Introduction / Patti Tamara Lenard and Richard Simeon1 The Democratic Deficit: Canada and the United States in Comparative Perspective / Pippa Norris2 Citizen Expectations and Democratic Performance: The Sources and Consequences of Democratic Deficits from the Bottom Up / Neil Nevitte and Stephen White3 Defining and Identifying a “Democratic Deficit” / David Beetham4 Democracy in American Elections / Michael McDonald5 “Can Canada’s Past Electoral Reforms Help to Understand the Debate over Its Method of Election?” / John C. Courtney6 Regulating Political Finance in Canada: Contributions to Democracy? / Lisa Young7 Campaign Finance Reform in the United States / Robert C. Boatright8 Imperfect Legislatures / David C. Docherty9 Democracy’s Wartime Deficits: Presidential Prerogatives and Liberal Democracy in America / Daniel J. Tichenor10 The “Centre” of the Democratic Deficit: Power and Influence in Canadian Political Executives / Graham White11 Extending the Franchise to Non-Citizen Residents in Canada and the United States: How Bad is the Democratic Deficit? / Patti Tamara Lenard and Daniel Munro12 Citizen Representation and the American Jury / Ethan J. Leib and David L. Ponet13 Supplementary Democracy? Democratic Deficits and Citizens’ Assemblies / Amy Lang and Mark E. Warren14 Reflections on the “Democratic Deficit” in Canada and the United States / Simone Chambers and Patti Tamara LenardIndex

Imperfect Democracies offers a broad and unprecedented comparison of democratic institutions in Canada and the United States that will considerably advance scholarly debate about democracy in each country.  It is both substantive and accessible as an exploration of what the “democratic deficit” means in each country.

This is a blue-ribbon collection of scholars, eminently qualified to assess a syndrome of pathologies that have come to be generically referred to as a “democratic deficit.” The book’s comparative focus and its discussion of the challenges of arriving at contextually sensitive definitions of healthy democracy constitute serious advances to the literature in this area. The book will find a ready audience among academics and concerned citizens on both sides of the Canada-US border – and beyond.