In Democracy in Alberta: The Theory and Practice of a Quasi-Party System, published in 1953, C. B. Macpherson explored the nature of democracy in a province that was dominated by a single class of producers. At the time, Macpherson was talking about Alberta farmers, but today the province can still be seen as a one-industry economy - the 1947 discovery of oil in Leduc having inaugurated a new era. For all practical purposes, the oil-rich jurisdiction of Alberta also remains a one-party state. Not only has there been little opposition to a government that has been in power for over forty years, but Alberta ranks behind other provinces in terms of voter turnout, while also boasting some of the lowest scores on a variety of social welfare indicators. The contributors to Alberta Oil and the Decline of Democracy critically assess the political peculiarities of Alberta and the impact of the government's relationship to the oil industry on the lives of the province's most vulnerable citizens. They also examine the public policy environment and the entrenchment of neoliberal political ideology in the province. In probing the relationship between oil dependency and democracy in the context of an industrialized nation, Alberta Oil and the Decline of Democracy offers a crucial test of the "oil inhibits democracy" thesis that has hitherto been advanced in relation to oil-producing countries in the Global South. If reliance on oil production appears to undermine democratic participation and governance in Alberta, then what does the Alberta case suggest for the future of democracy in industrialized nations such as the United States and Australia, which are now in the process of exploiting their own substantial shale oil reserves? The environmental consequences of oil production have, for example, been the subject of much attention. Little is likely to change, however, if citizens of oil-rich countries cannot effectively intervene to influence government policy.

Pt.1 The Context of democracy in an oil economy 1. Liberal democracy in oil-exporting countries: a view from the perspective of staples theory 2. Petroleum, politics, and the Limits of left progressivism in Alberta 3. Petro-politics in Alberta and Canada: a new spatiality of political contestation? 4. Alberta's energy paradigm: prosperity, security, and the environment 5. The Political economy of oil and democracy in Venezuela and Alberta Pt.2. Right claims in an oil economy 6. Petroleum, Patriarchy, and power: women's equality in Canada and Iran 7. Development at what cost? First nations, ecological integrity, and democracy 8. Worker Safety in Alberta: trading health for profit 9. Exporting oil, importing labour, and weakening democracy: the use of foreign migrant workers in Alberta 10. Gendering energy extraction in Fort McMurray Pt.3 Governance, identity, and citizenship in an oil economy 11. A window on power and influence in Alberta politics 12. The Paradox of plenty: ending homelessness in Alberta 13. "The Sharpest Knives in the Drawer": visual culture at the intersection of oil and state 14. Blurring the boundaries of private, partisan, and public interests: accountability in an oil economy Conclusion of democracy and its deficits: surviving neoliberalism in oil-exporting countries