A Civil Society? Collective Actors In Canadian Political Life

Review "In this new edition, Canada's foremost analyst of group politics offers and authoritative account of the impact of neoliberalism across the country's political system. Miriam Smith draws on the main contemporary analytic approaches and gives the reader a vivid feel for the texture and stakes of real-life political disputes. Devastating in its critique but never cynical or didactic, A Civil Society? is an essential resource for scholars of Canadian democracy and social movements at all levels." -- Matt James, University of Victoria "Who gets their voice heard? Which interests merit attention in Canadian politics, and which ones are ignored? A Civil Society? is the best text on political representation in Canada because it addresses these core questions of politics." -- Peter Graefe, McMaster University Product Description A Civil Society? surveys the main approaches to the study of group politics in Canada, with a strong comparative perspective. Unique to this brief and accessible text is a comprehensive theoretical framework that helps students evaluate policy areas surveyed in the book, while also pointing them toward future study. This new edition opens with a discussion of power, political institutions, and identity. It goes on to explore group and social movement activity across a range of institutions including the House of Commons, the bureaucracy, and the courts as well as mobilization through social media and the electoral system. Throughout, Smith systematically integrates consideration of the role of gender, racialization, and indigeneity in contemporary Canadian group and movement politics. About the Author Miriam Smith is Professor in the Law and Society Program in the Department of Social Science at York University. She is a political scientist who has published widely on LGBTQ politics in Canada and the US, among other topics. She is the author of Political Institutions and Lesbian and Gay Rights in the United States and Canada (2008) and Editor of Group Politics and Social Movements in Canada (2014).