Canada and the United States are consistently ranked among the most democratic countries in the world, yet voices expressing concern about the quality of these democracies are becoming louder and more insistent. Critics maintain that the two countries suffer from a “democratic deficit,” a deficit that raises profound questions about the legitimacy and effectiveness of their democratic institutions. Imperfect Democracies brings together Canadian and American scholars to compare how the democratic deficit plays out in the two nations. An important contribution to the field of democratic theory and the study of democratic institutions, this timely book will spark debate on both sides of the border.

Patti Tamara Lenard is Assistant Professor of Ethics at the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs.

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Richard Simeon is a professor in the Department of Political Science and the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto.

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Imperfect Democracies offers a broad and unprecedented comparison of democratic institutions in Canada and the United States that will considerably advance scholarly debate about democracy in each country. It is both substantive and accessible as an exploration of what the “democratic deficit” means in each country.

Jonathan Malloy, author of Between Colliding Worlds: The Ambiguous Existence of Government Agencies for Aboriginal and Women’s Policy

Imperfect Democracies combines theoretical studies of the “democratic deficit” with approaches that use survey data and are more behaviouralist. The authors, many of whom are leaders in their fields, address a timely subject, and the Canada-US comparison makes a novel contribution. The volume will be useful for students of comparative politics, democratic institutions, or Canada-US politics courses.

Jonathan Rose, co-author of When Citizens Decide: Lessons from Citizens Assemblies