Richard Simeon, B.A. (UBC) 1960, Ph.D (Yale, Political Science) 1968. Prior to joining the University of Toronto in 1991, Professor Simeon was Professor of Political Studies at Queen's University where he was also Director of the School of Public Administration (1985-91) and of the Institute of Intergovernmental Relations (1976-83). He was Vice-Chair, of the Ontario Law Reform Commission 1989 to 1995. From 1983 to 1985, he was a Research Coordinator (Institutions) for the Royal Commission on the Economic Union and Canada's Development Prospects --the Macdonald Commission. He also served as a member of the Ontario Advisory Committee on Confederation, from 1977-82, and in 1990 was a member of an advisory group to the Premier on the Constitution. He has had visiting appointments at UBC, University of Essex, McMaster University and the University of Cape Town. In 1998 he was William Lyon McKenzie King Professor of Canadian Studies at Harvard University. Professor Simeon's primary interests and writing have been on Federalism, Public Policy and the Constitution in Canada, together with a larger interest in the interactions between state and society in advanced western nations. Since the adoption of the democratic constitution in South Africa in 1996, he has closely followed the process of democratic consolidation and institutional capacity building there. In 1997 and 1999, he co-taught a course in the Faculty of Law, University of Cape Town, analyzing the constitution comparatively. He has written widely and been a frequent contributor to public debates on these matters. His early work includes Federal-Provincial Diplomacy: The Making of Recent Policy in Canada (1972) and Small Worlds: Provinces and Parties in Canadian Political Life (1982). More recently he has published State, Society and the Development of Canadian Federalism (1990) with Ian Robinson; Toolkits and Building Blocks: Constructing a New Canada (1991), co-edited with Mary Janigan; Towards a Social Contract: Can We Make Hard Decisions as if Democracy Matters? (1994); Rethinking Federalism: Citizens, Markets and Governments in a Changing World (1995), co-edited with Karen Knop, Sylvia Ostry and Katherine Swinton; Degrees of Difference: Canada and the United States in a Changing World, with Keith Banting and George Hoberg (1997); Political Science and Canadian Federalism: Seven Decades of Scholarly Engagement (2002) and Canadian Federalism: Seven Decades of Scholarly Engagement (2002). His current research and writing is focused on federalism and constitutionalism in divided societies, democratic consolidation, and relations among language groups in Canadian Civil Society. Simeon has recently been appointed a Member of the Advisory Committee of the Club de Madrid, an international organization of former Heads of State and Government dedicated to democratic transition and consolidation.
