Toward a Grand Theory of the Study of Canadian Political Thought

Abstract

One of the most challenging aspects of the study of Canadian political thought is its apparent lack of a clear consensus (perhaps in the form of a “grand theory”) that provides it with more structured analytical organization and parameters. This absence can be remedied through an explicit recognition of the competing traditions that have contributed to the mosaic of Canadian philosophical and political beliefs and values. The interplay between liberal and communitarian traditions of Canadian political thought could provide the basis for this sort of model, though other contributions also need to be acknowledged and considered.

Keywords:

• Canadian political philosophy
• Canadian political thought
• grand theory
• liberalism
• communitarianism

Notes

1. The terms “liberal” and “republican” refer to established ideological traditions and not to current colloquial uses or political parties.

2. Quentin Skinner, The Return of Grand Theory in the Human Sciences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990; Howard Wiarda, Grand Theories and Ideologies in the Social Sciences. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.

3. Ray Nichols, “‘Maxims,’ Practical Wisdom, and the Language of Action: Beyond Grand Theory,” 24 Political Theory, No. 4 (November 1996), pp. 687–705. Two examples that have been subject to particular scrutiny in this respect are Daniel Bell and Francis Fukuyama. Critiques of their perceived shortcomings in applying grand theory to political science include Yuezhi Zhao, “The ‘End of Ideology,’ Again? The Concept of ideology in the Era of Post-Modern Theory,” 18 Canadian Journal of Sociology, No. 1 (Winter 1993), pp. 70–71; Gregory B. Smith, “The End of history or a Portal to the Future: Does Anything Lie Beyond Late Modernity?” in After History? Francis Fukuyama and His Critics, Timothy Burns, ed. Lanham, MD: Lanham Publishers, 1994, pp. 1–21.

4. Jurgen Habermas, “Questions and Counter-Questions,” in Habermas and Modernity, Richard J. Bernstein, ed. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1985, pp. 192–216; Michael Dummett, “Can Analytical Philosophy Be Systematic, and Ought It to Be?” in After Philosophy: End or Transformation? Kenneth Baynes, James Bohman, and Thomas McCarthy, eds. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1987, pp. 185–216.

5. Louis Hartz, The Founding of New Societies (New York: Harcourt, Brace, and World, 1964), Seymour Martin Lipset, Continental Divide (New York: Routledge, 1990), pp. 1–18, 42–56; Gad Horowitz, “Conservatism, Liberalism, and Socialism in Canada: An Interpretation,” 32 Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science (May 1966), pp. 143–171, Kenneth McRae, “The Structure of Canadian History,” in The Founding of New Societies, Louis Hartz, ed. (Harcourt, Brace, and World: New York, 1964), pp. 219–234, Denis Monière, Le Devéloppment des idéologies au Québec (Montréal: Editions Québec-Amérique, 1977).

6. George Grant, Lament for a Nation (Montreal and Kington, ON: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2006).

7. For example, Conrad Winn and James Twiss, “The Spatial Analysis of Political Cleavages and the Case of the Ontario Legislature,” 10 Canadian Journal of Political Science, No. 2 (June 1977), pp. 287–310; Tom Truman, “A Scale for Measuring a Tory Streak in Canada and the United States,” 10 Canadian Journal of Political Science (1977), pp. 597–614; Rod Preece, “The Myth of the Red Tory,” 1 Canadian Journal of Political and Social Theory (1977), pp. 3–28; Gad Horowitz, “The ‘Myth’ of the Red Tory,” 1 Canadian Journal of Political and Social Theory (1977), pp. 87–88; Roger Gibbins and Neil Nevitte, “Canadian Political Ideology: A Comparative Analysis,” 18 Canadian Journal of Political Science, No. 3 (September 1985), pp. 577–598; John Wilson, “The Canadian Political Cultures: Towards a Redefinition of the Nature of the Canadian Political System,” 7 Canadian Journal of Political Science, No. 3 (September 1974), pp. 438–483, Peter J. Smith, “The Ideological Origins of Canadian Confederation,” 22 Canadian Journal of Political Science (1987), pp. 6–9, and Robert Finbow, “Ideology and Institutions in North America,” 26 Canadian Journal of Political Science, No. 4 (December 1993), pp. 671–697.

8. Thoughtful overviews regarding this relative neglect in the area of Canadian political thought is offered in Janet Ajzenstat, “Doing Canadian Political Thought,” 26 Journal of Canadian Studies, No. 2 (Summer 1991), pp. 5–6, and Peter Smith, “Some Observations on the Revival of Canadian Political Thought,” 26 Journal of Canadian Studies, No. 2 (Summer 1991), pp. 3–6.

9. For example, Robert Meynell, Canadian Idealism and the Philosophy of Freedom: C. B. Macpherson, George Grant, and Charles Taylor. Montreal and Kingston, ON: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2011; Jerome Bickenback, Canadian Cases in the Philosophy of Law. New York: Broadview Press, 2006; Philip Massolin, Canadian Intellectuals, the Tory Tradition, and the Challenge of Modernity. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001; Neil Nevitte and Roger Gibbins, “Neoconservatism: Canadian Variations on an Ideological Theme?” 10 Canadian Public Policy, No. 4 (December 1984), pp. 384–394.

10. For example, Ronald Beiner and Wayne Norman, eds. Canadian Political Philosophy: Contemporary Reflections. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000; Stephen Brooks, ed., Political Thought in Canada. Toronto: Irwin, 1984; H. D. Forbes, Canadian Political Thought. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1985; Katherine Fierlbeck, The Development of Political Thought in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005; Andrew D. Irvine and John S. Russell, eds., In the Agora: The Public Face of Canadian Philosophy. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006; George Blain Baker and J. Phillips, eds., A History of Canadian Legal Thought. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006; Michael Ornstein and H. Michael Stevenson, Politics and Ideology in Canada. Montreal and Kingston, ON: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1999.

11. For example, James Bickerton, Stephen Brooks, and Alain G. Gagnon, Freedom, Equality, Community: The Political Philosophy of Six Influential Canadians. Montreal and Kingston, ON: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2007; G. de T. Glazenbrook, A History of Canadian Political Thought. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1966; Thomas A Goudge, “A Century of Philosophy in English Speaking Canada,” 47 Dalhousie Review, No. 4; John A. Iriving, Philosophy in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1952; Charles De Koninck, La Philosophie au Canada de langue francaise. Ottawa: Royal Commission Studies, 1951.

12. One exception is Robert Meynall, who has noted that the analysis of Canadian political thinkers has portrayed them as “isolated thinkers,” Canadian Idealism and the Philosophy of Freedom (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2011), pp. 3–13. Another exception is the claim that scholars in this field “have felt compelled to speak or write about the nature of their subdiscipline,” A. B. McKillop, Contours of Canadian Thought. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987, p. 24.

13. G. B. Madison, Paul Fairfield, and Ingrid Harris, Is There a Canadian Philosophy? Reflections on the Canadian Identity (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2000), p. 3.

14. This problem has been identified in a critique of the “two nations” theory of Canadian political culture in John Wilson, “The Canadian Political Cultures: Towards a Redefinition of the Nature of the Canadian Political System,” 7 Canadian Journal of Political Science, No. 3 (September 1974), pp. 438–441.

15. John Locke, Two Treatises of Government, Peter Laslett, ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988; John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, Stefan Collini, ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989; Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Du Contrat social, Gérard Mairet, ed. Paris: Poche, 1996; Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Elements of the Philosophy of Right, Allen W. Wood, ed., H.B. Nisbet, trans. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

16. C.B. Macpherson, The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011; John Rawls, Political Liberalism. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005; Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue. South Bend, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2007; Michael Sandel, Liberalism and the Limits of Justice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

17. John Porter, The Vertical Mosaic: An Analysis of Social Class and Power in Canada (University of Toronto Press: Toronto, 1965), especially regarding his assessment of democratic values and their true place within Canadian society, pp. 533–557.

18. A classic example of this approach is Walter Clement, The Canadian Corporate Elite: An Analysis of Economic Power (McClelland and Stewart: Toronto, 1975).

19. A good assessment of the approaches to this sort of study can be found in David Bell, “Political Culture in Canada,” in Canadian Politics in the 1980s, Michael S. Whittington and Glen Williams, eds. (Methuen: Agincourt, ON, 1984), pp. 155–174.

20. Charles Taylor, “The Politics of Recognition,” in Multiculturalism: Examining the Politics of Recognition, Amy Gutmann, ed. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994), pp. 59–60.

21. Charles Taylor, “The Dynamics of Democratic Exclusion,” 9 Journal of Democracy, No. 4 (October 1998), p. 154.

22. Charles Taylor, “The Politics of Recognition.” p. 39.

23. Charles Taylor, “Can Liberalism Be Communitarian?” 8 Critical Review, No. 2 (Spring 1994) a

24. Will Kymlicka, “Individual and Community Rights,” in Group Rights, Judith Baker, ed. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994); Will Kymlicka, Liberalism, Community, and Culture (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989), pp. 2–3.

25. Will Kymlicka, “Liberal Individualism and Liberal Neutrality,” in Communitarianism and Individualism, Shlomo Avineri and Avner de-Shalit, eds. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), pp. 177–183.

26. Will Kymlicka, Multicultural Citizenship (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), pp. 177–183.

27. Will Kymlicka, Liberalism, Community, and Culture (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989), p. 1.

28. G.B. Madison, Paul Fairfield, and Ingrid Harris, Is There a Canadian Philosophy? Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2000, p. 3.

29. C.B. Macpherson, The Life and Times of Liberal Democracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978, pp. 1–8; Giovanni Sartori, The Theory of Democracy Revisited, part II. Chatham, NJ: Chatham House, 1987, pp. 367–398.

30. Arash Abizadeh, “Does Liberal Democracy Presuppose a Cultural Nation? Four Arguments,” 96 American Political Science Review, No. 3 (September 2002), pp. 495–509; Albert W. Dzur, “Nationalism, Liberalism, and Democracy,” 55 Political Research Quarterly, No. 1 (March 2002), pp. 191–211; David Miller, Market, State, and Community. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002, pp. 236–241.

31. Stephen Brooks, Canadian Democracy: An Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000, pp. 9–14.

32. One analysis that has come close to making a similar claim (though by appealing to competing liberal and republican political values within a particular historical context) is Peter J. Smith, “The Ideological Origins of Canadian Confederation,” 20 Canadian Journal of Political Science, No. 1 (March 1985), pp. 3–29.

33. Raoul Berger, Government by Judiciary (Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA, 1977), pp. 1–10. An equally good critique of this approach can be found in Michael Perry, The Constitution, the Courts, and Human Rights (Yale University Press: New Haven, 1982), pp. 7–36.

34. John C. Miller, Origins of the American Revolution (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1966), pp. 3–37.

35. Kenneth Dolbeare, American Political Thought. Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2009, pp. xxiv, 5–10.

36. Carl L. Becker, The Declaration of Independence. New York: Bibliobazzar, 2010, pp. 64–79; Edward S. Corwin, “The ‘Higher Law’ Background of American Constitutional Law,” 42 Harvard Law Review, No. 3 (January 1929), pp. 383–406; Merle Curti, “The Great Mr. Locke, America's Philosopher,” 11 Huntington Library Bulletin (1939); Vernon L. Parrington, Main Currents in American Thought, vol. I (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1987.

37. Bernard Bailyn, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1967; Gordon Wood, Creation of the American Republic. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1969.

38. John Dunn, “The Politics of Locke in England and America in the Eighteenth Century,” in John Locke: Problems and Perspectives, John W. Yolton, ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010, pp. 45–80; Thomas L. Pangle, The Spirit of Modern Republicanism: The Moral Vision of the American Founders and the Philosophy of Locke. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1988; J.G.A. Pocock, The Machiavellian Moment. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1975.

39. Steven M. Dworetz, The Unvarnished Doctrine: Locke, Liberalism, and the American Revolution. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1990; John Perry, The Pretenses of Loyalty: Locke, Liberal Theory, and American Political Theology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.

40. Nicholas Abercrombie and Bryan S. Turner, “The Dominant Ideology Thesis,” 29 British Journal of Sociology, No. 2 (June 1978), 149.

41. Margaret S. Archer, Culture and Agency: The Place of Culture in Social Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, pp. 1–24.

42. Louis Hartz, The Liberal Tradition in America (Harcourt, Brace and World: New York, 1991.

43. An annoying and, frequently, confusing problem in these sorts of studies is the distinction (or lack of a distinction) between the ideological concepts of “liberal” (particularly in terms of its “classic” description as generally traced to the writings of John Locke) and “libertarian.” The distinction, if it exists, is likely to be a subtle, a virtually indistinguishable, or, even, a semantic one that is beyond the immediate scope of this analysis, which will use the terms “liberal” or “classic liberal” as a label for this Lockean tradition. One attempt to address this distinction is provided in William E. Hudson, The Libertarian Illusion. Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2007, pp. 13–14.

44. Kenneth D. McRae, “The Structure of Canadian History,” in The Founding of New Societies, Louis Hartz, ed. (Harcourt, Brace, and World: New York, 1964), pp. 219–234.

45. Gad Horowitz, Canadian Labour in Politics. University of Toronto Press: Toronto, 1968, pp. 29–44.

46. Rod Preece, “The Anglo-Saxon Conservative Tradition,” 13 Canadian Journal of Political Science, No. 1 (March 1980), pp. 3–11.

47. George Grant, Lament for a Nation (McClelland and Stewart: Toronto, 1970), pp. 68–87.

48. Edmund Burke, Burke's Politics: Selected Writings and Speeches, R. Hoffman and P. Leyack, eds. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1949; Joseph de Maistre, Contre Rousseau: De l'etat de nature. Paris: Fayard/Mille et une nuits, 2008.

49. Michael Oakshott, On Human Conduct. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991; Leo Strauss, Natural Right and History. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1987.

50. For example, Gregory A. Huber and Thomas J. Espenshade, “Neo-Isolationism, Balanced-Budget Conservatism, and the Fiscal Impacts of Immigrants,” 31 International Migration Review, No. 4 (Winter 1997), 1031.

51. Horowitz, pp. 33–35.

52. Seymour Martin Lipset, Revolution and Counterrevolution (Basic Books: New York, 1968), pp. 12–44.

53. Seymour Martin Lipset, “Canada and the United States: The Cultural Dimension,” in Canada and the United States: Enduring Friendship, Persistent Stress (Prentice-Hall, NJ: Englewood Cliffs, 1985), pp. 109–160.

54. As also used to describe the role of rights in relation to the broader legal and political system, Ronald Dworkin, Taking Rights Seriously. London: Duckworth, 1977, pp. 90–94.

55. Pierre Birnbaum and Tracy B. Strong, “From Multiculturalism to Nationalism,” 24 Political Theory, No. 1 (February 1996), pp. 38–41; Charles Taylor, Reconciling the Solitudes. Montreal and Kingston, ON: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2005, pp. 187–201; Seymour Martin Lipset, “Historical Traditions and National Characteristics: A Comparative Analysis of Canada and the United States,” 11 Canadian Journal of Sociology, No. 2 (Summer 1986), pp. 142–146.

56. Candace Johnson Redden, “Health as Citizenship Narrative,” 34 Polity, No. 3 (Spring 2002), pp. 356–357, 366–367, 370; Christopher Manfredi, Judicial Power and the Charter (Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 15–17; David Clark, “Neoliberalism and Public Service Reform: Canada in Comparative Perspective,” 35 Canadian Journal of Political Science, No. 4 (December 2002), pp. 790–792.

57. Patrick Monahan, Politics and the Constitution: The Charter, Federalism, and the Supreme Court of Canada. Toronto: Carswell, 1987, pp. 91–129; David J. Elkins, “Facing Our Destiny: Rights and Canadian Distinctiveness,” 22 Canadian Journal of Political Science, No. 4 (June 1989), pp. 702–705; Paul M. Sniderman, Joseph F. Fletcher, Peter H. Russell, and Philip E. Tetlock, “Political Culture and the Problem of Double Standards: Mass and Elite Attitudes Toward Language Rights in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” 22 Canadian Journal of Rights and Freedoms, No. 2 (June 1989), pp. 259–263; Christopher P. Manfredi, “The Canadian Supreme Court and American Judicial Review: United States Constitutional Jurisprudence and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” 40 American Journal of Comparative Law, No. 1 (Winter 1992), pp. 213–214, 219–220; F. L. Morton, “The Political Impact of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” 20 Canadian Journal of Political Science, No. 1 (March 1987), pp. 39–45.

58. This quote has been most commonly ascribed to Prime Minister Joe Clark in reference to his vision of a decentralized Canadian federalism in Who Speaks for Canada? Words that Shape a Country, Desmond Morton and Morton Weinfeld, eds. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1998, p. 284.

59. Charles Taylor, “Alternative Futures: Legitimacy, Identity, and Alienation in Late Twentieth Century Canada,” in Constitutionalism, Citizenship, and Society in Canada, Alan Cairns and Cynthia Williams, eds. (University of Toronto Press: Toronto, 1985), pp. 183–229; Avigail I. Eisenberg, Reconstructing Political Pluralism (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1995), pp. 9–22.

60. Allen Buchanan, “The Role of Collective Rights in the Theory of Indigenous Peoples’ Rights,” 89 Transnational Law and Contemporary Problems, No. 3 (Spring 1993), pp. 89–108, J. Angelo Corlett, “The Problem of Collective Moral Rights,” 7 Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, No. 2 (July 1994), pp. 237–259, Will Kymlicka, “Liberalism and the Politicization of Ethnicity,” 4 Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, No. 2 (July 1991), pp. 239–256, and Leslie R. Shapard, “Group Rights,” 4 Public Affairs Quarterly, No. 2 (Summer 1990), pp. 299–308.

61. Evelyn Kallen, “The Meech Lake Accord: Entrenching a Pecking Order of Minority Rights,” 14 Canadian Public Policy, supplemental issue (September 1988), pp. S110–S111, S114, S116–S118.

62. Lorraine E. Weinrib, “‘This New Democracy’: Justice Iacobucci and Canada's rights Revolution,” 57 University of Toronto Law Journal, No. 2 (Spring 2007), pp. 411–412.

63. Shannon Ishiyama Smithey, “The Effects of the Canadian Supreme Court's Charter Interpretation on Regional and Intergovernmental Tensions in Canada,” 26 Publius, No. 2 (Spring 1996), pp. 86, 89–90.

64. Will Kymlicka and Ian Shapiro, eds., Ethnicity and Group Rights. New York: New York University Press, 2000, p. 4.

65. Donald J.C. Carmichael, Thomas C. Pocklington, and Gregory E. Prycz, Democracy and Rights in Canada (Toronto: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1991), pp. 1–19.

66. James T. McHugh, “Collective Rights in Quebec,” 3 Southern Journal of Canadian Studies, No. 1 (January 2010), pp. 1–16.

67. M. James Penton, “Collective versus Individual Rights: The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” in The U.S. Bill of Rights and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, William R. McKercher, ed. (Toronto: Ontario Economic Counci, 1983), pp. 179–182. They are given fuller treatment in McHugh, pp. 1–16.

68. William Christian and Colin Campbell, Political Parties and Ideologies in Canada (Toronot: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1983), pp. 45–51.

69. David M. Beatty, Putting the Charter to Work (Montreal and Kingston, ON: McGill-Queen's Press, 1987), pp. 116–132.

70. F.D. Forbes, “Hartz-Horowitz at Twenty,” 20 Canadian Journal of Political Science, No. 2 (summer 1987), pp. 292–296.

71. This theme permeates, for example, many historical sources, especially earlier ones, such as W.L. Morton, The Canadian Identity (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1961).

72. For example, many historians have asserted, traditionally, that the settlement of Upper Canada, as spurred by United Empire Loyalists, introduced an essentially “conservative” dynamic to Canada's historical development, including J.B. Brebner, Canada: A Modern History (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1960), pp. 105–108. However, other historians have been more critical of that assumption, such as W.L. Morton, The Kingdom of Canada (Toronot: University of Toronto Press, 1963), pp. 174–176. More recent historical analysis has recognized the more complex cultural and philosophical foundation of that evolution. An excellent example of this approach is W.G. Shelton, “The United Empire Loyalists: A Reconsideration,” in Readings in Canadian History: Preconfederation, R. Douglas Francis and Donald B. Smith, eds. (Toronto: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1990), pp. 234–243. Motivations and patterns of settlement and economic development within Upper Canada and, later, Ontario, suggest this same complexity, R. Cole Harris and John Warkentin, Canada Before Confederation (Oxford University Press: New York, 1974), pp. 110–166.

73. The classic expression of this perspective provides the basis for the seminal philosophical work, John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, 1984). An excellent critique of this principle and its application to modern liberal democracies, such as Canada, is C.B. Macpherson, The Life and Times of Liberal Democracy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977), pp. 25–37. An application of the harm principle to government from a Canadian perspective is offered in Alan Cairns, “The Judicial Committee and Its Critics,” 4 Canadian Journal of Political Science, No. 3 (September 1971), pp. 301–345.

74. An assessment of this clause and its constitutional and political significance can be found in Peter Hogg, Constitutional Law of Canada (Carswell: Toronto, 1985), pp. 12–20.

75. An evaluation of these French constitutional values and the historical and ideological context in which they were created (including their conventional relationship to liberal democratic thought, in general) is offered in Gordon Wright, France in Modern Times (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1982), pp. 18–25.

76. Gary Wills, Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1978), pp. 167–255.

77. C.B. Macpherson, Democracy in Alberta (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1955), pp. 3–28.

78. Max Wyman, “Tomorrow's Rights in the Mirror of History,” in Civil Liberties in Canada, Gerald L. Gall, ed. (Toronto: Buttersworth, 1982), pp. 26–50.

79. This pattern is explored in Christina McCall Newman, Grits (Toronto: Macmillan, 1982).

80. This broad theme is addressed in Giovanni Sartori, The Theory of Democracy Revisited (Chatham, NJ: Chatham House, 1987), pp. 3–20.

81. George Dangerfield, The Strange Death of Liberal England (London: Paladin, 1970).

82. A summary of these tendencies within the French polity is provided in Philip G. Cerny, “The Political Balance,” in French Politics and Public Policy, Philip G. Cerny and Martin A. Schain, eds. (London: Frances Pinter, 1980), pp. 1–21.

83. This relationship can be assessed by evaluating works such as J.W.T. Mason, The Meaning of Shinto (Port Washington, NY: Kennikat, 1975), and comparing it with specific examples of Japanese political values, such as provided in Yosiyuki Noda, Introduction to Japanese Law (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1980), especially pp. 190–224.

84. For example, see Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Du Contrat social (Paris: G.F. Flammarion, 1992), pp. 29–50. A critical evaluation of this perspective is provided in Ernst Cassirer, The Question of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Peter Gay, trans. and ed. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1954).

85. Good examples of this nationalist perspective in Canada are provided in Carl Berger, “The True North Strong and Free,” in Nationalism in Canada, Peter Russell, ed. (Toronto: McGraw-Hill, 1966), pp. 3–26, John Meisel, “Escaping Extinction: Cultural Defence of an Undefended Border,” in Southern Exposure: Canadian Perspectives on the United States, D.H. Flaherty and W.R. McKercher, eds. (Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1986), pp. 152–168, and Mildred A. Schwartz, Public Opinion and Canadian Identity (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1967), pp. 106–118.

86. This point is eloquently made in Dennis Summara, Brent Davis, and Linda Laidlaw, “Canadian Identity and Curriculum Theory: An Ecological, Postmodern Perspective,” 26 Canadian Journal of Education, No. 2 (2001), pp. 147–148.

87. This approach to Canadian national identity has been a conspicuous one. Political concerns regarding it have been raised in Marc Lalonde, “Quebec and Canada: A Union Worth Preserving” (Ottawa: Canadian Unity Information Office, 1977), pp. 10–12, and Robert L. Stanfield, “Nationalism: A Canadian Dilemma?” (Ottawa: Canadian Unity Information Office, 1978), pp. 9–11.Scholarly assessments of this trend in Canadian national identity include Blair Fraser, The Search for Identity: Canada, 1945–1967 (Doubleday: Garden City, NY, 1967), pp. 301–308, David M. Potter, “Canadian Views of the United States as a Reflex of Canadian Values: A Commentary,” in Canada Views the United States, S.F. Wise and R.C. Brown, eds. (Toronto: Macmillan, 1975), pp. 126–131, and Frank Underhill, In Search of Canadian Liberalism (Toronto: Macmillan, 1960), pp. 221–226.

88. E. R. Black, Divided Loyalties: Canadian Concepts of Federalism (Montreal and Kingston, ON: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1975), pp. 3–7.

89. Georg Wilhelm Friedreich Hegel, The Philosophy of History, J. Sibree, trans. (New York: Wiley, 1944), pp. 20–37. An excellent critical evaluation of Hegel's method and approach is provided in Charles Taylor, Hegel (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975), pp. 389–427. A criticism of Hartz for failing to adapt a Hegelian dialectic as part of his ovreall fragment theory is provided in Walter C. Soderlund, Ralph C. Nelson, and Ronald H. Wagenberg, “A Critique of the Hartz Theory of Political Development as Applied to Canada,” 12 Comparative Politics, No. 1 (October 1979), p. 64.

90. An interesting assessment of the possible applications of this method beyond Hegel's philosophical construct is provided in R.P. Singh, “From Dialogue to Dialectic: Socrates, Kant, and Hegel,” 29 Journal of the Indian Academy of Philosophy, No. 1 (1990), pp. 32–39.

91. Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man (Avon: New York, 1993), pp. 39–51.

92. This interpretation is suggested in Raymond Breton, “Multiculturalism and Canadian Nation-Building,” in The Politics of Gender and Language in Canada, Alan C. Cairns and Cynthia Williams, eds. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press o, 1986), pp. 50–54, Samuel V. Laselva, The Moral Foundations of Canadian Federalism: Paradoxes, Achievements, and Tragedies of Natonhood. Montreal and Kingston, ON: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1996, pp. 11–21, and Peter Woolfson, “An Anthropological Perspective: The Ingredients of a Multicultural Society,” in Understanding Canada, William Metcalfe, ed. (New York: New York University Press, 1982), pp. 389–393. The perceived conflict between libertarian and communitarian interpretations of Canadian liberal democratic values as experienced through the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is addressed in Alan C. Cairns, Charter versus Federalism (Montreal and Kingston, ON: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1992), pp. 22–27, and M. James Penton, “Collective versus Individual Rights: The Canadian Tradition and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” in The U.S. Bill of Rights and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, William R. McKercher, ed. (Toronto: Ontario Economic Council, 1983), pp. 179–184.

93. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Du Contrat social et autres oeuvres politiques, Jean Ehrard, ed. (Paris: Editions Garnier Frères, 1975), pp. 233–237; Jacques Dufresne, Le Courage et la lucidité: essai sur la constitution d'un Québec souverain (Sillery, QC: Septentrion, 1990), pp. 170–173; Claude-Jean Galipeau, “National Minorites, Rights, and Signs: The Supreme Court and Language Legislation in Quebec,” in Democracy with Justice, Alain-G. Gagnon and A. Brian Tanguay, eds. (Ottawa: Carleton University Press, 1992), pp. 74–75.

94. Christopher Hodson, The Canadian Diaspora: An Eighteenth-Century History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), pp. 6–7, 50–51, 198–199.

95. Daniel Latouche, “La Vrai nature de la revolution tranquille,” 7 Revue canadienne de science politique, No. 3 (September 1974), pp. 525–526.

96. Denis Monière, Le Développement des idéologies au Québec (Editions Québec/Amérique: Montréal, 1977), pp. 38–41, 170–182.

97. This perspective once was accepted widely, but it has been strongly challenged by more recent scholarship. The classic exponent of this theoretical interpretation of Quebec society is McRae, pp. 219–234. Scholarship that continues to accept that theoretical approach include Sheila Arnopolous and Dominique Clift, The English Fact in Quebec (McGill-Queen's University Press: Montreal and Kingston, 1984), pp. 35–40.

98. Good examples of this scholarship include Michael D. Behiels, Prelude to Quebec's Quiet Revolution (McGill-Queen's University Press: Montreal and Kingston, 1986), pp. 8–19, and Fernand Dumont, Idêologies au Canada français, 1930–1939 (Quebec: Les Presses de l'Université Laval, 1978), pp. 1–20.

99. Leon Dion, A la Recherche du Quêbec (Quebec: Les Presses de l'Univerisitê Laval, 1987), pp. 8–17.

100. Quebec's true ideological heritage was revealed following the end of its long era of political corruption and the implementation of liberal and social democratic reforms that were initiated during “la revolution tranquille” and which characterize modern Quebec politics, as noted in Herbert F. Quinn, L'Union Nationale (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1979), pp. 3–10, and Dale Thomson, Jean Lesage and the Quiet Revolution (Toronto: Macmillan, 1984), pp. 3–18.

101. Lionel Groulx, Notre grande aventure (Montréal: Fides, 1976); Gérard Bouchard, Les Deux chanoines: contradiction et ambivalence dans la pensée de Lionel Groulx (Montréal: Boréal, 2003), pp. 1–18.

102. Vernon Van Dycke, “Collective Entities and Moral Rights: Problems in Liberal Democratic Thought,” 44 The Journal of Politics, No. 1 (1982), pp. 21–48.

103. Henry Mayo, An Introduction to Democratic Theory (New York: Oxford University Press, 1960).

104. Marcel Rioux, La Question du Québec (Montréal: Parti Pris, 1976).

105. Pierre Elliot Trudeau, Le federalisme et les canadiens français (Montréal: La Presse de l'Université de Montréal, 1966).

106. These contributions include Annis May Timpson, ed., First Nations, First Thoughts: The Impact of Indigenous Thought in Canada (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2010), Margaret Elizabth Kovach, Indigenous Methodologies: Characteristics, Conversations, and Conexts (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010), John Borrows, Drawing Out Law (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010), and John Borrows, Canada's Indigenous Constitution (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010).

107. Such contributions could include Roberta Hamilton, Gendering the Vertical Mosaic: Feminist Perspectives on Canadian Society (Toronto: Pearson, 2004), Joan Sangster, Through Feminist Eyes: Essays on Canadian Women's History (Athabasca, AB: Athabasca University Press, 2011), Frank Cunningham, Understanding Marxism: A Canadian Introduction (Toronto: Progress Books, 1981), and Peter Campbell, Canadian Marxists and the Search for a Third Way (Montreal and Kingston, ON: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2000).

108. This literature includes such prominent texts as Harold A. Innis, The Fir Trade in Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999), Ralph Miliband and Leo Panitch, The State in Capitalist Society (London: Merlin Press, 2009), and Wallace Clement, Understanding Canada: Building on the New Canadian Political Economy (Montreal and Kingston, ON: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1996).