Longer Papers
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Treading Water: The Democracy Industry and Neglected Citizens
(“Listen to the People”) If our knowledge of politics does not permit us to predict the success of a thoroughly democratic experiment, neither does it permit us to prophesy its failure. We have the right to be sceptical of any attempt to reduce political theory to a science of causes and...Posted [0 comment/s]
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The Barrier(s) to Fundamental Democratic Reform
Introduction There is a strong potential for transformational democratic reform in Canada. However, there remain significant barriers to it that need to be recognized and removed. How we conceptualize democracy is central to a discussion of how we remove these barriers. Political theorist Giovanni Sartori, a “realist,” describes our system in...Posted [0 comment/s]
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Breaking Out: From “Partycracy” to True Representative Democracy
This site is dedicated to mobilizing support for moving Canada to a higher level of democracy, one that would make Canadian democracy truly reflect our democratic ideals. Since you were attracted to this site, you probably already feel the need for political change. A quick review of the archaic nature...Posted [16 comment/s]
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Parties and Democracy: A Critical View
SYSTEM ORIGINS: ACCOMMODATING PARTIES, REPRESSING DEMOCRACY “… parties are inevitable. No one has shown how representative government could be worked without them. “ (Bryce, 1921, 119) “… parties have consistently and universally been accepted as the only tenable alternative, as a working system, to tyranny. “ (Goodman, 1960, 607) Claims that democracy must...Posted [1 comment/s]
