Prizes
PRIX FRANCOPHONE DE L’ACSP 2016
2016 CPSA PRIZE IN COMPARATIVE POLITICS / PRIX DE L’ACSP EN POLITIQUE COMPARÉE 2016
2016 CPSA PRIZE FOR TEACHING EXCELLENCE / PRIX D'EXCELLENCE EN ENSEIGNEMENT DE L'ACSP - 2016
2016 C.B. MACPHERSON PRIZE / PRIX C.B.-MACPHERSON 2016
2016 JOHN MCMENEMY PRIZE / PRIX JOHN-MCMENEMY 2016
2016 DONALD SMILEY PRIZE / PRIX DONALD SMILEY 2016
2016 JILL VICKERS PRIZE / PRIX JILL-VICKERS 2016
PRIX FRANCOPHONE DE L’ACSP 2016
Rapport du comité responsable d’attribuer le Prix francophone de l'ACSP au meilleur livre de science politique en français de 2015
Aucun manuscrit de candidat éligible n’a été soumis au comité cette année. Par conséquent, le Prix francophone de l'ACSP au meilleur livre de science politique en français de 2015 ne sera pas décerné.
Après vérification, le comité considère que la publicité faite par l’Association directement auprès des éditeurs canadiens a été plus qu’adéquate. La situation vécue cette année s’expliquerait en grande partie par le fait que la plupart des ouvrages publiés par nos membres en français ont été des ouvrages collectifs, donc inéligibles à l’obtention du prix.
Pascale Dufour (Université de Montréal)
Geneviève Tellier (Université d’Ottawa), présidente du jury
2016 CPSA PRIZE IN COMPARATIVE POLITICS / PRIX DE L’ACSP EN POLITIQUE COMPARÉE 2016
Short-list of nominees / Livres retenus en sélection finale
Michelle Bonner’s Policing Protest in Argentina and Chile tackles an increasingly relevant political phenomenon that characterizes societies across the globe, namely the policing of protest. It does so through the way in which politically relevant actors frame their discourse on what is acceptable or unacceptable in policing protest. The analysis is built around the tension that exists between democratic structures, which inherently include the right to protest, and the accountability of those who are responsible for policing protests. This is particularly interesting in the case of countries that have recently democratized, insofar as the repressive apparatus of the state had a peculiar position under the authoritarian system. The book examines the practices and discourses of policing protests in Argentina and Chile where the repressive apparatus is seen through very different experiences of it by citizens. The study shines a new and much needed light on the question of police reform and democratization, particularly when it comes to accountability. The book builds on an innovative theoretical framework and provides a significant amount of empirical evidence. It represents a great example of how comparative politics research should be carried out. Students of democratization, police practices, repressive discourses and accountability of the security apparatus in democracies will find in this book a powerful instrument of understanding as well as an inspiration for questioning how policing of protests is carried out today across the globe.
Rodney Haddow’s monograph Comparing Quebec and Ontario: Political Economy and Public Policy at the Turn of the Millennium discusses the extent to which subunits of capitalist democracies can pursue fundamentally different social and economic policies, in spite of the pressures of globalization. Haddow’s analysis is rooted in the literature on comparative political economy – including debates on the varieties of capitalism, the role of the state vis-à-vis economic actors, and the influence of ideas on public policy making – which he applies in a rigorous way to the difference between two Canadian provinces. His empirical analysis is based on a mixed-method approach, combining narrative case studies of four policy fields – budgeting, social assistance and transfers, childcare and early learning, as well as economic development – with quantitative analysis. He shows that, contrary to the expectation that economic globalization imposes a “golden straightjacket” that leads to policy convergence, the social and economic policies of Quebec and Ontario continue to differ, a finding that is explained by the continued influence of distinct political and economic institutions. However, the differences between the two provinces are smaller with respect to social assistance programs than they are in other policy areas, which suggests a pervasive trend of labour market dualization only weakly mediated by institutional factors. Haddow’s monograph is theoretically sophisticated and based on rich and multifaceted empirical data. It makes an innovative contribution to comparative politics by focusing on the comparison of subnational entities and the way they respond to globalization. To students of Canadian provinces, it demonstrates the value of explicitly incorporating comparative politics approaches.
In The Politics of Parliamentary Debate. Parties, Rebels and Representation, Sven-Oliver Proksch and Jonathan B. Slapin convincingly debunk misconceptions about parliamentary speech as a tool for altering policy-making and policy outcomes. Rather than approaching parliamentary debates from a normative perspective – an approach usually preferred in this area of study – Proksch and Slapin propose to develop a theory of floor speeches. To test their theoretical model, they developed a sophisticated and robust research design, using comparisons at the cross-national, at the party and at the Member of Parliament (MP) levels. After comparing Germany, the United Kingdom, the European Union and New Zealand in particular, the authors show how different parliamentary rules and electoral systems give political party leaders more or less incentives to control rebels among their MPs. For instance, as German political leaders are more concerned with protecting the party brand than their British counterparts, they tend to play a more active role in controlling dissenters. By revealing fascinating aspects of intraparty dynamics, Proksch and Slapin unveil that parliamentary speech acts primarily as a communication tool between MPs and their political parties. Their book contributes greatly to the comparative politics literature in focusing on political institutions, party politics and legislative behavior.
2016 CPSA PRIZE FOR TEACHING EXCELLENCE / PRIX D'EXCELLENCE EN ENSEIGNEMENT DE L'ACSP - 2016
Short-List of nominees / Collègues retenus en sélection finale
Chris Anderson has mastered the challenges of teaching his department’s largest introductory courses (500+ students) with innovative pedagogical techniques like flipped classrooms, in-class writing exercises and novel approaches to subject material that is reflected in his well-regarded textbook. We were impressed by the strong and positive influence he has clearly had on the students he taught or mentored. His patience in working with first year students and his ability to guide them through challenges in their first years and beyond are greatly appreciated by his students and colleagues.
Dietlind Stolle’s teaching style has been described as imaginative, and even daring, by her colleagues and students. For example, she once invited a Montreal daycare to her class, where she had her students teach political concepts to 4 and 5 year olds (this was the daring part!). She successfully leverages new technologies in the classroom, such as using clickers in class to conduct live polls and to test hypotheses, increasing student engagement with course material. Both graduate and undergraduate students credit her with teaching them how to both research and teach and she is a recognized leader among her colleagues.
Linda Trimble is, by every measure, an outstanding teacher. She is an expert at managing classroom discussions and succeeds in teaching some of the most challenging courses in research methods. She earned rave reviews for her teaching of Canadian politics at introductory and advanced levels. Her students applaud her dedication to them, both in her classroom, and after they have graduated and started their own careers in or outside of academics. She instills important values in her students, such as to never apologize for their work, and she continues to mentor former students who have themselves become teachers or professors, giving them advice and guidance through the early stages of their career.
2016 C.B. MACPHERSON PRIZE / PRIX C.B.-MACPHERSON 2016
Short-list of nominees / Livres retenus en sélection finale
Glen Sean Coulthard, Red Skin White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2014).
As its title suggests, Coulthard’s book invokes the controverted legacy of Frantz Fanon’s Peau Noire, Masques Blancs and other post-colonial theories and deploys them within the context of Canadian indigenous struggles. Coulthard’s original and imaginative argument draws upon Fanon and historical materialism to expose the dark side of liberal multiculturalism and the politics of recognition. Via a series of case studies/political controversies—the Dene struggle for self-determination; the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples; Idle No More—Coulthard shows that what typically passes for otherwise progressive politics is ultimately an intricate deception intended to rationalize the continued exploitation of indigenous labour and resources. Thoroughly engaging and masterfully written, Red Skin, White Masks is a timely and important contribution to, and critique of, contemporary political theory and practice in Canada.
Phillip Hansen Reconsidering C.B Macpherson: From Possessive Individualism to Democratic Theory and Beyond (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2015).
An in-depth analysis of the multidimensional theorist for whom this prize is named, Reconsidering C.B. Macpherson reimagines Macpherson’s conceptual achievement—possessive individualism—giving it new meaning and significance for today’s world. Rather than engage with Macpherson’s critics or survey the many debates prompted by his work, Hansen has chosen to examine Macpherson’s central ideas themselves from the “inside”, as it were—to argue for their ongoing relevance and to highlight their philosophical underpinnings and coherence. Hansen unpacks Macpherson’s sophisticated and nuanced reading of the “historical constitution of… the social structure” of liberal market society, linking his approach and project with Frankfurt School theorists such as Marcuse and Horkheimer. The project’s aim and scope are original, and the writing and analysis are clear, insightful, and compelling. Reconsidering C.B Macpherson will be helpful to a wide audience of Macpherson experts and novices alike.
Margaret Moore A Political Theory of Territory (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015).
A very well-written and persuasive theoretical exposition of the concept of territory, Margaret Moore’s A Political Theory of Territory draws upon examples from the settling of Bermuda to the territorial conflict in Northern Ireland to illustrate its central argument for the importance of understanding people’s normative claims to place. In the course of a meticulous analysis, Moore shows how the default assumption that states have inviolable and exclusive control over their territory necessarily breaks down when multiple parties contest that control. Moore convincingly argues that territory is, in fact, a very peculiar kind of good, one that liberal theories of justice often have trouble taking into account without distortion. Moore’s novel account of territorial rights is tested in a variety of pressing contexts ranging from succession and migration to property rights in connection with natural resources.
2016 JOHN MCMENEMY PRIZE / PRIX JOHN-MCMENEMY 2016
Short-list of nominees / Articles retenus en sélection finale
Alcantara, Christopher and Adrienne Davidson "Negotiating Aboriginal Self Government Agreements in Canada." 48(03): 553-575
This paper provides unique and original insight into the complex factors that influence Aboriginal self-government negotiations in Canada as exemplified by the experiences of the Inuvialuit. While the Inuvialuit were the second group in Canada to sign a modern treaty in 1984 they have yet to conclude the self-government agreement initiated in 1996. Drawing upon the existing literature on land claim negotiations, Aboriginal self-government and historical institutionalism, Alcantara and Davidson analyze a variety of primary and secondary sources to argue that a number of institutional and non-institutional factors have prevented the Inuvialuit from successfully completing self-government negotiations with the Crown. These factors include institutional elements such as the way in which federal land claims and self-government policies have evolved over time and the pace and nature of territorial devolution as well as non-institutional factors such as the embedded nature of Inuvialuit communities and non-Inuvialuit communities within the region.
Besco, Randy. "Rainbow Coalitions or Inter-minority Conflict? Racial Affinity and Diverse Minority Voters." 48(02): 305-328.
This article addresses an important puzzle in electoral research: do minority candidates attract greater support only from co-ethnics, or do they also generate greater support from other minority groups? Previous work provides contradictory answers. On the one hand, some evidence exists of affinity across minority groups. On the other, evidence exists of inter-group conflict and competition. Besco addresses these possibilities directly via an original survey experiment with an impressive number of racialized respondents. Besco overcomes the observational problems of selection and unobserved heterogeneity by presenting subjects with fictional candidates who are randomly varied on their racial characteristics. He demonstrates that there is both substantial in-group voting, but also some support for increased support across minority group lines. Finally, he demonstrates the important role than ethnic self-identity plays in conditioning this effect.
Breton, Charles. "Making National Identity Salient: Impact on Attitudes toward Immigration and Multiculturalism." 48(02): 357-380.
In this paper, Breton attempts to answer the following question: are national identities inherently exclusionary or is it possible that some national identities act as encompassing forces that include newcomers? Using the Canadian case, Breton’s research tests the possibility that some national identities might represent an inclusive force. He does so through a nationally representative survey experiment, where respondents’ national identity was primed before answering questions on immigration and multiculturalism. His analysis shows that making Canadian identity salient does not increase anti-immigration attitudes and that, more generally, Canadian national identity does not have the exclusionary potential of many of its European counterparts. In the end, Breton’s article represents an important step in trying to make sense of how national identity and its normative dimension relate to immigration attitudes in a comparative perspective.
2016 DONALD SMILEY PRIZE / PRIX DONALD SMILEY 2016
Short-list of nominees / Livres retenus en sélection finale
Jack Hicks and Graham White (2015). Made in Nunavut: An Experiment in Decentralized Government. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.
This important work breaks new ground as a compelling addition to the literature on Canadian politics and the politics of Nunavut. Encompassing both the negotiation period that led to the establishment of Nunavut and the experience of the new government since its inception in 1999, the study focuses on Nunavut’s experiment in a new form of decentralized government that would go beyond the standard formula of spreading front-line jobs around the regions. The careful reconstruction of the institutional, human and political landscape of decentralization in Nunavut is comprehensive and thorough, and based on many years of extensive empirical research. The conclusions the authors derive from the Nunavut experience offer both valuable insights for public administration scholars and important lessons for practitioners.
Peter McCormick (2015). The End of the Charter Revolution : Looking Back from the New Normal. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
A valuable addition to the scholarship on judicial politics and the Charter, this work contends that the Charter Revolution, one of the landmark developments in modern Canadian politics, has largely run its course – not because judges have necessarily become more deferential, but simply because Charter decisions now largely involve making incremental adjustments to the precedents established by seminal Charter rulings of the past. Based on a comprehensive analysis of Supreme Court decisions under different Chief Justices, the research is not only substantively but also methodologically comprehensive, drawing on both qualitative and quantitative case analysis. If legal and constitutional scholarship is sometimes reputed to be jargonistic, dry, and difficult to approach by the non-initiated, McCormick turns this reputation on its head with his spirited and incisive account of Charter politics.
Paul Saurette and Kelly Gordon (2015). The Changing Voice of the Anti-Abortion Movement: The Rise of “Pro-Woman” Rhetoric in Canada and the United States. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
This study presents a masterful analysis of discursive shifts in the anti-abortion movement. Grounded in a rich historical account of abortion policy and politics encompassing both Canada and the United States, the book demonstrates that today’s anti-abortion movement, far from conforming to a standard view as anti-woman, religious, traditional and fetal-centric, has developed a sophisticated reframing of its arguments. A new “pro-woman” stance is central to the strategies of persuasion and communication used by the contemporary anti-abortion movement. Although it may be commonplace to talk about framing and the role of words in politics, the treatment of discourses as a key instrument of political strategy has seldom reached such thorough, comprehensive and compelling heights.
2016 JILL VICKERS PRIZE / PRIX JILL-VICKERS 2016
Short-list of nominees / Communications retenues en sélection finale
Alana Cattapan, “Precarious Labour: On Egg Donation as Work”
Alana Cattapan’s paper is original in its approach and subject matter, looking at reproductive rights and their relationship to labour with a focus on egg donation in Canada. As a temporary, non-standard form of labour, she argues that egg donation destabilizes conventional reproductive relationships; an engagement that may have much in common with other forms of precarious, often exploitative, and gendered labour. Cattapan’s research is carefully laid out and well researched, providing some of the necessary conceptual groundwork in ongoing scholarly and policy discussions about new reproductive technologies and their gendered effects. The paper provides a challenging analysis of the normative issues surrounding egg donation in Canada, opening a discussion for improved governance and regulatory frameworks on the issues at hand.
Scott Pruysers and Julie Blais, “Why Won’t Lola Run? An Experiment Examining Stereotype Threat and Political Ambition”
Pruysers and Blais’ paper makes an important contribution to the literature on the gender gap and political ambition by employing an experimental design in a Canadian university setting. The authors introduce the concept of “stereotype threat” and find that consistent with previous research, a political ambition gap exists between young women and men when they are exposed to negative stereotypes about women’s political abilities. That is, women who are exposed to the threat condition expressed significantly less ambition than women in the non-threat condition. The authors conclude that the gender gap in political ambition is, at least in part, a result of negative stereotypes. The paper provides an innovative, multi-disciplinary approach that makes an important contribution to a growing body of literature on women and politics using experimental methodologies.
Angelia Wagner, Linda Trimble, Shannon Sampert, Daisy Raphael, and Bailey Gerrits, “Gender, Competitiveness and Candidate Prominence in Newspaper Coverage of Canadian Party Leadership Contests, 1975-2012”
Meticulously well-researched and argued, Wagner et al.’s research makes a novel contribution to the study of gender and media in Canada. Using a content analysis over a broad period of time (1975-2012), the paper examines the importance of gender and competitiveness during political party leadership campaigns. The findings indicate that a candidate's media visibility is largely, although not exclusively, regulated by journalistic assessments of a candidate’s actual level of support among voters, donors, and party officials. While gender matters, the authors argue that a candidate's percentage of the vote on the first ballot is more strongly correlated with the degree of prominence in leadership coverage. By attending to campaign effects, the paper pushes our knowledge forward on the subject and makes an important contribution to gendered mediation research.