Renegotiating the Bargain

<P>The franchise bargain that once divided Canadian political parties into separate spheres of authority – with members on the ground controlling personnel selection and elites at the centre dominating policy and branding decisions – has been displaced. <I>Renegotiating the Bargain</I> explains why parties have reformed their internal decision-making structures and shows how the new arrangement operates. Rob Currie-Wood draws on in-depth interviews with current and former party officials, party governance documents, and election financing reports to trace organizational reform within Canadian parties since the end of the twentieth century. Rank-and-file members increasingly possess the same participatory rights as long-time activists and elected officials, but the central apparatus has also acquired the capacity to regulate membership participation in key areas of policy development, leadership selection, candidate nominations, and campaigning. <I>Renegotiating the Bargain </I>demonstrates not only the formation of this power-sharing arrangement within parties but also how party democracy works in practice. Its findings show that parties remain meaningful sites of civic participation in Canada's democratic life. </P>