Donald Savoie has a new book out called:
Court Government and the Collapse of Accountability in Canada and the United Kingdom. I just heard a discussion of the book based on this story in the Toronto Star.
He argues that Canada has evolved into a court-style government, where the prime minister sits as “king” and has a “court” of select senior ministers, mandarins and lobbyists that rule the nation. Savoie says Parliament has been reduced to a bit player and cabinet ministers are now mere pawns.
You remember that he started this line of thinking back in the Cretien days and it seems, according to Savoie, Harper has elevated the centralization of power to a new art form.
It’s all kind of creepy, really. I also heard a BBC documentary postulating that the reason China was so successful was that its government was not constrained by democracy. So are we moving towards a new wave of authoritarian regimes (democratic or not)? Hugo Chavez would fit the bill.
I am currently reading Fareed Zakaria’s current screed on globalization and I have Richard Florida’s Who’s Your City in the on deck circle. I might wait until Savoie’s book comes out in paperback but I suspect it will be a worthwhile read.