Applied Political Theory and Canadian Politics is a strong contribution to Canadian political theory, and its contributors thoughtfully approach a number of recent political events and issues (including multiple explorations of the 2015 federal election). As a result, it serves as an excellent reminder that political theory can thrive when considering the contemporary context. Had this been the intention, it would be an easy book to recommend, but instead the editors insist that their approach involves applied political theory, and each chapter reflects this commitment by beginning with an explanation of how applied political theory is being used and, in many cases, of the broader value of the approach. In almost every case, the method can be summed up as an application of theoretical concepts to a different case than was initially used—but rather than being a novel approach, that is precisely how one engages in political theory.

This is a problem because it is unclear whom this volume is for. Each of the six sections provides insight into the study of Canadian politics, and the collection as a whole surveys some of the defining issues facing Canada today. Particularly of note are the opening chapters on uniquely Canadian ideologies (part 1) and the trio of essays on democracy and citizenship (part 3): in the former, three chapters unpacking the difficult and contested nature of “conservative,” “liberal,” and “progressive” in Canada is capped off with Paul Saurette and Kathryn Trevenen's chapter on “ideology in the age of emotion”; in the latter, the three chapters by Marlene Sokolon, Lee Ward and Catherine Frost leave the reader hoping they will build upon their work here toward a separate project on the lessons and limits of the Canadian democratic experience. Anyone who teaches introductory Canadian courses would be well served by considering how the arguments of those sections fit into their classrooms. The weakness of this book, however, comes from the connective tissue between the essays—in framing the volume around applied political theory approach.

Editors David McGrane and Neil Hibbert do not claim to have invented a new field with applied political theory, and in fact, one of their contentions is that Canadian scholars have long engaged in this kind of work. They are, however, suggesting that it is an underutilized approach that can offer “effective conceptual tools with which to illuminate and critique Canadian political practices” (16)—and McGrane's own chapter concludes by emphasizing “the practical utility of applied political theory for the field of Canadian politics” (89). What, then, is involved in this approach that distinguishes it from political theory properly understood?

Although McGrane and Hibbert define applied political theory as “the study of concrete political practices that combines empirical evidence with the concepts and normative arguments that emanate from a recognizable tradition of political theory,” they are loath to go much further than that (5). Both evidence selection and the theoretical concepts utilized are almost entirely at the discretion of the researcher, with the only real constraint being that “the object of applied political theory research is not abstract, like Plato's cave or Rawls's veil of ignorance” (5). Absent invoking Kant, it is hard to find better examples of abstraction in the Western canon,Footnote ¹ but their definition runs into trouble when put up against the broader tradition: Marx's Capital, Rousseau's Social Contract, Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws, Locke's First Treatise, Machiavelli's Prince and Discourses and Aristotle's Politics are all marked by their use of empirical evidence, albeit in a variety of different ways. I would go so far as to venture that the list of thinkers who pair theoretical concerns with concrete reality is significantly longer than the list of those who do not.

It does not help that each author appears to have their own subtle distinctions about precisely what applied political theory is, but those disagreements are never elevated to a meaningful debate. Instead we have 20 variations on a theme which, when read together, come across as an intense desire not to be mistaken for abstract theorizing. It seems a live question whether such concerns are worth investing this much effort in for what ultimately feels like a distinction without a difference. This is not, however, to claim that all applications of theory are equally applied: this volume shows that particularly well in both the variety of empirical methods and the extent to which the various authors apply them. To borrow from Jacob Levy's point about the distinction between ideal and nonideal theory, “It is a spectrum, not a ranked, categorical distinction” (Reference Levy2016: 333). Fortunately, once that distinction is set aside, what we are left with is a number of timely investigations into Canadian politics from scholars with a range of methodological tools at their disposal.