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Université de Montréal Societal Cleavages and Institutional Change in Canada Retention, Reform and Removal of Nominee Councils par Bruce M. Hicks Département de science politique Faculté des arts et des sciences Thèse présentée à la Faculté des études supérieures et postdoctorales en vue de l’obtention du grade de doctorat en philosophie Décembre, 2011 © Bruce M. Hicks, 2011 Library and Archives Bibliothèque et Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de l'édition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-82936-3 Our file Notre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-82936-3 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant à la Bibliothèque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par télécommunication ou par l'Internet, prêter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des thèses partout dans le loan, distrbute and sell theses monde, à des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non- support microforme, papier, électronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriété du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette thèse. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la thèse ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent être imprimés ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformément à la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privée, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont été enlevés de thesis. cette thèse. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. Université de Montréal Faculté des études supérieures et postdoctorales Cette thèse intitulée: Societal Cleavages and Institutional Change in Canada Présenté par : Bruce M. Hicks a été évaluée par un jury composé des personnes suivantes : Éric Montpetit, président-rapporteur André Blais, directeur de recherche Richard Nadeau, membre du jury Lori Turnbull, examinateur externe Denyse Baillargeon, représentant du doyen de la FES i Résumé En concevant que toute société a deux clivages dominants, l’un social et l’autre partisan, cette thèse développe une théorie sur le changement institutionnel. L’hypothèse initiale, selon laquelle les groupes sociaux créés par le premier clivage agiront pour restreindre le changement institutionnel et que le changement aura lieu lors de l’émergence d’un groupe partisan capable de croiser le clivage social, fut testée par les processus traçant les changements qui furent proposés et qui ont eu lieu au sein des conseils nominés en Amérique du Nord britannique. Ces conseils furent modifiés un bon nombre de fois, devenant les chambres secondaires de législatures provinciales avant d’être éventuellement abolies. La preuve supporte l’hypothèse, bien qu’il ne soit pas suffisant d’avoir un groupe partisan qui puisse croiser le clivage qui mène le changement : un débat partisan sur le changement est nécessaire. Ceci remet aussi en cause la théorie prédominante selon laquelle les clivages sociaux mènent à la formation de partis politiques, suggérant qu’il est plus bénéfique d’utiliser ces deux clivages pour l’étude des institutions. Mots-clés : clivage sociétal, clivage social, clivage partisan, gouvernement responsable, gouvernement représentatif, gouvernement responsable de parti, conseil du roi, conseil souverain, conseil du gouverneur, conseil des nominés, conseil législatif, chambre haute, deuxième chambre, conseil exécutif, assemblée, législature, parlement, groupe social, parti politique, mouvement politique, constitution. ii Abstract By conceiving of any society as having two dominant cleavages, one ‘social’ and one ‘partisan’, this dissertation develops a theory on institutional change. The initial hypothesis that social groups created by the former will act to restrain institutional change and that change will occur when a partisan group emerges that can cross the social cleavage was tested by process tracing the changes which were proposed and which occurred to the appointed councils established in British North America. These councils were modified a number of times, becoming second chambers in the provincial legislatures, and were eventually each abolished. The evidence found supports the hypothesis, though it is not sufficient to have a partisan group that can cross the cleavage drive change, a partisan debate over the change was necessary. This also challenges the prevailing theory that social cleavages lead to political party formation, suggesting the benefit of using these two cleavages for the study of institutions. Keywords : societal cleavage, social cleavage, partisan cleavage, responsible government, representative government, responsible party government, king’s council, sovereign council, governor’s council, nominee council, legislative council, upper chamber, senate, upper house, second chamber, executive council, assembly, legislature, parliament, social group, political party, political movement, constitution. iii Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction ........................................................................................................ 11 I. Institutional Change ................................................................................................. 17 II. Societal Cleavages ................................................................................................... 20 III. Conceptualizing Institutional Change .................................................................. 22 IV. Cases .................................................................................................................... 26 V. Overview of Dissertation ......................................................................................... 27 Chapter 2: Situating this Research ....................................................................................... 31 I. Social Cleavages ...................................................................................................... 31 II. Institutionalism ......................................................................................................... 34 III. Colonial Institutions ............................................................................................. 35 Colonial ‘Studies’ ........................................................................................................ 36 Councils and Responsible Government ....................................................................... 42 IV. Bicameralism ....................................................................................................... 47 Comparative Literature ................................................................................................ 48 Country Specific Studies .............................................................................................. 57 Canadian Upper Chambers .......................................................................................... 60 V. Summary .................................................................................................................. 70 Chapter 3: The Legal and Theoretical Framework for the Constitution of Canada............. 72 I. Sovereignty .............................................................................................................. 74 Nature of the Social Contract ....................................................................................... 79 Summary ...................................................................................................................... 84 II. Constitutions ............................................................................................................ 85 Colonial Constitutions .................................................................................................. 87 Conventions ................................................................................................................. 92 Judicial Review ............................................................................................................ 94 Summary ...................................................................................................................... 95 III. Constitution Act, 1867 ......................................................................................... 96 Finding an Amending Formula .................................................................................... 97 Constitution Act, 1982 ............................................................................................... 102 Post-1982 Attempts at Amendment ........................................................................... 106 Summary .................................................................................................................... 110 IV. Conclusion ........................................................................................................
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