External Pressure, National Response: Industrial Adjustment in Canada since the 1970s

by Prosper M. Bernard Jr.

Overview

The erosion of Canadian industrial strength in the early 1970s prompted Canada to rethink its postwar industrial adjustment strategy. From the early 1970s to the early 1980s, Ottawa tried trade diversification, foreign investment regulation, and an interventionist industrial policy. This path of policy development, however, produced limited positive results. In response to new opportunities and constraints in the mid-1980s, the Canadian government switched to a new policy path that sought to deregulate the domestic market and establish a continental institutional framework—with rules that would guarantee market access and facilitate the settlement of trade disputes. Since then, industrial adjustment has been shaped by liberal continentalism. This book develops a theoretical framework to account for the sequence of industrial adjustment policy actions between the early seventies and first decade of the twenty-first century, explaining why liberal continentalism has emerged as the dominant policy framework.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761845782
Publisher:	University Press of America
Publication date:	06/16/2009
Pages:	170
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Prosper M. Bernard, Jr., Ph.D., currently teaches political science at the College of Staten Island and the Graduate School of Arts and Science at New York University. He specializes in comparative political economy.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Acknowledgements
Chapter 2 1. Introduction
Chapter 3 PART 1: Theoretical Framework and Historical Overview
Chapter 4 2. Explaining Industrial Adjustment Policy
Chapter 5 3. The Role of the Canadian State in the Economy
Chapter 6 PART II: The Strategy of Economic Nationalism
Chapter 7 4. The Limits of Trade Diversification
Chapter 8 5. The Limits of State Entrepreneurship and Gatekeeping
Chapter 9 PART III: The Stratgy of Liberal Continentalism
Chapter 10 6. The Market as a Political Economic Solution
Chapter 11 7. Industrial Adjustment in the 1990s and Beyond
Chapter 12 References
Chapter 13 Index

Editorial Reviews

…a clear and rich description of Canada's shift from nationalism to liberal continentalism in its industrial policy.

Howard H. Lentner

An important book on a timely topic….Bernard has utilized several perspectives, including theories of relative disparity shift and voice opportunity, as well as counterweight theory and historical institutionalism…[an] excellent book, sure to attract the interests of political economists and observers of Canadian politics.

Ross E. Burkhart

...a clear and rich description of Canada's shift from nationalism to liberal continentalism in its industrial policy.--Howard H. Lentner, professor emeritus of political science, City University of New York

An important book on a timely topic....Bernard has utilized several perspectives, including theories of relative disparity shift and voice opportunity, as well as counterweight theory and historical institutionalism...[an] excellent book, sure to attract the interests of political economists and observers of Canadian politics.--Ross E. Burkhart, Boise State University

From the Publisher