Problems of Constitutional Design in Canada: Quebec and the Issue of Bicommunalism

Latouche, Daniel

doi:10.2307/3330466

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…According to Morton, the Charter is 'central on the list of PQ grievances against English Canada' because of the overt protection it gave to official language minority groups (Morton,ibid,173 and 178). He argues that while the Charter protections ostensibly affect all provinces equally, in practice Quebec has been affected most because of the assertion of English language minority rights against provincial laws (see also Latouche, 1988;Gagnon and Laforest, 1993). In this view, the 'pro-Charter coalition' is better categorised as a state sponsored rainbow clientele group 'lining up to praise their patron's new constitutional design' (Morton, ibid. 181), than as a manifestation of citizen power.…”

Section: Iv) Collective and Individual Rightsmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…As most commentators note, the 1867 Act sought to create a highly centralised federation which actually became very decentralised over time. In the context of the general expansion of the welfare state (Landry, 1993), provincial responsibilities grew and the associated phenomenon of 'province building' occurred, creating a new local salariat whose interests were directly wedded to the provincial public sector (see Latouche, 1988;McRoberts and Posgate, 1980). Even the periods of partial reversal between 1940 and 1960 and during the early 1970s, saw Ottawa expand faster than the provinces rather than the provinces contracting.…”

Section: Ii) Multiculturalismmentioning

confidence: 98%

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Constitutional reform and separatism: lessons from the Canadian experience

Lévy

1996

Public Policy and Administration

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Section: Iv) Collective and Individual Rightsmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Ii) Multiculturalismmentioning

confidence: 98%

Constitutional reform and separatism: lessons from the Canadian experience

Lévy

1996

Public Policy and Administration

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“…For example, in Belgium, a change in census data concerning language use after World War II sparked the creation of a linguistic boundary (including the relocation of some communes from one province to another) that created opportunities for new conflict, eventually requiring the country to transform from a unitary to a federal structure (see Delpérée 1989;Covell 1993;Carter 2003). Constitutional politics in Canada are especially difficult given the procedural difficulty of getting the mass public to accept elite agreements (Lusztig 1994) and the sociopolitical issue of bicommunalism, with the francophone community based primarily in the province of Quebec (see Latouche 1988;Leslie 1988;Riddell and Morton 1998).…”

Section: Mcadammentioning

confidence: 99%

“Grab the Signatures and Run”: Federal Unity Strategy in Canada from the Referendum to Patriation

Carter

James

2009

International Political Sociology

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Whether as a traumatic event or great accomplishment, the legacy of the First Ministers’ Conference of 1981 lives on in Canadian politics. Constitutional negotiations among the prime minister and provincial premiers in 1981 produced the only “packaged” agreement since Confederation to achieve even the minimal support necessary to achieve ratification. The resulting Constitution Act of 1982, which included the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, remains in place and is the principal manifestation of intergovernmental bargaining from over two decades ago. This study reevaluates the strategic interaction and conflict processes that took place between Ottawa and the provinces in negotiations leading up to that fateful November 1981 conference. We apply the sociological framework for assessment of the dynamics of identity contention adopted from McAdam, Tarrow, and Tilly (2001) and find tentative support for its propositions. After an overview of the article’s agenda, we present an analytic framework for the study of conflict processes. Second, the background to the constitutional crisis of 1980‐81 is summarized. Using the analytic framework, the third section focuses on the federal strategy in the crisis as suggested by minutes from cabinet meetings, and the fourth section examines key events of the First Ministers Conference of November 1981. Fifth, and finally, the contributions of the preceding sections are summed up and ideas are put forward for further research.

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“…However, the experience of Belgium, and that of other countries, such äs Canada, suggests that once the basic organization of the state has been opened to question, it is very difficult to close the question, and constitutional engineering tends to displace other forms of conflict resolution. (For discussions of Canadian constitutional revision, see Latouche [1988] and Leslie [1988]. For a discussion of the ongoing nature of constitutional revision in Belgium, see Res Publica [1984].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Political conflict and constitutional engineering in Belgium

Covell¹

1993

International Journal of the Sociology of Language

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Since 1968, the unitary form of the Belgian state has been under almost continuous question. In that year, after a series of demonstrations and a government crisis, the French section of the University of Louvain, located in the Dutch-speaking region of the country, was forced to move to the French-speaking side of the border between the two languages. The move initiated a period of ongoing crisis, punctuated by three revisions of the constitution, in 1968, 1980, and 1988-1989. The periods between the revisions were marked, not by quietus, but by a series of unsuccessful attempts to implement the revisions just completed, or to achieve further revisions. The most recent revision, that of 1988, with its accompanying laws of Implementation, is itself incomplete.This article will examine the way in which Belgian political actors came to attempt to resolve the quarreis between Dutch-speaking and Frenchspeaking citizens of the country through the process that I have called constitutional engineering. It will also consider the factors that influenced the course and outcomes of the constitutional revisions. Because there is an abundant literature on the earlier constitutional revisions I will concentrate on the most recent revision, that of 1988. 1 Constitutional engineeringConstitutional engineering is one of a ränge of possible responses to the divisions in a given state. It involves making formal changes to the organization and Operation of government institutions via changes to the country's constitution. It is this requirement for formal change in the constitution that distinguishes constitutional engineering from other ways of dealing with political issues.For example, increasing working-class participation in the political life of Belgium required formal constitutional engineering, in the form of the revisions of 1894 and 1919 that provided for manhood suffrage and

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Problems of Constitutional Design in Canada: Quebec and the Issue of Bicommunalism

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

Constitutional reform and separatism: lessons from the Canadian experience

Constitutional reform and separatism: lessons from the Canadian experience

“Grab the Signatures and Run”: Federal Unity Strategy in Canada from the Referendum to Patriation

Political conflict and constitutional engineering in Belgium

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