Broadview Press

Canadian parties in transition, 3d ed.

Gagnon (Quebec and Canadian studies, political science, U. de Québec à Montréal) and Tanguay (political science and Canadian studies, Wilfred Laurier U.) and their contributors substantially update this edition with examinations of party alignments and the mobilization of interests, democratic participation and direct democracy. They have also updated their articles in the origins and evolution of the Canadian party system, including third party successes and the Bloc Québécois, alignment and de-alignment in Canadian federal politics, cycles and brokerage as mobilizers of interest, patronage, politics with and without parties, changes in values and the dynamics of the partisan landscape, the electoral system, funding and party finance, television advertising, the role of the Internet, interest groups and social movements, regional representation, political drop-outs, and the paradoxes of direct democracy. Appendices include statistical materials on voting results and voter turnout. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Politics, society, and the media, 2d ed.

Nesbitt-Larking (political science, Huron U. College, Canada) presents a political sociology of the Canadian media that is influenced by Harold Innis, Marshall McLuhan, and George Grant. He begins with historical treatments of the development of the Canadian press and broadcast media, followed by chapters detailing the interrelationships between ideology, political culture, and the media; media as a capitalist enterprise; and the role of government and political organizations in attempting to shape the operations of media. Other topics addressed in the volume include the actual process of constructing media texts, the political consequences of new media, theoretical attempts to politically deconstruct Canadian media texts, models of media-society dynamics, and the normative implications of current Canadian media realities. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)