Moving Right Along: The Roots of Amateurism in the Canadian House of Commons

Canadian Journal of Political Science

Volumn 25, Issue 2, 1992, Pages 295-318

  Docherty, David C ^b  

^a MCMASTER UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

^b UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84972130798     PISSN: 00084239     EISSN: 17449324     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0008423900003991     Document Type: Article

References (59)

1. See, among others, Norman Ward, The Canadian House of Commons: Representation (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1950);
2. John Porter, The Vertical Mosaic (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1965);
3. C. E. S. Franks, The Parliament of Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987).
4. On the interaction of “desires” and “opportunities
5. see John Elster, Nuts and Bolts for the Social Sciences (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), chap. 2.
6. Anthony King, “The Rise of the Career Politician in Britain—and Its Consequences,” British Journal of Political Science 11 (1981), 249–85.
7. Many state legislatures in the United States have been described in such a fashion. See, for example, Wayne Francis, “Costs and Benefits of Legislative Service in the American States,” American Journal of Political Science 29 (1985), 626–42.
8. James Q. Wilson, The Amateur Democrat: Club Politics in Three Cities (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1966).
9. James Q. Wilson, The Amateur Democrat: Club Politics in Three Cities (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1966), 3.
10. David T. Canon, Actors, Athletes and Astronauts: Political Amateurs in Congress (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990).
11. Doreen Barrie and Roger Gibbins, “Parliamentary Careers in the Canadian Federal State,” this journal 22 (1989), 137–45
12. Donald V. Smiley, Canada in Question: Federalism in the Eighties (3rd ed.; Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1980).
13. For example, Ward, House of Commons, 135–38
14. For example, Ward, House of Commons, 135–38, and V. S. Harder, “Career Patterns and Political Parties,” in Jean-Pierre Gaboury and Ross Harvey, eds., The Canadian House of Commons Observed (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1979), 327–45.
15. Franks, The Parliament of Canada, suggests that new MPs require “a roughly four-year period of learning,” 74.
16. J. A. A. Lovink, “Is Canadian Politics Too Competitive?” The Parliament of Canada 6 (1973), 370.
17. Ward, The Canadian House of Commons, 135.
18. Franks, The Parliament of Canada, 74.
19. For data on the increase in sittings from this period on, see John A. Stewart, The Canadian House of Commons: Procedure and Reform (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1977), 200–01.
20. On how the House of Commons “metamorphosed” from a part-time meeting place for businessmen into an institution demanding the full-time attention of its members, see C. G. Power, “Career Politicians: the Changing Role of the M.P.,” Queen's Quarterly 63 (1957), 478–90.
21. Jon Elster, Logic and Society: Contradictions and Possible Worlds (Chichester: Wiley, 1978), 145–46.
22. Franks, The Parliament of Canada, 15.
23. Jon Elster, Ulysses and the Sirens (rev. ed.; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 3.8.
24. James G. March and Johan P. Olsen, Rediscovering Institutions: The Organizational Basis of Political Life (New York: Free Press, 1989), 81
25. Jon Elster, “Consequences of Constitutional Choice: Reflections on Tocqueville,” in Jon Elster and Rune Slagstad, eds., Constitutionalism and Democracy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 92–93.
26. Ward, The Canadian House of Commons, 137.
27. Porter, The Vertical Mosaic, chap. 13.
28. Porter, The Vertical Mosaic, 403.
29. Franks, The Parliament of Canada, 23–24.
30. Feverill Squire, “Career Opportunities and Membership Stability in Legislatures,” Legislative Studies Quarterly 13 (February 1988), 65–82.
31. Richard G. Price and Maureen Mancuso, “Ties That Bind: Parliamentary Members and Their Constituencies,” in Robert Krause and Ronald Wagenberg, eds., Introductory Readings in Canadian Government and Politics (Toronto: Copp Clark Pitman, 1991), 217.
32. Lovink, “Is Canadian Politics Too Competitive?” 348.
33. Elster, Logic and Society, 142.
34. See also Stephen Skowronek, Building a New American State (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982).
35. March and Olsen, Rediscovering Institutions, 170.
36. Christopher Deering, “The New Apprenticeship: Strategies of Effectiveness for New Members of the House,” paper delivered at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, D.C., 1984, 7–8.
37. Paul Thomas, “Parliamentary Reform Through Political Forties,” in John Courtney, ed., The Canadian House of Commons: Essays in Honour of Norman Ward (Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 1985), 43–68.
38. Philip Norton, The Commons in Perspective (Oxford: Martin Robertson Press, 1981), 26–45.
39. Elster, Logic and Society, 146.
40. David E. Smith, “The Federal Cabinet in Canadian Politics,” in Michael S. Whittington and Glen Williams, eds., Canadian Politics in the 1990s (3rd ed.; Toronto: Nelson, 1990), 372–75.
41. Michael M. Atkinson and Kim Richard Nossal, “Executive Power and Committee Autonomy in the Canadian House of Commons: Leadership Selection, 1968-1979,” this journal 13 (1980), 287–308.
42. Harold D. Clarke and Richard G. Price, “Freshman MPs' Job Images: The Effects of Incumbency, Ambition and Position,” this Journal 13 (1980), 583–606.
43. Peverill Squire, “Member Career Opportunities and the Internal Organization of Legislatures,” Journal of Politics 50 (1988), 726–44.
44. Joseph Cooper and William West, “Voluntary Retirement, Incumbency and the Modern House,” Political Science Quarterly 96 (1981), 279–301
45. and John R. Hib-Bing, “Voluntary Retirement from the U.S. House of Representatives: Who Quits,” American Journal of Political Science 26 (1982), 467–84.
46. See, for example, John Hibbing, “Voluntary Retirement from the U.S. House: The Costs of Congressional Service,” Legislative Studies Quarterly 7 (1982), 57–74
47. and Wayne Francis and John Baker, “Why Do U.S. State Legislators Vacate Their Seats?” Legislative Studies Quarterly 11 (1986), 119–26.
48. For an examination of the importance of candidates in electoral contests see William Irvine, “Does the Candidate Make a Difference? The Macro-Politics and Micro-Politics of Getting Elected,” this journal 15 (1982), 755–85
49. and Michael Krashinsky, “The Effect of Incumbency in the 1984 Federal and the 1985 Ontario Elections,” this journal 19 (1986), 337–43.
50. According to Franks, The Parliament of Canada, 76
51. See Hibbing, “Voluntary Retirement from the U.S. House: The Costs of Congressional Service,” 60–63.
52. For a cost-benefit analysis of legislative careers, see Gordon Black, “A Theory of Political Ambition: Career Choices and the Role of Structural Incentives,” American Political Science Review 66 (1972), 1295–300
53. and Francis, “Costs and Benefits.”
54. See John Aldrich and Charles Snudde, “Probing the Bounds of Conventional Wisdom: A Comparison of Regression, Probit and Discriminant Analysis,” American Journal of Political Science 19 (1975), 571–608
55. and William Klecka, Discriminant Analysis (Beverly Hills: Sage Publications, 1980).
56. See Hibbing, “Voluntary Retirement from the U.S. House of Representatives: Who Quits,” 474.
57. On the differences among progressive, static and discrete ambition see Joseph A. Schlesinger, Ambition and Politics (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1966)
58. and, more recently, David Rhode, “Risk-Bearing and Progressive Ambition: The Case of the United States House of Representatives,” American Journal of Political Science 23 (1979), 1–26.
59. Jeffrey Simpson, Spoils of Power: The Politics of Patronage (Don Mills: Collins, 1988), 352.