Limits on Deliberative Democracy in Canada: a Study of Political Culture
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UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY Limits on Deliberative Democracy in Canada: A Study of Political Culture and How Attitudes Towards the United States Shape Canadian Public Policy Debates by Mark Milke A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE CALGARY, ALBERTA SEPTEMBER, 2008 © Mark Milke 2008 Library and Bibliotheque et 1*1 Archives Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-44360-6 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-44360-6 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives and Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par Plntemet, prefer, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans loan, distribute and sell theses le monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, worldwide, for commercial or non sur support microforme, papier, electronique commercial purposes, in microform, et/ou autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. this thesis. Neither the thesis Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels de nor substantial extracts from it celle-ci ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement may be printed or otherwise reproduits sans son autorisation. reproduced without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne Privacy Act some supporting sur la protection de la vie privee, forms may have been removed quelques formulaires secondaires from this thesis. ont ete enleves de cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires in the document page count, aient inclus dans la pagination, their removal does not represent il n'y aura aucun contenu manquant. any loss of content from the thesis. Canada ABSTRACT Theorists of deliberative democracy point to a number of factors that can affect the potential for deliberation: lack of wealth, marginalization of one sort or another, and insufficient interest in the public good. However, such theorists have ignored another possible influence on deliberation: political culture, itself a result of various factors including historical events, political leadership, and elite and popular discourse. That political culture, including a dominant narrative, will have an effect upon whether a polity is open to a wide-ranging deliberative discussion. If the discourse is self-limiting in some way, say for reasons of a religious taboo on a subject, then deliberation is circumscribed from the outset. In this thesis, I add to the literature on deliberative democracy in four ways: first, I show that the existing literature mistakenly posits private interest as opposite to public interest when the latter is instead a continuum of the former; second, I note how discourse in Canada is rife with references to the United States (often negative) and how that prevents more thorough deliberation of an issue or policy; third, the narratives of Ontario and Alberta are examined and explored for the possibility that the dominant Canadian narrative (Ontario's survivalist-garrison narrative) was triumphant in the past due to historical events, the subsequent reality of a significant population base and the attendant advantages that brought vis-a-vis the rest of Canada, and political considerations; fourth, I note the prevalence of anti-American discourse in Canada both in history and in the present but conclude that while chronic references to the United States will likely always be part of Canadian discourse, a weakening of the dominant Ontario narrative may iii produce two results: less consequential anti-American policy (in contrast to past actions), and a more deliberative national discourse as ideas and policies are considered on their merits. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My thanks to my supervisor, Dr. Tom Flanagan, who patiently whittled away at multiple drafts of this manuscript. Also, a thank you to those who served on my various committees: Dr. Rainer Knopff, Dr. James Keeley, Dr. Geoffrey Hale, Dr. Holger Herwig, and to Judi Powell in Graduate Studies at the department of Political Science at the University of Calgary for tips on dealing with inexorable Word document problems. v DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to my parents, to whom I owe everything. It is also dedicated to my friend Darren Baptist who died while I was completing this thesis: Forty years was too brief a time. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Approval Page ii Abstract iii Acknowledgements v Dedication vi Table of Contents vii List of Tables ix List of Charts x INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW—DELIBERATIVE DEMOCRACY 5 Deliberative Democracy as a Concept: Origins 5 Foundational Thinkers 7 Recent Theorists 8 Analysis of the Proceduralist and Consequentialist Schools 23 A Third Approach: Return to Practical Debates 26 Framework of My Definition of Deliberative Democracy 31 CHAPTER TWO: "PUBLIC INTEREST" V. PUBLIC CHOICE THEORY 37 A False Dichotomy in the Deliberative Democracy Debate 37 Implications for Deliberative Democracy Theory 44 Relevance to This Dissertation 47 CHAPTER THREE: INVESTIGATION AND ANALYSIS OF REFERENCES 50 Quantitative Analysis: American References 1984-2007 50 Quantitative Analysis: Findings 53 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCOURSE IN FOUR POLICY AREAS 75 Qualitative Analysis: Seven Policy Areas 1984-2007 82 HealthCare 86 Foreign Policy 97 The Courts and Judicial Appointment Reform 128 Economic Issues 137 CHAPTER FIVE: DISCOURSE IN THREE POLICY AREAS 159 Adoption of the Charter and Subsequent Interpretation 161 Affirmative Action 171 Environment 180 vii CHAPTER SIX: TWO REGIONAL NARRATIVES 188 Sources and Definitions of Anti-Americanism at Home and Abroad 188 Early Canadian-American Events and Ontario's Narrative 198 The Alberta Narrative: A Frontier 213 CHAPTER SEVEN: DISCUSSION OF THE DISCOURSE AND CONCLUSION 232 Summary of the Discourse in Seven Policy Areas 232 A Comparison to Deliberative Democracy's Essentials 235 The Results: The Nature of American References 239 Strategic and Opportunistic 240 More Common on the Political Left 241 Eternal in the Discourse 244 Regionalism May Help Deliberation 245 BIBLIOGRAPHY 253 viii LIST OF TABLES TABLE 1: U.S. References by Year 65 TABLE 2: Seven-Newspaper Sampling of References to the United States 66 TABLE 3: Number of References by Region 67 TABLE 4: The Stockwell Day Syndrome 68 TABLE 5: Day Citations at Non-Chain Dailies 68 TABLE 6: September 11 Effect on References? 69 TABLE 7: Key Policy Concepts 69 TABLE 8: U.S. References Tied to Party Leaders 70 ix LIST OF CHARTS CHART 1: U.S. References by Year 71 CHART 2: Seven-Newspaper Sampling of References to the United States 71 CHART 3: Number of References by Region 72 CHART 4: The Stockwell Day Syndrome 72 CHART 5: Day Citations at Non-Chain Dailies 73 CHART 6: September 11 Effect on References? 73 CHART 7: Key Policy Concepts 74 CHART 8: U.S. References Tied to Party Leaders 74 x 1 INTRODUCTION "Deliberation is not concerned with those branches of knowledge that have precise rules of their own.. ..The effects about which we deliberate are those which are produced by our agency but not always in the same way; e.g., the practice of medicine and of finance, and of navigation.. ..Thus the field of deliberation is 'that which happens for the most part, where the result is obscure and the right course not clearly defined'; and for important decisions we call in advisers, distrusting our own ability to reach a decision." —Aristotle in Ethics (1976,118-119) In a democracy where participation in the political process is a right assumed if not always exercised, most citizens properly care about who can speak and the effect such participants will have on the polity and the lives of the people within it. If the concern is not immediate and obvious, it inevitably reveals itself when an issue, policy, or development begins to significantly affect one's own person, family or interests. Citizens are natural deliberative democrats even if unaware of the term. In Canada, a significant part of public deliberation involves references to the United States. A casual observer will note such references frequently appear in media reporting and editorials, in political debates including political party speeches, party platforms and parliamentary debates, occasionally in scholarly research, and in policy issues such as health care, foreign affairs, social policy and the environment, to name but a few. As a result, to properly assess whether a particular policy is sensible for Canadians, one must look at how policy is arrived at, i.e., the deliberation involved before any particular policy is formulated and decisions taken. In Canada, it also helps to discover whether continual references to the United States short-circuit that deliberation. This thesis will examine how deliberative Canadian discourse is, given the reality of constant references to (real or imagined) American positions, references often used to 2 support or defeat a particular public policy proposal. Insofar as such references act as a "talisman," to ward off assumed undesirable policy, the chronic references are problematic on their own for deliberation. However, three other hindrances to greater deliberation also exist and they are contained within the existing theories and literature on deliberative democracy itself. First, much attention is given in existing deliberative democracy theory to concepts such as gender, race, and class and any role they might play in hindering deliberation; in contrast, the issue of culture is overlooked and this constitutes a significant omission, a point I elaborate on in the first chapter.