Skip to content
Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter September 17, 2010

History of the Word "Democracy" in Canada and Québec: A Political Analysis of Rhetorical Strategies

  • Francis Dupuis-Déri
From the journal World Political Science

An examination of the speeches of modern Canada’s “founding fathers” reveals that they were openly antidemocratic. How did a regime founded on anti-democratic ideas come to be positively identified with democracy? Drawing on similar studies of the United States and France, this analysis of the history of the term democracy in Canada shows that the country’s association with democracy was not due to constitutional or institutional changes that might have justified re-labelling the country’s political regime. Rather, it was the result of discursive strategies employed by the political elite to strengthen its ability to mobilize the masses during the World Wars.

Published Online: 2010-9-17

©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston

Downloaded on 29.3.2024 from https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.2202/1935-6226.1086/html
Scroll to top button