1. 1 Lecture 13: Participation in Canada SOSC 152

2. 2 A. Modes of Participation: What forms does participation take? B. What factors affect level of participation? C. Analysis of Canadian Participation D. Role of Elections E. Interest Groups in U.S. and Canada

3. 3 Canada

4. 4 A. Modes of Participation: What forms does participation take? Verba and Nie, Participation in America four modes Voting campaign activity communal activity personal contacting

5. 5 The Participation Input: Summary

6. 6 The Participation Input: Summary (con’d)

7. 7 B. What factors affect Participation? 1. Who do people vote for? Party ID predicted which presidential candidate people voted for in 1952 and 1956 elections particularly strong for people who did not hold a strong view about a particular candidate great stability in voting behaviour as people adopted Party ID of parents. 2. Background Explanations for Modes and Levels of Participation a. Socio-Economic Status (SES) Very nice correlation between SES and Level of Participation (See Figures 8-1 and 8-2) SES and Level of Participation strong for three types of behaviour, not important for particular contacting based on responses to questions, each person received a score for their level of participation

8. 8 Social status and Political participation Population mean of Participation rate

9. 9 Mean participation rates of Six status groups Level of Participation

10. 10 b. Age: level of participation drops as people get near retirement age, but this may also be due to a drop in their income or SES. older people have lower income, and older groups in study had lower levels of education c. Race and Participation: African-Americans tend to participate less, but due to their lower socio-economic status on average they are poorer than whites, so on average they participate less than whites. but African-Americans at higher SES participated more than whites of same status. (see Table 10-2)

11. 11 Mean participation score of Blacks & Whites

12. 12 C. Analysis of Canadian Participation 1.Canada has higher levels of participation than U.S. Why: no need to register for elections 2.Regional variations in level of participation based on competitiveness of provincial party system if one party continues to win in the province, people vote less overall in that province. 3.SES very important in explaining level of participation See Table 9.3 4.Modes of Participation: Canadians less likely to use civil disobedience or protests that Americans citizens have chance for input through federal commissions and referendum 5.Age important in Canada  old people vote more but participate less in other forms of political activity

13. 13 Who participates in selected political activities (1983-84)

14. 14 The Extent of Political Participation

15. 15 D. Role of Elections: 1.opportunity for recruitment of new leaders, build legitimacy for system 2.What Explains Voting Behaviour? Party ID very weak in Canada=quite “volatile” electorate ( 浮動的 ) most votes based on opinions of party leaders, not party platform 50% of population thought qualities of leader more important than policies or issues people generally uninformed about party's views on specific policies people shift freely (20% in 1979) from party to party at election Liberals continued in power as new immigrants voted for party in power when they arrive "replacement process”--so large immigration helps party in power

16. 16 3. Why “fickle” electorate ( 一腳踏多船 )? "split identifiers" with citizens having loyalty to more than one party one at federal level, one at provincial level, allows for shifts

17. 17 E. Interest Groups in U.S. and Canada 1. Labour Unions much more powerful in Canada Canadian Labour Congress directly linked to NDP 1/3 of non-agricultural workers unionized--less than 20% in US 2. Structure of Government makes lobbying less important in Canada than US legislative process much more secretive in Canada than U.S. key decisions taken in Caucus of parliamentary party under party leader's control--hard to get access in US, key policies come out of committees which hold hearings and invite interest group presentations

18. 18 in Canada, bureaucrats more responsible for new policies; groups cultivate bureaucrats not politicians "single issue groups" cannot get hearing in Canadian system, use protest activity--in U.S. single issue groups lobby politicians 3. Elections as Key Explanation Canadian elections less expensive than US elections candidates rely more on party funds than public funds in Canada US congressmen rely on "single issue constituencies" across entire country who contribute campaign funds to Congressmen who support their cause U.S. Congressmen could keep unused campaign funds after retirement, strong incentive to support interest groups and get funding.

19. 19 Running for Office: Canada vs. U.S.A.