The impact of language differences on metropolitan reform in Montreal

Abstract. Although recent Quebec governments have shown great dedication to local institutional reform, their record with respect to municipal institutions in Montreal is not impressive. This article aims to show that it is Montreal's linguistic make-up which has made the process of metropolitan reform unusually difficult. The existing municipal system of the Island of Montreal was shaped in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, during which time the City of Montreal annexed many poor francophone municipalities and wealthier anglophones established their own municipalities in the west. This arrangement was not threatened until the Drapeau-Saulnier annexation efforts of the early 1960s: lacking provincial support, the efforts failed. The Montreal Urban Community was created in 1969 as a direct result of a disastrous police strike. Its main purpose was to divert financial resources from the suburbs to the City in order to help cover increased police costs. The pooling of these costs inevitably led to the creation of a unified MUC police department, but the unification process was much more controversial than it had been in Toronto and Winnipeg. In other fields the suburbs have used their veto power to prevent any significant new initiatives. As a result, provincial control of urban development in Montreal is rapidly increasing. Although there have been many serious proposals for municipal consolidation in Montreal, no boundary changes have yet been made. Such changes would involve great political difficulty because they would create new linguistic majorities and minorities in each new municipality. Furthermore, the unusually strong alliance that binds francophone and anglophone suburbs makes it extremely difficult for any Quebec government to modify the existing situation. Sommaire. Bien que les récents gouvernements du Québecse soient lancés dans la réforme des institutions locales, leurs réalisations, quant aux institutions municipales de Montréal, ne sont pas spectaculaires. L'auteur de cet article s'efforce de démontrer que la composition linguistique de Montréal a compliquéénormément le processus de réforme métropolitaine. Le système municipal actuel de l'Ile de Montréal a pris forme à la fin du 19e siècle et au début du 20e, alors que la ville de Montréal annexait de nombreuses municipalités francophones pauvres et que les anglophones, plus riches, établissaient leurs propres municipalités dans l'ouest. Cet arrangementne s'est vu menacé que lors les tentatives d'annexion Drapeau-Saulnier, au debut des années 60. Ces efforts échouèrent, faute d'appui provincial. Une désastreuse grève de la police arnena, comme conséquence directe, la création en 1969 de la communauté urbaine de Montréal. Son principal but était le transfert des ressources financières des banlieues à la ville, pour aider à défrayer les majorations du coût de la police. L'amalgation des coûts de la police entraîna la création d'un service de police unifié CUM, mais ce processus d'unification rencontra beaucoup plus de résistance que cela n'avait été le cas à Toronto et à Winnipeg. Dans d'autres domaines, les banlieues utilisèrent leur droit de veto pour empêcher d'autres innovations importantes, ce qui cut pour résultat d'augmenter rapidement la mainmise provinciale sur le développement urbain de Montréal. En dépit du grand nombre de propositions sérieuses en vue d'une consolidation municipale à Montréal, aucune modification des divisions géographiques n'eut lieu. De tels changements rencontreraient de grandes difficultés d'ordre politique parce qu'ils créeraient de nouvelles majorités et minorités linguistiques dans chaque nouvelle municipalité. De plus, l'alliance exceptionnellement solide qui lie les banlieues anglophones et francophones rendrait extrêmement difficile la modification du statu quo pour tout gouvernement québécois, quel qu'il soit.     

The Nature of Legal Change on the U.S. Supreme Court: Jurisprudential Regimes Theory and Its Alternatives

Jurisprudential regimes theory (JRT) posits that legal change on the U.S. Supreme Court occurs in a drastic, structural‐break‐like manner. Methodological debates present conflicting evidence for JRT, which has implications for the important law versus ideology debate. We confront this debate by first elaborating two alternative theoretical perspectives to JRT—evolutionary change and legal stability. Our analytical framework focuses on two key substantive effects of jurisprudential categories on the Court's case outcomes—relative differences between categories over multiple time periods and longitudinal differences across time periods. Importantly, different pieces of empirical evidence can provide support for different dynamic processes. The extent to which “law matters” is not necessarily tied to one particular model of legal change. Empirical analysis of updated and backdated free expression data generates key findings consistent with JRT, legal stability, and evolutionary change. We discuss the implications of the results for understanding legal change and legal influence.     

On the Validity of the Regression Discontinuity Design for Estimating Electoral Effects: New Evidence from Over 40,000 Close Races

The regression discontinuity (RD) design is a valuable tool for identifying electoral effects, but this design is only effective when relevant actors do not have precise control over election results. Several recent papers contend that such precise control is possible in large elections, pointing out that the incumbent party is more likely to win very close elections in the United States House of Representatives in recent periods. In this article, we examine whether similar patterns occur in other electoral settings, including the U.S. House in other time periods, statewide, state legislative, and mayoral races in the U.S. and national or local elections in nine other countries. No other case exhibits this pattern. We also cast doubt on suggested explanations for incumbent success in close House races. We conclude that the assumptions behind the RD design are likely to be met in a wide variety of electoral settings and offer a set of best practices for RD researchers going forward.     

Constructing a global commons in,against and beyond the state

The “commons” is emerging as one of the progressive political key words of our time. Against a backdrop of continuing neoliberal governance of the global economy, there is interest in a “translocal” global commons as an alternative that transcends both state and capitalist forms of appropriation. In this paper, I offer a constructive critique of the global commons. While sympathetic to arguments about the deficiencies of state-centric forms of socialist projects for emancipation, I nevertheless argue that realizing the commons vision of a more democratic politics means continuing engagement with the state, particularly for connecting up and scaling up local autonomous projects to achieve more transformative social change.     

Going it Alone? The Choice of Political Union in British Politics

This article explores the inter‐related debates over Britain's relationship with the EU and that over the future of the UK. It argues that euroscepticism and Scottish independence are based on exceptionalist identities that now revolve around economic policy. Elite euroscepticism cleaves to a neoliberal vision of minimalist regulation, while advocates of Scottish independence claim Westminster's austerity policies make the British Union incompatible with social democracy. However, this presentation of the choice facing British voters ignores the serious contradictions that overhauling the current order entails. Both forms of exceptionalism fail to recognize the significant limitations of self‐government outside and within the EU. If Conservatives can contain their neoliberal flirtation with EU withdrawal they are very well placed to prosper electorally. The dilemma of which union(s) to choose might thus constitute the prelude to the entrenchment of the economic and political order that gave rise to such contestation in the first place.     

Privacy,Data Retention and Domination: Digital Rights Ireland Ltd v Minister for Communications

In Digital Rights Ireland Ltd v Minister for Communications, the European Court of Justice found the EU Data Retention Directive, which required the retention of communications data for up to two years, to be incompatible with Articles 7 and 8 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights – the rights to privacy and to the protection of personal data. It is argued in this note that the decision ought to be taken as one that is concerned with the exercise of arbitrary power, a concern that is captured by the concept of domination.     

Integration and offender mental health

Integrated care can introduce seamless coordinated pathways that are focused around the individual needs of patients, helping to prevent missed opportunities for intervention. Within offender healthcare, sequential funnelling through designated areas where screening can take place, along with co-location of services, lends itself to integrated working, at least in theory. However, within the offender healthcare pathway, service fragmentation and autonomous, disconnected (often referred to as siloed) working, has historically been the norm. If commissioned and designed to ensure and incentivise connections between services, whilst developing high quality service-focused research activities, pathways could enable clinical and social interventions, and outcomes, on a public health scale for these highly morbid populations. As such, offender healthcare offers a real opportunity to model integration for wider introduction across other health and social care areas. Discussed within is the call for integration, its concept, and its role within offender healthcare.