Auditing Canadian Democracy

The nine-volume award-winning Canadian Democratic Audit represents one of the most ambitious examinations of Canadian democracy in recent political scholarship. Authored by a team of Canada's leading political scientists, and published by UBC Press over a five-year period, the Audit evaluates the performance of our central democratic institutions, including elections, parliament, the executive, federalism, political parties, and interest groups. This tenth volume, Auditing Canadian Democracy, marks the culmination of this landmark project. Using the Audit's uniquely Canadian benchmarks of participation, responsiveness, and inclusiveness, the contributors synthesize and update their findings from the original volumes. A concluding chapter presents a synopsis of the various reform proposals put forth in the series. The original Audit was conceived as a response to perceived voter discontent in the Canadian population. Unfortunately, voter participation continues to decline today, reminding us of the ongoing need to critically examine how well our democracy serves contemporary society. Lively and accessible, this volume offers a succinct and thoughtful examination of existing practices and reforms and should be of interest to all Canadians concerned with the health of their democracy.

The Canadian Democratic Audit is an ambitious and important undertaking for Canadian social science ... [which] demands careful consideration by scholars, concerned citizens and policy-makers ... Its books certainly welcome readership; they are compact, well designed, well organized, and easy to "use" - certainly some of the most accessible works of academic political science we've seen in years.

- Allan Tupper

Authored by a team of Canada's leading political scientists, the award-winning Canadian Democratic Audit represents one of the most ambitious examinations of Canadian democracy in recent political scholarship. Auditing Canadian Democracy marks the culmination of this landmark project. Using the uniquely Canadian benchmarks of participation, responsiveness, and inclusiveness, the contributors synthesize and update their findings from the original volumes. A concluding synopsis considers the various reform proposals put forth in the series. A lively and accessible examination of existing practices and reforms, this book's timely analysis should interest all citizens concerned with the health of our democracy.

1 Introduction / William Cross 2 Federalism / Jennifer Smith 3 Cabinets and First Ministers / Graham White 4 Legislatures / David Docherty 5 Citizens / Elisabeth Gidengil, Richard Nadeau, Neil Nevitte and André Blais 6 Elections / John Courtney 7 Political Parties / William Cross 8 Advocacy Groups / Lisa Young and Joanna Everitt 9 Communication Technology / Darin Barney 10 The Audit's Perspectives and Proposals / R. Kenneth Carty Contributors Index