Société québécoise de science politique

Citizens by Elisabeth Gidengil; André Blais; Neil Nevitte; Richard NadeauReview by: Livianna TossuttiCanadian Journal of Political Science / Revue canadienne de science politique, Vol. 38, No. 4(Dec., 2005), pp. 1064-1067Published by: Canadian Political Science Association and the Société québécoise de science politiqueStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25165893 .

Accessed: 17/06/2014 10:14

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

Canadian Political Science Association and Société québécoise de science politique are collaborating withJSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Canadian Journal of Political Science / Revue canadienne descience politique.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 194.29.185.145 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 10:14:46 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

1064 Recensions / Reviews

Citizens

Elisabeth Gidengil, Andr? Biais, Neil Nevitte and Richard Nadeau Vancouver, BC: UBC Press, 2004, pp. vii, 214

Citizens is one volume in a series designed to evaluate the democratic performance of the institutions and practices affecting public decision-making in Canada. The Cana

dian Democratic Audit (CDA) is based on the premise that declining levels of public confidence in those institutions and anemic participation rates in political and com

munity life dictate the need for a performance review. In Citizens, the state of dem

ocratic citizenship is evaluated according to levels of public involvement in civic and

political activities, the extent to which these participatory opportunities represent social

diversity, and the potential for these activities to reflect the collective interests of all

Canadians. The volume also assesses reform proposals to improve public participa tion, inclusiveness and responsiveness.

The study relies on official statistics, survey data and content analysis to assess

longitudinal changes in patterns of citizen engagement over time and across nations.

Comparisons are also made across social groups in order to identify structural fac

tors that might account for differential rates of participation across generations, edu

cational levels and community types, between rich and poor, between men and women, and between members of visible minorities, immigrants and Canadians in general.

This investigation draws on varied and rich sources of data, presenting them in

a manner that is accessible to non-academic observers. While it does not claim to be

an exhaustive treatment of democratic citizenship, and subject-area specialists will

be familiar with many of the empirical findings, this does not detract from the com

pelling and troubling nature of the results. While public involvement in conventional

political activities is weak and, in many cases, eroding, Canadians are not generally

turning to most forms of unconventional politics as a substitute. Civic engagement in

associational, volunteering and philanthropic activities remains one area of strength, and these involvements may revitalize participation in conventional politics since some

studies have shown a positive correlation between civic and political participation. The most striking findings concern the existence of a "democratic divide." Certain

types of Canadians?the poor, people with less formal education, the young and newcomers?were generally less involved in political and civic life and less informed

about political facts than older, more affluent and more established Canadians, with

higher levels of education. The existence of political/civic "have" and "have-nots"

jeopardizes the principle of inclusiveness, as well as the system's potential respon siveness to the values and interests of those without a voice.

The authors offer an incisive discussion of their findings. Canadians expressed

middling levels of interest in politics, with interest levels varying along age, gender,

affluence, education, immigrant status and province of residence dimensions. While

their level of political interest ranked above the median for established Western democ

racies in 1990, the portrait of their political knowledge was less flattering. Many were ignorant about basic political facts and were unable to distinguish between more

complex ideological concepts. Social differences in the distribution of knowledge were also detected; women, the poor, the young and those with less formal education

knew less about politics. A particularly fascinating chapter assesses the social, policy and electoral con

sequences of political illiteracy. The authors argue that the uneven distribution of

knowledge and the ideologically biased nature of informed opinion on important pol

icy questions converge to produce collective public opinion that does not reflect the

values and interests of all Canadians. This has the effect of jeopardizing the potential

responsiveness of public policy (87). This problem is exacerbated by outright misin

formation about facts; the authors show that the misinformed would take different

This content downloaded from 194.29.185.145 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 10:14:46 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Recensions / Reviews 1065

stands on policies if they had the correct information (95), that they would be more

likely to support policy positions that would help them (100) and that political par ties lose votes in elections as a result of misinformation (97).

Citizens then turns to an examination of conventional political activities, begin

ning with a discussion of generational replacement as the primary source of declin

ing turnout in federal elections held since 1988. The reasons why the poor, Aboriginals and newcomers are also less likely to vote receive some treatment in this chapter. These

familiar patterns have been observed in other states, and are supplemented with data on inconsistent participation levels in subnational elections. Further evidence of the

weak foundations of our linkage institutions can be found in the fact that few Cana

dians have ever joined an interest group or political party, and that the demographic

composition of these vehicles is aging and unrepresentative of social diversity. The fifth chapter examines protest activities. While few Canadians do more

than sign a petition, the proportion of Canadians who signed a petition, joined a boy cott and attended a lawful demonstration has increased over the past twenty years

(137). The propensity for well-educated and relatively affluent baby boomers to engage in protest activities was attributed to cultural changes that have accompanied the shift

from industrial to post-industrial society. However, as the profile of protest-minded Canadians has become mainstream, the voices of the disadvantaged risk further

marginalization. Levels of involvement in voluntary associations, volunteering and philanthropic

activities indicate that Canadian democracy is relatively healthy in this respect (146-7),

although the young, the poor, newcomers and people with less formal education were

less likely to participate in associational life (149-54). Despite Quebec's image as a collectivist society, Quebeckers were less active in voluntary associations, less likely to volunteer their time, or to give to charitable causes. Citing data that the median

level of active associational membership in Catholic countries falls below the median

for other democracies, the authors tentatively suggest that Quebec's Catholic legacy

might explain the reduced perceived importance of the voluntary sector. While Put nam has also argued that Catholicism is negatively correlated with associational

involvements {Making Democracy Work, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993), Cento Bull has presented survey evidence that contradicts this view of the relation

ship between civicness and observant Catholicism {Social Identities and Political Cul tures in Italy, New York: Berghahn Books, 2000). Quebec's tradition of statism and

provision is also offered as an explanation for these findings, but this does not explain the relatively robust levels of associational involvements and charitable giving in Sas

katchewan and Atlantic Canada.

In the concluding chapter, the authors evaluate some reform proposals to improve the state of democratic citizenship. In order to re-engage young citizens, they argue

persuasively that political parties have an important role to play in mobilizing the

young to vote. Debates about the potential for volunteering, service learning courses

and civic education classes to lay the foundation for a lifetime of democratic engage ment are also considered (182). The authors exercise appropriate caution in noting that the American evidence on the efficacy of these solutions is not conclusive, and

that their helpfulness depends on their content, context and timing of delivery. In the name of improving political literacy, the traditional media are exhorted to provide more balanced and issue-oriented reportage. Given the economic, technological, cul

tural and logistical news filters that shape the character of North American journal ism, it is doubtful these media practices will change in the short term.

Globalization, market rhetoric and the rise of adversarial journalism are cited as some of the culprits that have devalued the concept of politics, and have made it seem irrelevant to people's lives. Consequently, stimulating political interest is

identified as the key to narrowing the information gap between the advantaged and

This content downloaded from 194.29.185.145 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 10:14:46 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

1066 Recensions / Reviews

disadvantaged. As the authors recognize, the most practical solution to narrowing the

democratic divide and attacking one of the root causes of democratic disengagement?

poverty?is to encourage more Canadians to pursue the post-secondary education that

reinforces norms of civic obligation and gives people the cognitive skills to under

stand politics. I strongly recommend this volume to those concerned with the state of Cana

dian democracy, as well as to instructors of senior undergraduate and graduate courses

in political behaviour. The authors turn what could have been a mundane recitation

of data into a thoughtful and important reflection on the social, policy and electoral

consequences of the democratic divide.

However, it is puzzling that in a volume that is ostensibly about democracy and

citizenship, a discussion of the meaning of these terms is never broached. The fore

word to the volume tells us that a democratic audit requires "substantial consider

ation of the meaning of democracy," yet none was offered. It also tells us that the

benchmarks of participation, inclusiveness and responsiveness were chosen largely because they are relevant to a contemporary understanding of Canadian democracy.

While the rationale for not defining this contested term hinged on a desire to avoid

imposing a universal conception of democracy on the CDA authors, even a cursory discussion of the classical roots of the doctrine of equality that underpins the great democratic revolutions of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as well as the

democratic gains made in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, would have anchored

the audit criteria on a more solid theoretical foundation.

The same could be said for the omission of a consideration of what it means to

be a citizen. A discussion of the Athenian conception of citizenship as involving par

ticipation in public affairs, public education about governmental problems, and the

cultivation of a sense of civic responsibility, would have enriched the launch pad for

this volume. If the intent was to draw on more recent sources for evaluating citizen

ship, then references to Almond and Verba's seminal work on the civic culture might have addressed this vacuum. The "rational activist" view of democratic citizenship stresses activity and involvement, while the civic culture is a mixed culture in which

many individuals are active in politics, and many others take a more passive role as

subjects (The Civic Culture, Boston and Toronto: Little, Brown and Company, 1965). Since neither of these models describes the state of democratic citizenship in con

temporary Canada, it is difficult to evaluate the implications of the empirical evi

dence for democratic stability. The audit approach borrows from the accounting tradition of relying on quan

tifiable indicators to measure performance and demonstrate accountability. Future

studies would be enriched if they also relied on the quasi-experimental and partici

pant observation designs that have been employed in studies of public participation, inclusiveness and responsiveness in Italy and in minority communities in the United

States. Furthermore, there are limitations to using survey data that were not origi

nally designed to answer some of the critical questions raised in this volume. First, the item wording made it impossible to determine whether people are more politi

cally engaged because of their associational commitments, or whether formal political involvement fosters participation in community affairs. Second, the use of non

European survey respondents as proxies for visible minorities was unnecessary, con

sidering the availability of Statistics Canada data on visible minority participation in

political and civic activities.

Political parties and the media were deservedly singled out for contributing to

political illiteracy in Canada. Nevertheless, this reviewer was left with the impres sion that other actors were too easily relieved of their role in building an "uncivic"

culture. For instance, James Coleman has argued that families are a prime source of

the intergenerational transmission of social capital {Equality and Achievement in Edu

This content downloaded from 194.29.185.145 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 10:14:46 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Recensions / Reviews 1067

cation, Boulder: Westview Press, 1990), yet this volume is virtually silent about the

influence they are (or are not) exerting at home. Second, media consumers must

shoulder part of the blame for the mediocre quality of a news product that fosters

political illiteracy. Third, educators and parents must care enough to question whether

civics courses and community service requirements have been meaningfully inte

grated into the high-school curriculum, and whether post-secondary institutions are

training citizens as well as future taxpayers. In sum, the roots of the democratic mal

aise lie closer to home than those identified in this excellent contribution to the debate.

LrviANNA Tossutti Brock University

Second Growth: Community Economic Development in Rural British Columbia Sean Markey, John Pierce, Mark Roseland and Kelly Vodden Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2005, pp. 352

This theoretically rich, community economic development (CED) work, written by four members of the Centre for Sustainable Community Development (formerly the Community Economic Development Centre) at Simon Fraser University, is the

product of a three-year participatory-action-based research project involving four

"forest-based" British Columbia communities. Two Aboriginal communities and two

municipalities were case studied as part of an action-learning exercise in order to

gain "insight into the apparent conflict between the economic imperative and fluid

ity of capital versus the lived worlds of rural and small time places" (3). Through their empirical studies of the four communities, the authors argue that CED, fos

tered at the local level, can allow for the kind of capacity building that is needed to create diversified, sustainable economic futures for resource-based rural and small

town communities. They are careful, however, to distinguish between the use of CED

as a "localized and palliative strategy" for marginalized communities caught in the

throes of political and economic dependency, and the possibilities for a more robust

(theoretically balanced) version of CED, which can become part and parcel of rural

and small-town locally-based planning and development. While recognizing the appro

priateness of CED in either situation, they argue that a host of negative economic

and political factors, which are intensifying under the direction of neo-liberal ideo

logical thinking, have resulted in a pressing need for the more robust form of com

munity development and corresponding revitalization strategies. In the opening chapters, three broad project themes of dependency, transition

and resilience are introduced (and later put to good use) in order to illuminate where

rural, resource-based communities have been, the type of change that has occurred

and the possibilities for sustainable economic futures based upon action research and

planning. The project action-research design is clearly laid out, from the five overall

CED-based research questions to the participatory action-research (PAR) process and

methods. Some useful definitions are also provided in order to expand the reader's

understanding of what, for example, is "rural" in nature. The background informa

tion and analysis of the four case study communities takes place within the context

of a larger historical critique of BC's resource-based economy, an economy which

has certainly not served rural and small-town communities well, despite the fact that

it is those very same communities that have made such significant economic contri

butions not only to BC and Canada but to the world economy. In order to understand the economic uncertainty and uneven development that

have plagued rural and small-town communities across Canada, the authors use a

staples theory model to do what many CED analyses fail to do?that is, to explore the role of historical forces in shaping patterns of development. The staples theory

model is not only developed within the context of local development and the need to

This content downloaded from 194.29.185.145 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 10:14:46 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions