Public brokerage: Constitutional reform and the accommodation of mass publics

This article argues that many Canadian political scientists have not proper ly understood why executive federalism has failed to secure constitutional change. The author contends that Canadian political scientists have often a ssumed that accommodation and brokerage require elites. While it is true th at executive federalism is no longer a viable method for resolving constitu tional disputes, there is no evidence for the parallel assumption that the principles underlying accommodation have been rejected. The resolution of c onstitutional conflicts would benefit from new models of "public brokerage" that strive not for elite accommodation but for the accommodation of mass publics through the creation of institutions where members of the public ca n engage in deliberative activities along with elites. The author challenge s the argument that constitutional change is not possible because of citize n participation, arguing instead that the Charlotte-town Accord failed in 1 992 not because of public involvement, but (at least partially) because com promise was forged at the elite level while ratification took place at the mass level. The author suggests that theories of public deliberation provid e a more useful paradigm for elaborating models for constitutional change i n Canada than do the traditional approaches of executive federalism and con sociationalism.