I've just finished reading Charles Taylor's Pattern of Politcs, and I'd strongly recommend this book to anyone who would consider them self to be a progressive or someone on the left. Specifically, I found his discussion of the politics of polarization to be very insightful, and I agree with him that this pattern is more appropriate and necessary for Canada than the politics of consensus.
While a discussion of non-material issues (authoritarian vs. libertarian) is relevant to our understanding of politics, I believe that at the core, politics is a fundamental clash between left and right. Keeping this clash in mind, it's important to recognize the need for the politics of polarization. This is a similar line of reasoning as to why I would consider myself to be a socialist more than I would consider myself to be a social democrat. It's also why I find the current path followed by the NDP to be less than satisfactory. It seems to be that they've abandoned the politics of polarization for the politics of consensus.
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