{"id":475,"date":"2009-04-03T14:41:58","date_gmt":"2009-04-03T18:41:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carleton.ca\/polisci\/?page_id=475"},"modified":"2026-02-18T14:36:03","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T19:36:03","slug":"cross-william","status":"publish","type":"cu_people","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/polisci\/people\/cross-william\/","title":{"rendered":"Cross, William"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Professor<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Cross is a student of Canadian and comparative political institutions, and his work emphasizes the connections between civil society and political parties and legislatures. His recent work focusses on questions relating to intra-party democracy and organization.  This includes studies of party leadership selection, candidate recruitment and selection, party membership, election campaigning and power relations between local and national party organizations across the Anglo parliamentary democracies.  In recent work, Dr. Cross has explored the relationship between party organization and gender.  Professor Cross also teaches and conducts research in the field of Sport and Politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Cross\u2019 writing has appeared in many leading political science journals and his recent books include:  The Political Party in Canada<\/em> (UBC Press, 2022), The Personalization of Democratic Politics and the Challenge for Political Parties<\/em> (Rowman Littlefield Press, 2018), The Promise and Challenge of Party Primary Elections<\/em> (McGill-Queens, 2016), The Politics of Party Leadership<\/em> (Oxford University Press, 2015), The Challenges of Intra-Party Democracy<\/em> (Oxford University Press 2013) and Politics at the Centre: The Selection and Removal of Party Leaders in the Anglo Parliamentary Democracies<\/em> (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012). The latter of which received the 2013 Donald Smiley Prize from the Canadian Political Science Association.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Cross has won many awards, both internal and external, for his research. In 2024, Dr. Cross was the recipient of the Mildred Schwartz Lifetime Achievement Award from the Canadian Politics section of the American Political Science Association. In 2015-16, Dr. Cross served as President of the Canadian Political Science Association. Since 2000, he has served as Director of the Canadian Democratic Audit and in 2004-05, he was Director of Research for the New Brunswick Commission on Legislative Democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Cross joined Carleton in 2005 after teaching for eight years at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick where he held the Edgar and Dorothy Davidson Chair in Canadian Studies. Prior to that, he was a SSHRC post-doctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia.  In an earlier life, he was Legal Counsel to the Democratic National Committee in Washington, D.C. and Staff Council for Dukakis for President in Boston, MA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Selected Publications<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

William P. Cross 2025. \u201cSport as a pathway to political office: addressing or exacerbating the under-representation of women?\u201d International Journal of Representation<\/em> 61:2, 189-205.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

William P. Cross 2018. \u201cUnderstanding Power Sharing in Political Parties: Stratarchy as Mutual Interdependence Between the Party in the Centre and the Party On-The-Ground,\u201d Government and Opposition<\/em> 53:2, 205-230.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

William P. Cross 2016. \u201cThe Importance of Local Party Activity in Understanding Canadian Politics,\u201d Canadian Journal of Political Science<\/em> 49:4, 601-620.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scott Pruysers and William Cross 2016. \u201cCandidate Selection in Canada: Local Autonomy, Centralization and Competing Democratic Norms,\u201d American Behavioral Scientist<\/em> 60:7, 781-796.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

William P. Cross and Andr\u00e9 Blais 2012.  \u201cWho Selects the Party Leader?\u201d Party Politics <\/em>18:2, 127-150.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

William P. Cross and Lisa Young 2008.  \u201cFactors Influencing the Decision of the Young Politically Engaged to join a Political Party: An Investigation of the Canadian Case,\u201d Party Politics<\/em> 14:3, 345-69.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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