IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cpp/issued/v23y1997i2p164-178.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Third-Party Advertising and Electoral Democracy: The Political Theory of the Alberta Court of Appeal in Somerville v. Canada (Attorney General) [1996]

Author

Listed:
  • Herman Bakvis
  • Jennifer Smith

Abstract

As the decision in Somerville v. Canada (Attorney General) [1996] indicates, the courts are continuing to prove hostile to the restrictions on third-party or independent spending that are set out in the Canada Elections Act. The difficulty is that these restrictions are part of a larger election-expenses regime that is designed to encourage fairness in the electoral competition between parties and candidates. Through an examination of the Somerville case, this paper argues that if the restrictions on third-party spending are eliminated, then the restrictions on parties and candidates are sure to fall as well, and Canadian elections will come to resemble an unregulated, free-for-all. Ironically, under these conditions the position of political parties may well be strengthened in relation to interest groups as the latter become conduits for campaign finance rather than active and visable participants in the electoral process.

Suggested Citation

  • Herman Bakvis & Jennifer Smith, 1997. "Third-Party Advertising and Electoral Democracy: The Political Theory of the Alberta Court of Appeal in Somerville v. Canada (Attorney General) [1996]," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 23(2), pages 164-178, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpp:issued:v:23:y:1997:i:2:p:164-178
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0317-0861%28199706%2923%3A2%3C164%3ATAAEDT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-K
    Download Restriction: only available to JSTOR subscribers
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Epstein, David & Zemsky, Peter, 1995. "Money Talks: Deterring Quality Challengers in Congressional Elections," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 89(2), pages 295-308, June.
    2. Page, Benjamin I. & Shapiro, Robert Y. & Dempsey, Glenn R., 1987. "What Moves Public Opinion?," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 81(1), pages 23-43, March.
    3. William Cross, 1994. "Regulating Independent Expenditures in Federal Elections," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 20(3), pages 253-264, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hayo, Bernd & Neumeier, Florian, 2017. "The (In)validity of the Ricardian equivalence theorem–findings from a representative German population survey," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 162-174.
    2. Michael R. Greenberg & Marc D. Weiner & Henry Mayer & David Kosson & Charles W. Powers, 2014. "Sustainability as a Priority at Major U.S. Department of Energy’s Defense Sites: Surrounding Population Views," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(4), pages 1-18, April.
    3. Julia Cage & Yasmine Bekkouche, 2018. "The Price of a Vote: Evidence from France, 1993-2014," Sciences Po publications 12614, Sciences Po.
    4. Stratmann, Thomas, 2005. "Ballot access restrictions and candidate entry in elections," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 59-71, March.
    5. Antoine Loeper & Jakub Steiner & Colin Stewart, 2014. "Influential Opinion Leaders," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 124(581), pages 1147-1167, December.
    6. Bernhardt, Lea & Dewenter, Ralf & Thomas, Tobias, 2023. "Measuring partisan media bias in US newscasts from 2001 to 2012," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    7. Bekkouche, Yasmine & Cagé, Julia & Dewitte, Edgard, 2022. "The heterogeneous price of a vote: Evidence from multiparty systems, 1993–2017," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    8. Donald L. Jordan & Benjamin I. Page, 1992. "Shaping Foreign Policy Opinions," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 36(2), pages 227-241, June.
    9. Latré, Edwin & Perko, Tanja & Thijssen, Peter, 2017. "Public opinion change after the Fukushima nuclear accident: The role of national context revisited," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 124-133.
    10. Thomas Stratmann, 2006. "Contribution limits and the effectiveness of campaign spending," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 129(3), pages 461-474, December.
    11. Milyo, Jeffrey & Groseclose, Timothy, 1999. "The Electoral Effects of Incumbent Wealth," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 42(2), pages 699-722, October.
    12. Pfetsch, Barbara & Eilders, Christiane & Neidhardt, Friedhelm, 2004. "Das Kommentariat: Rolle und Status einer Öffentlichkeitselite," Discussion Papers, Working Group Political Communication and Mobilization SP IV 2004-402, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    13. Hill, Joshua & Oliver, Willard M. & Marion, Nancy E., 2010. ""Shaping history" or "Riding the wave"?: President Bush's influence on the public opinion of terrorism, homeland security, & crime," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 896-902, September.
    14. Bekkouche, Yasmine & Cagé, Julia & Dewitte, Edgard, 2022. "The heterogeneous price of a vote: Evidence from multiparty systems, 1993–2017," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    15. Kriesi, Hanspeter, 2001. "Die Rolle der Öffentlichkeit im politischen Entscheidungsprozess: Ein konzeptueller Rahmen für ein international vergleichendes Forschungsprojekt," Discussion Papers, Working Group Political Communication and Mobilization P 01-701, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    16. Katerina Linos & Kimberly Twist, 2016. "The Supreme Court, the Media, and Public Opinion: Comparing Experimental and Observational Methods," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 45(2), pages 223-254.
    17. Yasmine Bekkouche & Julia Cage, 2019. "The Heterogeneous Price of a Vote: Evidence from France, 1993-2014," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03393084, HAL.
    18. Cagé, Julia & Bekkouche, Yasmine, 2018. "The Heterogeneous Price of a Vote: Evidence from France, 1993-2014," CEPR Discussion Papers 12614, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    19. Carisa Bergner & Bruce A. Desmarais & John Hird, 2019. "Speaking truth in power: Scientific evidence as motivation for policy activism," Journal of Behavioral Public Administration, Center for Experimental and Behavioral Public Administration, vol. 2(1).
    20. Benjamin I. Page, "undated". "Is Social Security Reform Ready for the American Public?," IPR working papers 99-6, Institute for Policy Resarch at Northwestern University.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cpp:issued:v:23:y:1997:i:2:p:164-178. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Iver Chong (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.utpjournals.press/loi/cpp .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.