Why Canadian unity matters and why Americans care : democratic pluralism at risk / Charles F. Doran.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 253-289) and index.

1. Challenges to Democratic Pluralism. Democratic Pluralism: What It Is and Why It Is Necessary. Cultural Identity and Politics. The Social-Psychology of Divisive Nationalism. The Challenge to Liberal Democracy -- 2. A U.S. Perspective on Canadian Unity. What Underlies U.S. Preferences? The Economic Claim to Wholeness. Defence of the North American Continent: The Security Claim. Why Canada Is Important: City on the Hill, Interdependence, and Cohesion -- 3. Will Quebec Secede? How Three Social-Psychological Processes Fan Quebec Nationalism. Factors Contributing to Separation. Quebec Nationalism: Ethnic or Civic? Sources of Resistance to Disunity. Background Trends Affecting Quebec Nationalism. Unaccounted-for Trends and Surprises. No Bottom Line, No Willingness to Budge -- 4. Could English Canada Unravel? Geographical Isolation of the Atlantic Provinces. 'Transfer Payments' Would End. Effervescence of 'Western Alienation'. The 'Ontario Problem'. The North American Crucible -- 5. Is Separatism Home-Grown or the Result of Contagion? State Formation as Historically Determined Evolution. The Influence of the International System on Secession. Building States by Breaking States: Divisive Nationalism. Can Democratic Pluralism Survive? Divisive Nationalism and the Future. Centralization, Globalization, and North America -- 6. Is Small Size a Stimulus or Obstacle to Separatism? Economic Costs of Separation to Quebec. The Structure of World Order and Trade. Relationship between the Size of a Polity and Its Economic Growth. Empirical Analysis of the Size/Growth Threshold. Causal Assumptions Underlying Costs of Secession. Resolving the Paradigmatic Controversy. Assessing the Policy Implications -- 7. What Kind of Canada in the Twenty-First Century? Aboriginal Peoples, Cultural Survival, and Democratic Pluralism. Responding to Quebec If Secession Fails. Is a Unilateral Declaration of Independence Possible? Probing Plan B. Responding to the ROC If Quebec Secedes. Responding to Asymmetrical Federalism. Responding to a Scenario of Deep Decentralization. Summing Up the Options and the Consequences -- 8. Self-Determination and Democratic Pluralism. The Threat to Democratic Pluralism. Divisive Nationalism. Bogus Science of Primordial Causes for Ethnic Separatism. The Communitarian Challenge to Democratic Pluralism. Self-Determination: The Pluralist Addendum. Confronting the Challenge to Democratic Pluralism.

Drawing on a variety of perspective, Charles Doran examines why Canadian unity is important not only to the United States but also to other liberal democracies around the world. In addition, he looks at the wider context of Quebec nationalism and the nature of the historical era that has shaped and conditioned the secessionist impulse.

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