Democratic government and politics

THE last thirty years has produced a large and constantly growing literature on democratic government and politics. There has been much discussion of the growing activities of government, and of the changes made in the structure and operation of democratic governments to carry the expanding functions. Further, the rise of the European dictatorships compelled a reconsideration of democratic creed and practice, and pointed out new lines of inquiry to be explored. There has been a great continuing debate on democratic government and politics.

The discussion which forms the content of this debate is scattered through many books and journals, and much of it is wrapped in a technical idiom. In 1946, when the first edition of this book was published, no introduction to this discussion which was suitable for Canadian students beginning the study of government had been made available.
The first edition attempted to provide such an introduction. In it, a comparison of the structure and working of government in Britain, the United States, and Canada was combined with an elementary analysis of the problem of democratic government under present-day conditions. It thus had a concern for analysis and political theory, on which descriptive works on government often lay little or no stress, and it also had a concreteness of reference that is often lacking in introductory books on political science.