensions of ideologies in action. This book offers new insights into how ideologies in varied social and political settings can be decoded, and challenges hierarchical distinctions between ideological ‘producers’ and ‘consumers’. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Political Ideologies.

This anthology focuses on the behavioral study of political ideology and its connection to public policy formulation. The public policy implications of ideology, largely ignored by textbooks on ideology, have never been the purview of a single scholarly community. Instead, this area encompasses several specialties of political science, public administration, and economics. Across these disciplines the behavioral study of political ideology appears fragmented. This book is intended to pull these pieces together by showing the role of ideology in policy formulation and demonstrating methods by which the ideology-public policy relationship can be studied.

Provinces is now established as the most comprehensive yet accessible exploration of Canadian provincial politics and government. The authors of each chapter draw on their particular expertise to examine themes and issues pertaining to all the provinces from a comparative perspective. The book is organized into four major sections - political landscapes, the state of democracy in the provinces, political structures and processes, and provincial public policy. The third edition features eleven new chapters, including: province building, provincial constitutions, provincial judicial systems, plurality voting in the provinces, voting patterns in the provinces, provincial public service, provincial party financing, provincial health policy, social policy, climate change, and labour market policy. All other chapters have been thoroughly revised and updated.

Manitoba has always been a province in the middle, geographically, economically, and culturally. Lacking Quebec’s cultural distinctiveness, Ontario’s traditional economic dominance, or Alberta’s combustible mix of prairie populism and oil wealth, Manitoba appears to blend into the background of the Canadian family portrait. But Manitoba has a distinct political culture, one that has been overlooked in contemporary political studies.Manitoba Politics and Government brings together the work of political scientists, historians, sociologists, economists, public servants, and journalists to present a comprehensive analysis of the province’s political life and its careful “mutual fund model” approach to economic and social policy that mirrors the steady and cautious nature of its citizens. Moving beyond the Legislature, the authors address contemporary social issues like poverty, environmental stewardship, gender equality, health care, and the province’s growing Aboriginal population to reveal the evolution of public policy in the province. They also examine the province’s role at the intergovernmental and international level.Manitoba Politics and Government is a rich and fascinating account of a province that strives for the centre, for the delicate middle ground where individualism and collectivism overlap, and where a multitude of different cultures and traditions create a highly balanced society.

This book provides a systematic and detailed analysis of class relations in advanced capitalist societies as a basis for understanding both class differences in educational practices and the relative effects of class and other social background factors on public attitudes toward education. Secondly, the book offers an empirically-grounded summary of the contending educational ideologies in advanced capitalism, through a discourse analysis of the public statements of spokes-persons for major class groupings. Thirdly, using the data from several public opinion surveys in Ontario, profiles of public attitudes on critical education issues are interpreted in terms of the actual effects of class and other social background factors, as well as the mediating influences of contending ideologies. Finally a general approach and array of tactics for creating practical alternative educational and social futures are illustrated through the book.

Bringing together the best of Reg Whitaker's essays on democracy, federalism, and the state, A Sovereign Idea will be essential reading for anyone interested in the rise of the idea of democracy in Canada. The essays, each in its own way, are an attempt to discover how a more democratic Canada can be achieved.

The Social Studies Curriculum, Fourth Edition updates the definitive overview of the issues teachers face when creating learning experiences for students in social studies. The book connects the diverse elements of the social studies curriculum—civic, global, social issues—offering a unique and critical perspective that separates it from other texts. Completely updated, this book includes twelve new chapters on the history of the social studies; democratic social studies; citizenship education; anarchist inspired transformative social studies; patriotism; ecological democracy; Native studies; inquiry teaching; Islamophobia; capitalism and class struggle; gender, sex, sexuality, and youth experiences in school; and critical media literacy. All the chapters from the previous edition have been thoroughly revised and updated, including those on teaching social studies in the age of curriculum standardization and high-stakes testing, critical multicultural social studies, prejudice and racism, assessment, and teaching democracy. Readers are encouraged to reconsider their assumptions and understanding about the origins, purposes, nature, and possibilities of the social studies curriculum.