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Foundations of Canadian Political Behaviour

Foundations of Canadian Political Behaviour

Stability and Change in the Twenty-First Century

Edited by Amanda Bittner, J. Scott Matthews and Stuart Soroka

Published by: University of Toronto Press

Imprint: University of Toronto Press

38 b&w illustrations, 41 b&w tables

Digital download
9781487536220
Published: October 2024

Digital download
9781487536213
Published: October 2024

Description
Contents
Authors

Foundations of Canadian Political Behaviour aims to place contemporary Canadian electoral politics in comparative perspective, particularly with respect to its peers among the established democracies of western Europe and North America. The book pays tribute to political scientist Richard Johnston and his diverse contributions to the study of Canadian politics and electoral politics in general.

Presenting original empirical research by leading Canadian and international scholars, the volume is organized around the three themes that animate Johnston’s nearly five decades of scholarship: the impact of electoral and party systems on political conflict, change and persistence in the social foundations of party competition, and the role of election campaigns in voting behaviour. Chapters utilize diverse approaches, including quantitative analysis of survey data and electoral statistics, experimentation, systematic analysis of media content, historical narrative, and critical conceptual analyses. The book is anchored in general theoretical concerns; half of the chapters centre on Canadian cases, while half highlight key comparators including the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

Introduction
A. Bittner, J. S. Matthews, and S. Soroka

Parties and Party Systems: Canada in Comparative Context

1. The Two Faces of Canadian Party Competition
R.K. Carty

2. Modern American Politics: The Analytic History
Byron E. Shafer

3. Generalizing the Engine of Fragmentation: Quantitatively Modeling the Observed Contra-Duvergerian Patterns
Matthew S. Shugart and Cory L. Struthers

Social Foundations: Understanding Traditional Questions through the Lens of Contemporary Contexts

4. Families and the Fate of Party Systems
Richard Johnston

5. Gods and Votes: A Granular Look at the Relationship between Religion and Voting Behaviour in Canada
Alexis Bibeau, Marc André Bodet, and Yannick Dufresne

6. Is Quebec’s Distinctiveness an Artefact?
Patrick Fournier and André Blais

7. Concepts and Methods: How Definitions and Techniques Matter for Women’s Political Participation
Brenda O’Neill

8. Multiculturalism Policy in the Vernacular: Public Opinion the Canada and the US
Matthew Wright

9. Who Leads? The Delicate Dances of Party Elites and Partisans: Immigration Attitudes and Partisanship in Canada, 1980–2019
Stuart Soroka and Keith Banting

Campaigns and Persuasion

10. Do Election Campaigns Tighten the Margin of Victory? A Cross-National Analysis
Julia Partheymüller

11. Voters, Media Biases, and Rolling Cross-Sections: Persuasive Effects of TV News on Party Evaluations at the 2005 to 2017 German Federal Elections
Rüdiger Schmitt-Beck and Alexander Staudt

12. Media Image and Voter Perception of Candidates in the 2015 Canadian Election
Amanda Bittner and David A.M. Peterson

13. Cognitive Preconditions for Direct Poll Effects on Voters: Evidence on Attention, Retention, and Judgments of Applicability
Fred Cutler, J. Scott Matthews, and Mark Pickup

J. Scott Matthews is a professor in the Department of Political Science at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Stuart Soroka is a professor in the Departments of Communication and Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles.