An Introduction to Government and Politics: A Conceptual Approach

Mark O. Dickerson is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Political Science at the University of Calgary. His major field of study was Comparative Politics with emphasis on political development in the non-industrialized world. His research also focused on political development in Canada's north. This work resulted in Whose North? Political Change, Political Development and Self-government in the NWT(1993). While at the University of Calgary he received a number of awards for teaching excellence. In 1997 he ran, unsuccessfully, as an Alberta Liberal Party candidate for MLA. After retirement in 1997, he maintained his interest in Aboriginal self-government and was acting Executive Director of the Arctic Institute of North America in 2000. Dr. Tom Flanagan is perhaps the only person ever to have lived in both Ottawa, Ontario, and Ottawa, Illinois. He studied political science at Notre Dame University, the Free University of West Berlin, and Duke University, where he received his Ph.D. He has taught political science at the University of Calgary since 1968. Dr. Flanagan's research interests include political philosophy, Canadian politics, and aboriginal rights. He is best known as a scholar for his books on Louis Riel, the North-West Rebellion, and aboriginal land claims. His most recent book, entitled First Nations? Second Thoughts (published by McGill-Queen's University Press), received the Donner Prize for the best book on Canadian public policy published in the year 2000. The Canadian Political Science Association also awarded it the Donald Smiley Prize for the best book on Canadian politics and government published in 2000. Dr. Flanagan was elected to the Royal Society of Canada in 1996. He writes for the National Post and works frequently as an expert witness in aboriginal and treaty rights litigation. His hobbies are hiking, fishing, cross-country skiing, and ballroom dancing. Brenda O'Neill is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Calgary and a Visiting Adjunct Professor in the Department of Political Studies at the University of Manitoba. She holds a Ph.D., Political Science from the University of British Columbia; Master of Arts, Public Policy and Administration and Master of Arts, Economics, both from McMaster University. Her research interests include the political behaviour of women, particularly public opinion and political engagement; the interplay between religion and feminism as determinants of women's political behaviour; quantitative and qualitative research methods; gender and politics in Canada; and public policy and public administration. Dr. O'Neill's teaching interests include political behaviour; gender and politics; research methods (including statistical analysis); Canadian government and politics; public policy and public administration; and introductory political science.