Hostname: page-component-89b8bd64d-r6c6k Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-08T15:28:29.711Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Do Canadian Political Parties Form a Cartel?*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2009

Heather MacIvor
Heather MacIvor
Affiliation:
University of Windsor
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article summarizes the cartel model of party structure and tests it against the experience of the Canadian party system in the 1990s. Four claims are evaluated: that the three dominant parties in the House of Commons before 1993 colluded to exclude new parties; that they used state subsidies in their own interest; that the 1993 election result was a backlash against the cartel parties; and that Canadian parties are adopting new leadership selection methods in order to allow their leaders greater autonomy. The article concludes that the first two claims are valid while the latter two are not, and discusses some of the implications of these findings for Canadian parties and for the cartel model itself.

Résumé

Après avoir fait le bilan du modèle du cartel dans la littérature sur la structure des partis politiques, on cherche ici à l'évaluer dans le contexte canadien. Les propositions suivantes sont scrutées à la loupe: les trois partis représentés à la Chambre des Communes avant 1993 se sont entendus pour exclure toute nouvelle formation; ils ont utilisé des deniers publics à des fins particulières; l'élection de 1993 a révélé l'ampleur du mécontentement populaire; les partis canadiens adoptent désormais de nouvelles méthodes de sélection de leurs chefs pour les rendre plus autonomes. Les conclusions de l'auteure portent tant sur le système des partis politiques au Canada que sur le modèle du cartel.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 29 , Issue 2 , June 1996 , pp. 317 - 333
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association (l'Association canadienne de science politique) and/et la Société québécoise de science politique 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

1 See, for example, Harmel, Robert and Janda, Kenneth, “An Integrated Theory of Party Goals and Party Change,” Journal of Theoretical Politics 6 (1994), 259–87CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Panebianco, Angelo, Political Parties: Organization and Power (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988)Google Scholar; and Katz, Richard S. and Mair, Peter, eds., How Parties Organize: Change and Adaptation in Party Organizations in Western Democracies (London: Sage, 1994).Google Scholar

2 Katz, Richard S. and Mair, Peter, “Changing Models of Party Organization and Party Democracy: The Emergence of the Cartel Party,” Party Politics 1 (1995), 5–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 Peter Mair, “Party Organizations: From Civil Society to the State,” in Katz and Mair, eds., How Parties Organize.

4 This observation is not unique to the work of Katz and Mair. Pelletier, Réjean has made a similar point in his recent work: “The Structures of Canadian Political Parties,” in Tanguay, A. Brian and Gagnon, Alain-G., eds., Canadian Parties in Transition (2nd ed.; Scarborough: Nelson, 1996), 136–59.Google Scholar

5 Kirchheimer, Otto, “The Transformation of the West European Party Systems,” in Palombara, Joseph La and Weiner, Myron, eds., Political Parties and Political Development (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1966).Google Scholar

6 Katz and Mair, “Changing Models,” 18.

7 Ibid., 17.

8 Ibid., 15.

9 Ibid., 21.

10 Mair, “Party Organizations,” 16.

11 Katz and Mair, “Changing Models,” 22.

12 Ibid.

13 Ibid.

14 Ibid., 23.

15 Ibid., 24.

16 Ibid., 23–24.

17 Panebianco, Political Parties, 264.

18 S. J. R. Noel, “Patronage and Entourages, Action-Sets, Networks,” in Tanguay and Gagnon, eds., Canadian Parties in Transition, 238–51.

19 Chandler, William M. and Siaroff, Alan, “Parties and Party Government in Advanced Democracies,” in Bakvis, Herman, ed., Canadian Political Parties: Leaders, Candidates and Organization, Research Studies of the Royal Commission on Electoral Reform and Party Financing, Vol. 13 (Toronto: Dundurn, 1991), 194.Google Scholar

20 Ibid., 17.

21 Clarke, Harold D. and Kornberg, Allan, “Evaluations and Evolution: Public Attitudes toward Canada's Federal Political Parties, 1965–1991,” this Journal 26 (1993), 291.Google Scholar

22 For an excellent history of party patronage in Canada, see Stewart, Gordon T., The Origins of Canadian Politics: A Comparative Approach (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1986), esp. 66–82.Google Scholar

23 Canada, Royal Commission on Electoral Reform and Party Financing, Reforming Electoral Democracy, Vol. 1 (Ottawa: Minister of Supply and Services, 1991), 329.Google Scholar

24 Canada, House of Commons, Report of the Special Committee on Reform of the House of Commons (Ottawa: Minister of Supply and Services, 1985), 103–04.Google Scholar

25 Blaikie, Bill, “The Status of Small Parties in the House of Commons,” Canadian Parliamentary Review 17, 3 (1994), 29–32.Google Scholar

26 Ibid., 32.

27 The Hon. Parent, Gilbert, “Speaker's Ruling,” Canadian Parliamentary Review 17 (1994), 33–34.Google Scholar

28 Blaikie, Bill, “Reflections on the Speaker's Ruling,” Canadian Parliamentary Review 17, 3 (1994), 36.Google Scholar

29 Khayyam Z. Paltiel, “Political Marketing, Party Finance, and the Decline of Canadian Parties,” in Tanguay and Gagnon, eds., Canadian Parties in Transition, 403–22.

30 Royal Commission, Reforming Electoral Democracy, 322.

31 Ibid., 364.

32 Jenson, Jane, “Innovation and Equity: The Impact of Public Funding,” in Seidle, F. Leslie, ed., Comparative Issues in Party and Election Finance, Research Studies of the Royal Commission on Electoral Reform and Party Financing, Vol. 4 (Toronto: Dundurn, 1991), 127.Google Scholar

33 Elections Canada, Towards the 35th General Election: Report of the Chief Electoral Officer (Ottawa: Elections Canada, 1994), 156.Google Scholar

34 Ibid.; and Stanbury, W. T., Money in Politics: Financing Federal Parties and Candidates in Canada, Research Studies of the Royal Commission on Electoral Reform and Party Financing, Vol. 1 (Toronto: Dundurn, 1991), 444.Google Scholar

35 Ibid.

36 Royal Commission, Reforming Electoral Democracy, 367.

37 “Report of the Broadcasting Arbitrator,” in Elections Canada, Towards the 35th General Election, 151.

38 Royal Commission, Reforming Electoral Democracy, 387.

39 Dobrowolsky, Alexandra and Jenson, Jane, “Reforming the Parties: Prescriptions for Democracy,” in Phillips, Susan D., ed., How Ottawa Spends, 1993–1994: A More Democratic Canada…? (Ottawa: Carleton University Press, 1993), 62.Google Scholar

40 Deverell, John and Vezina, Greg, Democracy, Eh? A Guide to Voter Action (Montreal: Robert Davies Publishing, 1993), 62–63.Google Scholar

41 Elections Canada, Towards the 35th General Election, 15.

42 Canada, House of Commons, Debates, April 2, 1993.Google Scholar

43 Ibid., 18009–10; translation.

44 Canada, House of Commons, Debates, October 25, 1983, 28295–99.Google Scholar

45 Personal communication, February 1995.

46 Ibid., 24.

47 Johnston, Richard et al., “The Collapse of a Party System: The 1993 Canadian General Election,” paper presented to the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, New York, 1994.Google Scholar

48 Frizzell, Alan et al., eds., “Introduction,” in The Canadian General Election of 1993 (Ottawa: Carleton University Press, 1994), 6.Google Scholar

49 Quoted in Faron Ellis and Keith Archer, “Reform: Electoral Breakthrough,” in Frizzell et al., eds., Canadian General Election, 69.

50 Clarke and Kornberg, “Public Attitudes toward Federal Political Parties.”

51 Flanagan, Tom, “Invasion from the Right: The Reform Party in the 1993 Canadian Election,” paper presented to the annual meeting of the New England Political Science Association, Salem, Massachusetts, 1994.Google Scholar

52 Frizzell et al., eds., “Appendix,” in Canadian General Election, 161.

53 Jon H. Pammett, “Tracking the Votes,” in Ibid., 146.

54 Quoted in Sharpe, Sydney and Braid, Don, Storming Babylon: Preston Manning and the Rise of the Reform Party (Toronto: Key Porter, 1992), 179.Google Scholar

55 Elections Canada, Towards the 35th General Election, 156.

56 W. T. Stanbury, “Regulating the Financing of Federal Parties and Candidates,” in Tanguay and Gagnon, eds., Canadian Parties in Transition, 377.

57 Maclvor, Heather, “Changing Party Leadership Selection in Canada: Is Constitutional Government Being Perverted into Democracy?” paper presented to the Party Politics in the Year 2000 Conference, Manchester, UK, 1995Google Scholar; and Courtney, John C., Do Conventions Matter?: Choosing National Party Leaders in Canada (Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1995).Google Scholar

58 Mair, “Party Organizations,” 16.

59 MacIvor, “Changing Party Leadership Selection in Canada.”

60 For a discussion of this “accommodative” period in Canadian politics, see Smith, David E., “Party Government, Representation and National Integration in Canada,” in Aucoin, Peter, ed., Party Government and Regional Representation in Canada, Research Studies for the Royal Commission on the Economic Union and Development Prospects for Canada, Vol. 36 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1985).Google Scholar

61 See, for example, Koole, Ruud, “Cadre, Catch-all or Cartel: A Comment on the Notion of the Cartel Party,” paper presented to the Party Politics in the Year 2000 Conference, Manchester, UK, 1995.Google Scholar

62 Katz and Mair, “Changing Models,” 23.