The Enduring Colony? Political Institutions and Political Science in Canada

Abstract

The article distinguishes between as a representative, functionally effective, and mixed and balanced institution, and the practice of in Canada. It is argued that Canada retained its and executive centered system of government but replaced the imperially-appointed elites with indigenous elites. It is suggested that this latter conception of legislative supremacy is failing by its own standards of representativeness and administrative efficiency. Much of the writings of Canadian political science reflect and rationalize the operative assumptions of this executive centered colonial type of system of government. This article argues that Canada was, and remains, a political system. The masters have gone, but have been replaced by a new, indigenous set. The major institutional arrangements of the original colonies and territories were Crown and executive dominated. The major institutional arrangements of the modern political system are Crown and executive dominated. Canada has not enjoyed a period when was seriously practiced. Canadian political science also reflects and articulates a type of mentality. Many political scientists reveal in their studies of responsible and representative government, in studies on federalism, and in studies of political culture, a set of normative assumptions about how the system should work. These assumptions reflect the experience and understandings formed by political scientists about the incentives of a institutional system. Some comments are necessary on the method and tone of argument. The terms colony and colonial are deliberately and provocatively used to characterize pre- and post-Confederation Canada. There may be a better concept to describe political rule by indigenous elites through a political system that retains the fundamental logic of imperialism; but the terms colony and colonial may help provoke students of Canadian politics into reassessing the normative assumptions implicit and explicit in their work. The term parliamentary sovereignty is also used in a distinct and