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My book “Lost on Division: Party Unity in the Canadian Parliament” published by the @utpress is finally in print. In it, I study the development of party discipline in Canada by analysing all of the votes recorded in the House and Senate between 1867-2015 (1/n).
Why is party discipline so high in Canada today? In my book, I argue that the heightened levels of party unity observed in recent times result mostly from earlier changes in parliamentary procedures, which increased the government’s control over the legislative agenda (2/n).
These new rules also reduced the independence of private members, polarized voting along partisan lines, and undermined Parliament’s ability to represent distinct regional interests, resulting – among other things – in the rise of third parties inside the legislature (3/n).
Ultimately, my book proposes a new theory of endogenous party development, where parliamentary procedures influence the structure of the party system, but where the structure of the party system also reinforces party discipline (4/n).
It took me a long time to write this book and I want to thank everyone who helped me get this project moving over the years. I especially want to acknowledge the contribution of my friend and co-author @bjornhoyland (5/n).
The main ideas in the book stem from several papers we wrote together to analyze the votes collected in the Canadian Parliament. I learned a lot from this collaboration. @bjornhoyland is truly an amazing scholar and one of the brightest political scientists around (6/n).
I also want to thank all of the folks at @utpress, especially @lucasjacklucas and Robert Vipond who are editing the new book series where my book is now published (7/n).
This series – entitled Political Development Comparative Perspective – provides an outlet for work on Canadian and comparative political development. Thanks to Jack and Rob’s efforts, our growing research community now has a solid footing in the academic publishing world (8/n).
I want to finish this thread by thanking all of the colleagues and students who helped along the way. @florencevdubois deserves high praise for her work on the manuscript. Thanks also to @p_mongrain for the last minutes editing requests (9/n).
Almost all of the students who helped me collect and analyse the votes in parliament are now pursuing successful academic careers. Not everyone is on twitter, but I want to thank @EvBourgeois @SGArmstrong_ @simpoirier and @jf_daoust (10/n).
Thanks also to @AliSmith_UdeM and @semrasevi for proofreading earlier drafts of chapters. Many thanks as well to all of the students who were forced to read different versions of the book in my seminars, e.g., @alexjabbour @SGArmstrong_ @mascakir @mcoulombe_udem (11/n).
Finally, I want to thank my colleagues for their support and for waiting patiently for the book to come out. The list is long, and I can’t acknowledge everyone here, but I feel honored to be part of such a wonderful community. I look forward to seeing you all in person soon (12/n
That’s it. You can buy my book directly at UofT Press. Hope you enjoy reading it. https://utorontopress.com/us/books/by-series/political-development-comparative-perspectives?product_form=8262 (13/13).
