Lexington Books
Pages: 314
•
Trim: 6¼ x 9¼
978-1-4985-4793-2 • Hardback • September 2017 • $136.00 • (£105.00)
978-1-4985-4794-9 • eBook • September 2017 • $129.00 • (£99.00)
James T. McHugh is professor and former chair at the Department of Political Science at the University of Akron and adjunct lecturer of political science at the University of Vermont.
Acknowledgments
Preface
Part I: Background, Theory, and Context
Chapter 1: Senatus Publiusque Canadese
Chapter 2: A Counterintuitive Approach to Senate Reform in Canada
Chapter 3: The Upper House as a Belief
Chapter 4: Historical Continuity of the Senate
Chapter 5: Assessing Reform—Neo-Institutional and Related Strategies
Part II: Application and Idealized Constitutional Reform
Chapter 6: Constitutional Amendment, Part I—Legislative Powers
Chapter 7: Constitutional Amendment, Part II—Membership, Representation, and Federalism
Chapter 8: Constitutional Amendment, Part III—Appointment, Partisanship, Diversity, Democratic Theory
Chapter 9: Constitutional Amendment, Part IV—Official Language Protection, Nomination Oversight, Structural Features
Part III: Observations and Non-Constitutional Reform
Chapter 10: Scandal and Its Constitutional Aftermath
Chapter 11: The Senate as It Is, Could Be, and Ought to Be: Non-Constitutional Reform
Appendix A: Constitution Act of 1867 in Respect of the Senate of Canada as Amended
Appendix B: An Agreement on Practices Relating to the Senate of Canada
Bibliography
About the Author
The Canadian Senate is going through the greatest reform in its history as it transitions from a Chamber where supporters of two political parties have alternated with mixed success at providing the” sober second thought” envisaged by the founders to a Chamber of independent members who consider themselves non-partisan and plan to conduct themselves accordingly. There are still many bugs to work out mainly because this completely new approach to Senate reform has absolutely no theoretical foundation. Professor McHugh’s impressive accomplishment is not only to look at the Senate as it existed before the current reform but to provide an intellectual basis for how the reform can be carried to a successful conclusion. Let us hope that the new generation of independent senators and scholars take the time to read this book.
— Gary Levy, Carleton University
The Senate and the People of Canada is a major work of scholarship that provides an imaginative and provocative set of ideas for Senate reform. This book does yeoman service in moving forward debate over the Canadian Senate in particular and parliamentary upper houses in general. McHugh offers a counterintuitive and fascinating vision of Senate reform, with the modern British House of Lords providing inspiration for change. This book transcends conventional debate over a ‘Triple E’ Senate for Canada. McHugh argues that the upper chamber should remain an appointed body, with an indefinite number of members, a suspensive veto and other traits that make sense in light of historical evolution. This study is essential reading for academics, students and the lay public with interests in Canadian Studies, institutional reform and politics in general.
— Patrick James, University of Southern California
McHugh's work combines a deep knowledge of Canadian and comparative federalism on par with Richard Simeon and a grounding in the Westminster Parliamentary tradition reminiscent of C.E.S. Franks to consider the future of the Canadian Senate. The result is an insightful and provocative proposal that situates itself on the improbable middle ground between Randall White's 1990 Voice of Region and John Peppal's equally trenchant but contrary 2010 book Against Reform. Advocates and opponents of institutional reform in Canada as well as students of political institutions and the treatment of minorities in representative democracy will find this book rich in ideas and insights.
— Christopher Sands, Johns Hopkins University