Good Government? Good Citizens?: Courts, Politics, and Markets in a Changing Canada (Law and Society) - Hardcover

Bogart, W.A.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0774811641 ISBN 13: 9780774811644

Publisher: UBC Press, 2005

Synopsis

Good Government? Good Citizens? explores the evolving concept of the citizen in Canada at the beginning of this century. Three forces are at work in reconstituting the citizen in this society: courts, politics, and markets. Many see these forces as intersecting and colliding in ways that are fundamentally reshaping the relationship of individuals to the state and to each other.

How has Canadian society actually been transformed? Is the state truly in retreat? Do individuals, in fact, have a fundamentally altered sense of their relationship to government and to each other? Have courts and markets supplanted representative politics regarding the expression of basic values? Must judicialized protection of human rights and minority interests necessarily mean a diminished concern for the common good on the part of representative politics? To what extent should markets and representative politics maintain a role in the protection of human rights and minority interests? Will representative politics ever hold the public trust again?

Good Government? Good Citizens? responds to these questions. It does so by examining the altered roles of courts, politics, and markets over the last two decades. It then examines a number of areas to gauge the extent of the evidence regarding transformations that have occurred because of these changing roles. There are chapters on the First Peoples, cyberspace, education, and on an ageing Canada. The book concludes with reflections on the “good citizen” at the dawning of the new century.

Of particular interest to professors and students of law and political science, Good Government? Good Citizens? will appeal to anyone interested in the changing face of Canada and its citizens.

About this title

About the Author:

W. A. Bogart teaches in the Faculty of Law at the University of Windsor. He has been a Virtual Scholar in Residence for the Law Commission of Canada, and is the author of several books, including Consequences: The Impact of Law and Its Complexity and Courts and Country: The Limits of Litigation and the Social and Political Life of Canada.

Review:

"Bogart’s well―written and important book, drawing on a diverse body of scholarship and evidence, traces the transformations in Canadian law and politics over the past twenty years. His analysis of the rise of judicial power, the disarray of electoral politics, “the market abounding, the place of First Nations, our treatment of children, and prospects for cyber―citizenship is ambitious, insightful, provocative, and timely."―Harry W. Arthurs, University Professor of Law and Political Science, York University

"This book is a timely, thoughtful, and provocative exploration of many of the important issues facing contemporary Canadian society. It is a useful and vibrant contribution to our continuing dialogue regarding law, politics, and the marketplace. Whatever the reader's perspective, it will not disappoint."―Eleanore A. Cronk, Justice of the Court of Appeal for Ontario

About this edition

• Publisher: UBC Press
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0774811641
• ISBN 13: 9780774811644
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 264