<p>This thesis aims to investigate the sources from which First Year Political Science undergraduates derive their information on current political issues. The focus is on patterns of exposure to mass media, discussion of politics, and the way these relate to knowledge and opinion holding on political issues. The objective are to test within the student context hypotheses derived from study of the general population, and to consider what conclusions, if any, are suggested concerning this aspect of the political socialisation process.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>The principal theme of this study of Bertrand Russell is that from his unique position as the last of a notable line of English Whig reformers and as the "godson" of John Stuart Mill, "the saint of rationalism", he attempted to make a unique contribution to political philosophy―and failed. Half of the seventy books Russell wrote were concerned with political and social questions, and of these all but those written during his last years combine the best values of English Whiggery with nineteenth century liberal humanism and reflect Russell's endeavour to adjust to the complexities of the twentieth century. Liberal humanism permeates Russell's views concerning human nature and education, and I hope to show that these views provide unsatisfactory and ineffectual solutions to the problems Russell tackles. It is, however, when Russell considers the reconstruction of society that he is confronted with his greatest dilemma. Too wise and too honest to equate Fabian reforms and welfare programmes with socialism, his individualism and Whig background obscured the one fact which he could never bring himself truly to face: the fact of the class struggle, the irreconcilable interests of the employers and the employed. Russell's dilemma was that he had a traditional dislike of popular movements and yet knew that the effective socialist reconstruction of society would take place only through the successful outcome of the class struggle. For a brief period, he embraced the cause of revolutionary socialism, but this was primarily an emotional response, one of many political attitudes which were to conflict throughout his life with his fundamental liberalism. The result was pessimism and despair, conditions which plagued Russell and which, I believe, could have been avoided, in his politics at least, were it not for his misunderstanding of Marxism. Russell, although motivated by considerations of the highest ideals for the betterment of humanity, was essentially an individualist who increasingly despaired of mankind. Confidence in ordinary men and women, and in the justification and efficacy of mass action, may have liberated him from this dilemma. In what follows I draw attention to the enthusiasm, Vigour, and the obvious zest which Russell displayed in his periods of political activism during the First World War and during his campaigns for nuclear disarmament and civil disobedience. It was, I suggest, no coincidence that, arising from these periods of intense political activity in a popular movement of protest, Russell was to embrace, albeit briefly, the Marxist theory of class struggle and revolutionary action. Indeed, it will be maintained in this study that the lasting monument to Russell will be neither his political philosophy, nor even his work in logic and mathematics, -but -his passionate sense of commitment, and especially the activity of his last years, when he placed his entire energies and reputation in the service of the quest for a peaceful world. While most philosophers have been content to tell us what we ought to do to achieve the good, Russell, by the example of his sense of commitment, demonstrated how necessary it is to combine theory with practice. There are weaknesses in Russell's approaches, for he was a most human being, and I hope to establish that when applied to social problems his celebrated logic was often faulty, his politics naive, his individualism and emotionalism damaging to the causes he had taken up. Nevertheless, he was, indeed, "the last of the Europeans whom Socrates and Spinoza would have acknowledged as their countryman", for his compassion lights up the frequent gloom of his analysis of the human condition. <br /> <br /> It was Russell's misfortune to witness the defeat of liberal-humanist ideas and the perversion and sacrifice of socialist ideals, to live through a period of social disintegration rather than social reconstruction based on humanist principles. All the major issues of his youth that touched his compassion―oppression, intolerance, in-equality of opportunity, imperialism, and war―had in many respects intensified during his lifetime. His political mentors―Locke , Mill, and William Morris―could expect the future to justify their hopeful view of man, but it was Russell's fate to see state education at work as state indoctrination, to note with despair that enfranchised women were as unenlightened and powerless as men, and that the exploited, if given the chance, would become exploiters. "People seem good while they are oppressed but they only wish to become oppressors in their turn . . . life is nothing but a competition to be the criminal rather than the victim." <br /> <br /> These were powerful factors in the life of Bertrand Russell,which when combined with his class outlook, always at variance with his socialist humanitarianism, help us understand his essentially pessimistic view of man and his failure to adjust the liberal humanism of Mill to the realities of the twentieth century.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>This thesis is concerned with the nature of the political involvement of individuals in local constituency associations. Specifically, this study focuses on the socio-economic and demographic background of local party officers and their motivations. In order to carry out this study, a theoretical framework of the recruitment process is devised, operationalized, and applied to the executive officers of four local constituency associations. The results are analyzed to gain an understanding of why people become involved in politics and how their reasons might affect the organizational behavior of the constituency association.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>This thesis concerns itself with the formulation of a model of civic participation and its testing in five communities in North America and Eastern Europe. The model posits that there are four conceptually distinct sets of variables: socio-economic status, general personal orientations, political culture and political events, each of which acts both independently and additively on participation in civic affairs. It is further hypothesized that these four variables act inter-dependently on two separate dimensions of participation, which are conceptually defined as interest and involvement. The model suggests that using interest and involvement as two separate dimensions and combining these with the four previously defined 'mediating' variable sets, one can construct a theory of civic (political) role and civic (political) role change that provides a useful set of hypotheses about ,vays to ameliorate and perhaps relinquish man's atomization in the mass societies of the post-industrial era.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>This thesis is an attempt to examine the relationship between the two attitudes of Dogmatism and Alienation, as an initial step toward the construction of a theory of the interrelationship between attitudes as a future means of obtaining a deeper comprehension of political behaviour them is now possible. The two concepts will be broken down into their constituent dimensions through Factor and Scalogram Analysis and the relations between these sub-dimensions will be assessed, as indication of the degree and strength of the underlying relationship between the two major concepts. Two groups were chosen for the research, a group of undergraduates following the Introduction to Political Science Course, at McMaster University and the City Council of the City of Hamilton. The results of these two groups are not to be utilised for strict comparative purposes, they will be used to substantiate each others sets of findings.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>This thesis is concerned with the development and evolution of intergovernmental financial relations from the time of Confederation to the present day. The particular area of interest is the time from 1946 to 1968. The past quarter century has seen a powerful resurgence in provincial influence and in-creasing demands from the provinces for financial autonomy. The provincial revenues have been very much increased, but so too have their responsibilities. As Federal Government revenues have increased much more rapidly than Federal responsibilities the period has also been marked by considerable increases in payments from the Federal to the Provincial Governments. It is around the conditions attached to these increased payments that the majority of Federal-Provincial conflicts have been concentrated. The increasing degree of variation in economic wealth seen between the provinces, the increasing degree of urbanization, and the rapid growth of provincial revenues, will all be considered. Possible solutions to the more serious and immediate problems are considered but no 'grand solution' is offered since it seems unlikely that any static solution could hope to satisfy the needs in a society as dynamic as Canada is, and will continue to be, for the remainder of this century.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>This thesis studies the evolution and development of the federal public administration during the Thirties - a period in which many of the root s of what we know as the modern positive state were implanted. An era of social upheaval and turmoil, the decade provided an environment conducive to new concepts and relatively 'radical' solutions to issues surrounding the role of the public sector; the federal public administraion - the administrative arm of government - was markedly affected by these developments.</p> <p>Employing a basically historical framework, the thesis attempts to relate changes in this realm to factors outside of it: sociopolitical events, economic developments, personalities of leaders, aspects of the Canadian political culture. In such a fashion the undertaking seeks to shed light on a little-discussed segment of Canadian public administration.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>The problem confronted by this paper is to determine whether territorial sovereignty may be properly exercise by the Dominion of Canada over those regions lying to the north of its ten constituent provinces, and, if so, to what geographical extent. International law has traditionaly advanced a variety of criteria from which such sovereignty is alleged to flow. The basic hypothesis of this endeavour is an estimation of the degree to which Canada satisfies these criteria together with an argument which hopes to describe the illusory character of such criteria. The conclusion which the thesis hopes to justify is that even of Canada might be found to conform to all the strictures of the said criteria sufficiently to confer covereignty upon Canada over the material regions, yet the notion of sovereignty is itself an ambiguity worthy of critical reappraisal if the northern ambitions of Canadian nationals are to be ensured.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>The subject of this thesis is the machinery through which Soviet foreign policies are processed, the men who staff positions in this machinery and the "interest groups” which affect the decision-makers. This analysis attempts to establish the division of powers and responsibilities that exist among the agencies which deal with foreign affairs and to establish through the analysis of social background and career pattern data conclusions about the type of men recruited into :foreign policy decision-making positions. It seeks further to analyze the interplay of competing foreign policy positions within the Soviet union. A convenient shorthand form of describing this thesis might be to call It an attempt at a decision-making analysis of Soviet foreign policy by means of elite and interest group analysis.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>The theoretical orientation for the data collection was based on the concept of amateurism and professionalism in politics. The concept was not productive in data analysis, however, and the more natural variables of party and occupation were found to have the greatest utility. These, and two scales, are examined in an effort to understand candidate behavior. Study of candidates enables some conclusions to be made about party organization and the federal party system of Ontario.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)