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Ph.D. Northwestern University

Jean-François Godbout is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Université de Montréal. He studies political institutions in Canada from a comparative perspective and is mainly interested in legislative behaviour. He is currently carrying out research on analysing legislative speeches in the Parliament of Canada. He is one of the editors-in-chief of the Canadian Journal of Political Science and is Director of l'Observatoire des fédérations, a research unit of the Centre d’études et de recherches internationales de l’Université de Montréal (CÉRIUM).

• Political Parties
• Political institutions
• Legislative behaviour

• Axis 3: Representing and Governing Citizens in Critical Times - After learning and practicing democratic citizenship, the next critical steps are representation and governance. Democratic institutions are key elements. They shape the norms and incentives for active citizenship and they link citizens and their representatives in ways that foster accountability, legitimacy and representation. In Québec and Canada, as well as in other countries, confidence of citizens toward the institutions is low, as many dislike the way that members of parliaments behave and consider that politicians don’t honour their promises, hence various political endeavours to reform these institutions. Research on this axis will focus on the role of electoral systems, parliaments, parliamentary debates, and political parties.

• Debating Citizens choices: Parties and Parliaments
• Linking Citizens and Democratic Institutions in a reform