Policy convergence in the post-1960 Quebec party system
Date
1992
Authors
Price, Mark Anthony
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Abstract
As major actors in the public policy process, political parties are supposed to be the main articulators of interests as expressed by the people they represent. The problem is that parties and party systems, in recent years, have slowly and methodically been displaced by corporatism., which is the role of special interest groups in the formulation of public policy. As a result, the relevance of political parties is under question. This problem, coupled with an increase in party pragmatism as a response to opinion polls, the media and other stimuli, and a decrease in ideology, exacerbates the situation and downplays democracy.
This thesis analyzes the Quebec party system as a case model, and uses a developmental approach. The Quebec study is a vehicle which reveals the increasing irrelevance of parties in Western nations. Because the very nature of policy convergence is the progressive movement of two or more entities to common positions over a fixed period of time, the developmental approach can be very useful in providing a framework in analyzing historical fact and building conclusions on these facts.
After assessing policy outputs of successive federalist and sovereignist Quebec governments from 1960, this thesis concludes that policy convergence is clearly evident in Quebec language policy, economic development initiatives, and the entire constitutional and nation-building sphere. Further, it concludes that political scientists have to discern new ways of analyzing party systems and the manner in which they are impacted by corporatism, pragmatism, federalism and the economy.
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UN SDG 17: Partnerships