POLI 410 Political Parties and Ideology in (Fall 2020)

Instructor: Dr. Kelly Gordon Email: [email protected] Office hour sign-up sheet: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10-11 am. • Link for office hours sign-up sheet (you must be signed up to meet with the instructor): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DSocq81jCcbDc1YCBZvb9nytKM54b0rfmJeoiK8- 3Yc/edit?usp=sharing • Zoom link for office hours: https://mcgill.zoom.us/j/724711662

Course Overview and Objectives What is political ideology? How does ideology structure political parties and partisanship? And, in turn, how do parties influence larger Canadian politics, political behaviour, and partisanship? This course will help students answer these and other questions through an examination of a variety of key thinkers and debates around parties and ideology in Canadian politics. The aim of this course is to give students the critical tools to examine the complexity of Canadian political society, particularly how it intersects with political ideology, culture, and party politics. Students should complete the course with a firm grasp on both the limits and possibilities of analyzing “ideology” as it intersects and interlocks with other facets of Canadian politics – including party politics, voter behaviour, candidate selection, electoral outcomes, and ultimately, political governance.

The course aims to help students develop the ability to: • Identify the ideological underpinnings, history, and structures of the main political parties in Canada • Understand a wide variety of perspectives on Canadian political ideology and party politics • Understand the main debates and key assumptions made around voter behaviour, electoral systems, partisanship, and political campaigning

Required Texts All of the course readings and materials will be posted on myCourses.

A note on remote delivery This course has recently been adapted to a remote format. Online learning is new to most of us (myself included), which means reimagining the university classroom – something that will require collective patience, imagination, and engagement with new forms of communication, learning, and assessments. While this is obviously not ideal, I am hopeful that by the end of the semester you will leave the course with a firm grasp on the complexities of Canadian political ideology, culture, party politics, as well as have gained new online learning and communication skills.

One major hurdle of not being able to meet in person and connect is that people feel isolated and disengaged, which makes it more difficult to cultivate a sense of community. And while this course will not be the same as it would be “IRL” (in real life), I will do my very best to create an online class community while providing some flexibility for folks during this difficult time. I encourage students to sign up for virtual office hours with me, attend and participate in Zoom seminar sessions, and cultivate a relationship with each other students in the class. In lieu of IRL engagement, I am committed to being available for and engaged with students (within reason, of course).

1 Given that our classroom environment is virtual, there are added complications that come along with anonymity, lack of social cues, and tone. For a brief outline of online “netiquette” see the following blog: http://blogs.onlineeducation.touro.edu/15-rules-netiquette-online-discussion-boards/.

Class format and materials Rather than holding lectures each week, students will be assigned a variety of different course materials (scholarly texts, pre-recorded lectures, popular and political commentary, and other varied videos content). To promote accessibility, most content and all assessments will be administered in a flexible format (i.e. students will not be required to “attend” live sessions). I will record short weekly lectures that are delivered in flexible time (i.e. you can watch them whenever it is convenient for you). All other course materials will be available online through myCourses. It is recommended that you go through the weekly material in the order posted online.

In addition, there will be several Zoom seminars throughout the semester, scheduled in the Monday 8:35-9:55 am EST slot. These seminars will allow us to touch base with one another and will provide a forum for students to collectively raise questions and examine the course material. Attendance is strongly recommended but not mandatory. To ensure equity, these sessions will be recorded and posted to myCourses. To make these sessions more personable, I encourage everyone to enable the video function. This is not a requirement, and you will not be penalized for having your video turned off.

In these discussion sessions, I will field your questions and we will discuss the readings and course material collectively. These seminars will be driven by student questions and feedback. There are three ways in which you can bring questions/discussion points to these sessions: (1) prior to the seminar, you can raise questions/comments on the online discussion forums in myCourses, (2) during the seminar, you can type your questions into the zoom chat, (3) during the seminar, you can use the raised-hand function in Zoom.

Assignments and Grading Assignments for this course will consist of online discussion groups, four quizzes, a group project, and a final take-home exam. All assignment details and grading rubrics can be found in the “Key Documents” folder in the “Content” tab of myCourses.

Online small discussion groups (30%) Prior to the first class, you will be assigned a Google Doc discussion group of 8-10 students in which you will have to participate throughout the term. Every Monday, starting September 14th through to November 24th (for a total of 10 weeks), discussion questions pertaining to the course material for that week will be put into the Google Doc. Each group member is expected to respond to every question and engage significantly with the responses of your peers. Each submission should be preceded by your name, date and time of posting (i.e. “Kelly Gordon, September 7, 4:15 pm”).

The purpose of this course component is to mimic small group discussions and to give you an opportunity to work through and reflect on the class material. While you can draw on any/all course material in your interventions, your answers should most substantially engage with the questions and “discussion forum assignments” from that week (identified in the class schedule below).

Your participation will be graded on the accuracy, consistency, and level of engagement of your responses (this means you should not be submitting responses at the last minute, but rather be engaged in discussion evenly throughout the week). You are expected to post from 2-4 times per week. While I will be looking for responses that demonstrate your knowledge/comprehension of the course material, these forums can also act as more informal collective spaces where you can discuss and engage with your colleagues. Please feel free to express in these forums what you are confused about and what you find particularly challenging

2 or interesting in the course material. Discussion responses for the week close each Friday at the stroke of midnight (11:59 pm). The average from your top 10 weeks (out of a total of 12) will comprise 30% of your final grade.

Every 2 weeks, you will receive a grade out of five for your contributions to the discussion questions. Instead of grading each question individually, responses will be graded as a whole.

Mark Description /5 0 • Incomplete. • Did not respond to any questions. 1 • Sparse responses. • A few words, nothing substantive. • No real engagement or demonstrated understanding of text. 2 • Short (1 sentence) responses that do not engage with the text. • E.g. “I agree with Jenny.” • No demonstrated understanding of text. • Overall, “unsatisfactory”. 3 • Effort was made to answer each question. • Evidence that student read the text. • Some engagement with peer ideas/responses. • Overall, “satisfactory”. 4 • Well-developed responses to each question. • Demonstrated engagement with and understanding of text; ideally with textual evidence. • Consistent peer engagement (e.g. responding to others, building off of the ideas of others). • Overall, “good”. 5 • Thorough, nuanced responses to each question that clearly demonstrate an engagement with the text and your peers. • Claims grounded in the text; textual evidence. • Critical or creative engagement (e.g. text-to-text connections, or text-to-world connections). • High level of insight. • Overall, “exceptional”.

Quizzes (20%) There will be four quizzes held throughout the semester, which will take the form of flexible/online, open-book tests. The time frame to access the quizzes will be 48 hours. Although the quizzes are designed to be completed in 20-30 minutes, students will have 1.5 hours to complete the quizzes. The quizzes will be a combination of multiple choice and short answers and will each be worth 5%.

Group project (30%) The assignment for the group project will be to devise a federal political party. You will be randomly assigned into groups of 3-5 students, to be constituted after the add/drop period. At that time, I will also make available detailed instructions for the assignment and will hold a Q&A session about the assignment on October 5th.

Both the format and the included content for this assignment is flexible. You could, for example, draft a policy guide, build a website, and/or create video content for your party. Your assignment should address the historical emergence of the party; its ideological underpinnings; key policy issues; policy platform; and campaign and electoral strategies. You could also include information about its leaders, key constituencies and supporters. I encourage groups to be creative in approaching this assignment and will make myself available to brainstorm with groups about possible approaches. 3

Take-home final exam (20%) You will have 72 hours to complete a final take-home exam any time during McGill’s official exam period. You will have access to the questions for the final via mycourses and the exam will be due on the scheduled exam end time. Answers are expected to draw on relevant course lecture material and assigned readings. More details will be posted on myCourses.

Deadlines and assignment submission All deadlines are stated in the schedule below. Unless otherwise noted, assignments are to be submitted as Word documents using the Assignments tool in myCourses by 11:59pm (Montréal time). Late assignments will be deducted one third of a letter grade for every day late, including weekends. Extensions are available only for serious and documented reasons, and they must be requested ahead of time. No extensions will be granted on (or after) an assignment’s due date. Do not send assignments via email unless otherwise instructed.

Grade breakdown • Google Doc participation forum 30% • Quizzes 20% • Group project 30% • Take home final 20%

4 CLASS SCHEDULE

Week/Topics Date Assignments and/or Readings

Week 1: S 2-4 Terry Eagleton, “What is ideology?” Introducing political ideology S 2 Zoom seminar (introductions, questions about course)

I. CONTEXTUALIZING PARTY POLITICS: POLITICS CULTURE IN CANADA

Week 2 S 8-11 Gad Horowitz, “Conservatism, liberalism, and socialism in Canada: An Conceptualizing interpretation” Canadian political culture (1) Seymour Lipset, “Historical Traditions and National Characteristics: A Comparative Analysis of Canada and the United States”

Harrold Innis, The fur trade in Canada: An introduction to Canadian economic history - Introduction: “The Beaver”

Discussion forum assignment: o The National, “Canadians and Americans: How different are we?” (video) Week 3 S 15 Final add/drop date Conceptualizing Canadian political S 14- Nelson Wiseman, “Ideological Competition in the Canadian Party System” culture (2) 18 Paul Saurette and Kathryn Trevenen, “It Don’t Mean a Thing if it Ain’t got that Swing: Ideology in the age of emotion”

Discussion forum assignments: o John Geddes, “This is what’s wrong with Canada’s Left” (Macleans article) o Shannon Proudfoot, “This is what’s wrong with Canada’s Right” (Macleans article) o Anne Kingston, “The political terms ‘right’ and ‘left’ are simplistic, damaging, and need to be retired” (Macleans article) S 21 Zoom seminar (module I) S 23 First quiz posted at 9 am (module I) II. PARTIES AND PARTY SYSTEMS IN CANADA

Week 4: S 21- Steve Patten, “The Evolution of the Canadian Party System: From Brokerage Parties and party 25 to Marketing-Oriented Politics” (textbook) systems Richard Johnston, “Polarized Pluralism in the Canadian Party System” (textbook)

Discussion form assignment: o Andrew Nikiforuk, “Party’s Over: Why We Need to Abolish Political Parties” (The Tyee article)

5 o Susan Delacourt, “The case for abolishing political parties” ( Star article) Week 5: S 28- Wilfred Laurier, “Sunny Ways Speech” The Liberal party O 2 Brooke Jeffrey, “The : Rebuilding, Resurgence, and Return to Power”

Discussion forum assignment: o The Liberal Party of Canada, “Sunny Ways” (video) o Ian Austen, “Four Years After ‘Sunny Ways,’ a Muted Restart for Justin Trudeau” (New York Times article) O 5 Zoom seminar (Q&A about group project assignment)

Week 6: O 5-9 Preston Manning, “The West Wants In” The Conservative party James Farney, “From Grant to Hayek: The Shifting Nature of Canadian Conservatism”

Discussion forum assignments: o Ian Austen, “Canada’s Conservatives Seek a Champion, and Redemption” (New York Times article) o “The Buffalo Declaration” (manifesto and website) o Open to Debate with David Moscrop, “What is the future of conservatism in Canada” (podcast) Week 7: O 13- David McGrane, “Ideological Moderation and Professionalization: The NDP The CCF/NDP 16 under and Thomas Mulcair”

David McGrane, “What Does ‘Progressive’ Mean? The Political Theory of Social Democracy and Reform Liberalism in Canada”

Discussion forum assignments: o The Leap Manifesto (manifesto) o Avi Lewis in conversation with Jonathon Gatehouse, “Avi Lewis on the ‘ideological battle’ over the Leap Manifesto” (Macleans article) O 19 Zoom seminar (module II) O 21 Second quiz posted at 9 am (module II) III. PARTY AND VOTING BEHAVIOUR IN CANADA

Week 8: O 19- Alain Cairn’s, “The Electoral System and the Party System in Canada, 1921- Duverger, Canadian 23 1965” exceptionalism, and third parties Éric Bélanger, “Third Parties in Canada: Variety and Success”

Discussion forum assignments: o The Conversation, “What the Canadian election results would have looked like with electoral reform” (article) o William MacDonald, “Why a failed bid for electoral reform is a win for Canada” (Globe and Mail article) o Melinda Meng, “Why Canada Needs Electoral Reform” (Harvard International Review article) Week 9: O 26- Denis Pillon, “Party Politics and Voting Systems in Canada” 30 6 Voting behaviour and Éric Bélanger and Laura B. Stephenson, “Parties and Partisan: The Influence partisanship of Ideology and Brokerage on the Durability of Partisanship in Canada”

Discussion forum assignments: o The Agenda, “Politics, Partisanship, and Polarization” (video) Week 10: Campaigning N 2-6 Alex Marland and Thierry Giasson, “From Brokerage to Boutique Politics: Political Marketing and the Changing Nature of Party Politics in Canada”

Tamara Small, “Two Decades of Digital Party Politics in Canada: An Assessment”

Discussion forum assignments: o The National, “Negative Ads in Canadian Politics” (video) o “Daisy” (video) o “The 5 Canadian Political TV Ads that Changed History” (videos) N 9 Zoom seminar (module III) N 11 Third quiz posted at 9 am (module III) IV. PARTIES AND ISSUES OF REPRESENTATION

Week 11: N 9- James Bickerton, “Parties and Regions: Representation and Resistance” Representing regions 13 Nelson Wiseman, In Search of Canadian Political Culture o Chapter 5: “Regions and Political Culture” o Chapter 7: “Quebec: Political Culture of a Distinct Society”

Discussion forum assignments: o Scott Matthews, “Regionalism is nothing new” (Macleans article) o 22 Minutes, “Canada: The Board Game” (video) Week 12: N 16- Sylvia Bashevkin, “When do outsiders break in? Institutional circumstances of Representing women 20 party leadership victories by women in Canada”

Melanee Thomas, “In Crisis or Decline? Selecting Women to Lead Provincial Parties in Government”

Discussion forum assignment: o “25 Perfect” (documentary) N 18 Final group project due

Week 13 N 23- Randy Besco and Erin Tolley, “Does everyone cheer?: The politics of Representing race and 27 immigration and multiculturalism in Canada” immigration Erin Tolley, “Who you know: Local party presidents and minority candidates’ emergence”

Discussion forum assignments: o Terry Galvin, “Why race and immigration are a gathering storm in Canadian politics” (Macleans article) o Alec Castonguay, “The inside story of Jason Kenney’s campaign to win over ethnic votes” (Macleans article) N. 30 Zoom seminar (module IV)

D. 2 Fourth quiz posted at 9 am (module IV) 7

D 4 Final exam posted at 9 am

D 11 Final take home exam due

Other things to note: Copyright of Lectures Statement All slides, video recordings, lecture notes, etc. remain the instructor’s intellectual property. As such, you may use these only for your own learning (and research, with proper referencing/citation) ends. You are not permitted to disseminate or share these materials; doing so may violate the instructor’s intellectual property rights and could be cause for disciplinary action.

Extraordinary Circumstances Statement In the event of extraordinary circumstances beyond the University’s control, the content and/or evaluation scheme in this course is subject to change.

Indigenous Land Statement: McGill University is on land which has long served as a site of meeting and exchange amongst Indigenous peoples, including the Haudenosaunee and Anishinabeg nations.

Language of Submission: In accord with McGill University’s Charter of Students’ Rights, students in this course have the right to submit in English or in French any written work that is to be graded. This does not apply to courses in which acquiring proficiency in a language is one of the objectives.

Academic Integrity: McGill University values academic integrity. Therefore, all students must understand the meaning and consequences of cheating, plagiarism and other academic offences under the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures” (see McGill’s guide to academic honesty for more information).

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