Patrick James is a professor of international relations and director of the Center for International Studies at the University of Southern California.

• 1 Constitutional Politics in Canada: The Charter and Beyond2 Systemism and Canadian Constitutional Politics3 Identifying Concepts and Theories4 Liberal Theories: Negative Identity, Megapolitics, and Institutional Imbalance5 Communitarian Theories: Asymmetrical Federalism and the Citizens' Constitution6 A Critique and Comparison of Liberal and Communitarian Theories7 ConclusionNotesReferencesIndex

"Patrick James provides a highly intelligent and balanced synthesis of twenty-five years of constitutional politics literature in Canada... He also develops an innovative theoretical approach (systemism) to evaluate competing constitutional theories and to test the theoretical significance of competing constitutional approaches. Simply put, as an exercise in theory building, testing, and evaluation, this book makes a unique contribution to the state of Canadian politics and constitutional studies. - James Kelly, Department of Political Science, Concordia University"