1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910131503503321

Autore

Edited by Meenal Shrivastava and Lorna Stefanick

Titolo

Alberta oil and the decline of democracy in Canada [[electronic resource] /] / edited by Meenal Shrivastava & Lorna Stefanick

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Athabasca University Press, 2015

Edmonton, Alberta : , : AU Press, , 2015

©2015

Ottawa, Ontario : , : Canadian Electronic Library, , 2015

ISBN

1-77199-032-5

1-77199-030-9

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (viii, 426 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Disciplina

338.2728

Soggetti

Petroleum industry and trade - Political aspects - Alberta

Petroleum industry and trade - Social aspects - Alberta

Petroleum industry and trade - Government policy - Alberta

Democracy - Alberta

Alberta

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction: framing the debate on democracy and governance in an oil-exporting economy --Part one: the context of democracy in an oil economy --Part two: rights claims in an oil economy --Part three: governance, identity and citizenship in a oil economy --Conclusion: of democracy and its deficits: surviving neoliberalism in oil-exporting countries.

Sommario/riassunto

"In Democracy in Alberta: The Theory and Practice of a Quasi-Party System, published in 1953, C.B. Macpherson explored the nature of democracy in a province that was dominated by a single class of producers. At the time, Macpherson was talking about Alberta farmers, but today the province can still be seen as a one-industry economy--the 1947 discovery of oil in Leduc having inaugurated a new era. For all practical purposes, the oil-rich jurisdiction of Alberta also remains a one-party state. Not only has there been little opposition to a



government that has been in power for over forty years, but Alberta ranks behind other provinces in terms of voter turnout, while also boasting some of the lowest scores on a variety of social welfare indicators. The contributors to Alberta Oil and the Decline of Democracy critically assess the political peculiarities of Alberta and the impact of the government's relationship to the oil industry on the lives of the province's most vulnerable citizens. They also examine the public policy environment and the entrenchment of neoliberal political ideology in the province. In probing the relationship between oil dependency and democracy in the context of an industrialized nation, Alberta Oil and the Decline of Democracy offers a crucial test of the "oil inhibits democracy" thesis that has hitherto been advanced in relation to oil-producing countries in the Global South. If reliance on oil production appears to undermine democratic participation and governance in Alberta, then what does the Alberta case suggest for the future of democracy in industrialized nations such as the United States and Australia, which are now in the process of exploiting their own substantial shale oil reserves? The environmental consequences of oil production have, for example, been the subject of much attention. Little is likely to change, however, if citizens of oil-rich countries cannot effectively intervene to influence government policy."--