Canadian Local Government

Canadian Local Government: An Urban Perspective by Andrew Sancton is a new ground-up text that focuses on local governments as political institutions. Its objective is to attempt to answer all of the big questions political scientists ask about other political institutions: How are local governments defined? Why do we have them? What do they do? How do they relate to other political institutions? How is power attained and distributed within them? With a strong and powerful voice, Sancton answers these questions by assuming that we need to know as much about how our local governments work as we do about other levels of government and their influences. Part I of the book is concerned with the legal and political framework of Canadian local government. Part II examines how structures of local government are adapted to urbanization. Part III is about power, politics, and management within major Canadian municipalities, and Part IV discusses money, a subject particularly important at the local level. Sancton concludes his text by addressing issues that relate to the future of Canadian local government and theorizes that knowing about Canadian local government facilitates urban living.