R. Kenneth Carty
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199240562
- eISBN:
- 9780191600296
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199240566.003.0012
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
The electoral explosion that overthrew the established patterns of Canada's national party system in 1993 marked the end of yet another cycle in Canadian party system development, for there had been ...
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The electoral explosion that overthrew the established patterns of Canada's national party system in 1993 marked the end of yet another cycle in Canadian party system development, for there had been similar reshapings in the early 1960s and in the 1920s. In each case, the party transformations were about more than shifting electoral alignments and party fortunes, they also involved radical changes in the organization and activities of the parties concerned. However, although the formal organizational structure of Canadian parties has varied considerably, they have all been essentially cadre‐like in their structure and character, and the core linkage problem has been one of tying an American society to European‐style governing institutions. Electoral realignments have also been cast in geographic rather than social structural terms, and recent decades have seen the disintegration of the party system in a different sense as federal (national) politics has become increasingly disentangled from provincial politics. The introduction discusses these topics; the next three sections cover the same topics as those in the other country case studies in the book, and examine the possible crisis in party legitimacy in Canada, the cadre organizations of the Canadian cadre parties, and the functions of the Canadian cadre parties in a modern polity (governance, political recruitment, interest articulation and aggregation, participatory organizations, and political communication and education).Less
The electoral explosion that overthrew the established patterns of Canada's national party system in 1993 marked the end of yet another cycle in Canadian party system development, for there had been similar reshapings in the early 1960s and in the 1920s. In each case, the party transformations were about more than shifting electoral alignments and party fortunes, they also involved radical changes in the organization and activities of the parties concerned. However, although the formal organizational structure of Canadian parties has varied considerably, they have all been essentially cadre‐like in their structure and character, and the core linkage problem has been one of tying an American society to European‐style governing institutions. Electoral realignments have also been cast in geographic rather than social structural terms, and recent decades have seen the disintegration of the party system in a different sense as federal (national) politics has become increasingly disentangled from provincial politics. The introduction discusses these topics; the next three sections cover the same topics as those in the other country case studies in the book, and examine the possible crisis in party legitimacy in Canada, the cadre organizations of the Canadian cadre parties, and the functions of the Canadian cadre parties in a modern polity (governance, political recruitment, interest articulation and aggregation, participatory organizations, and political communication and education).
