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Reviving Social Democracy

Reviving Social Democracy

The Near Death and Surprising Rise of the Federal NDP

Edited by David Laycock and Lynda Erickson

Published by: University of British Columbia Press

Imprint: UBC Press

348 Pages, 152.00 × 229.00 mm, 29 graphs, 34 tables

Paperback
9780774828505
Published: February 2015

£26.99

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Hardcover
9780774828499
Published: November 2014

£79.00

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Description
Contents
Authors

In the 2011 general election, the New Democratic Party stunned political pundits by becoming the Official Opposition in the House of Commons. After near collapse in the 1993 election, how did the NDP manage to win triple the seats of its Liberal rivals and take more than three-quarters of the ridings in Quebec?

Reviving Social Democracy examines the federal NDP's transformation from "nearly dead party" to new power player within a volatile party system. Its early chapters – on the party's emergence in the 1960s, its presence in Quebec, and the Jack Layton factor – pave the way for insightful analyses of issues such as party modernization, changing ideology, voter profile, and policy formation that played a significant role in driving the "Orange Crush" phenomenon. Later chapters explore such future-facing questions as the prospects of party mergers and the challenges of maintaining support in the long term.

Introduction / Lynda Erickson and David Laycock

Part 1: Setting the Stage

1 Party History and Electoral Fortunes, 1961-2003 / Lynda Erickson and David Laycock

2 Building for a Breakthrough: The Layton Years, 2003-11 / Lynda Erickson and David Laycock

3 The NDP and Quebec / Lynda Erickson and David Laycock

4 Modernizing the Party / David Laycock and Lynda Erickson

Part 2: The Ideological Evolution of the Party

5 Conceptual Foundations of Continuity and Change in NDP Ideology / David Laycock

6 Ideological Evolution of the Federal Party, as Seen through Its Election Campaign Manifestos / François Petry

Part 3: Party Activists, Leaders, and Voters

7 Members, Activists, and Party Opinion / Lynda Erickson and Maria Zakharova

8 Party Leaders in the New Democratic Party / Amanda Bittner

9 Valence Politics, Policy Distance, and the NDP Vote / Maria Zakharova

10 The Issue Priorities of the NDP Core Constituency: How Different Are They? / Mark Pickup and Colin Whelan

Part 4: New Game, New Party?

11 Uniting the Left? The Potential for an NDP-Liberal Party Merger / Jean-François Godbout, Éric Bélanger, and Frédéric Mérand

12 The 2011 Election and Beyond / Steven Weldon

13 Future Scenarios: NDP Evolution and Party System Change / David Laycock and Lynda Erickson

Index

David Laycock is a professor, and Lynda Erickson a professor emerita, in the Department of Political Science at Simon Fraser University.

Contributors: Éric Bélanger, Amanda Bittner, Jean-François Godbout, Frédéric Mérand, François Petry, Mark Pickup, Steven Weldon, Colin Whelan, Maria Zakharova