A general perception of crisis at the end of the postwar period of growth has spawned two types of theoretical response: while a conservative theory of overload focusses on ungovernability caused by postmaterialist value change, radical analysis points to the structural contradictions of the welfare and intervention state. This article suggests that the current crisis is characterized by postmaterialist persistence and structural contradictions under the conditions of economic constraint. It examines polarization and potential mobilization of fragmented postindustrial societies in the context of neo-conservative politics, and it suggests a regime of economic dualism and/or corporatism as the most likely outcome.

It is frequently argued that section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms should be interpreted to protect Canadians not only against intentional discrimination based on the prohibited grounds, but also against “systemic discrimination.” Since systemic discrimination against one group can always be described as intentional discrimination against another, this approach seems redundant in the context of an open-ended list of prohibited grounds. It may be explained as a way of promoting discrimination against unlisted groups upward on the scale of scrutiny, thus expanding the range of policy-making in inherently contestable areas that is subject to judicial determination or oversight. This article explores the political and institutional ramifications of this interpretation.

Twenty years’ debate have revealed many weaknesses in the Hartz-Horowitz interpretation of conservatism, liberalism, and socialism in Canada, but it continues to be widely taught, for it provides a simple and appealing explanation for some striking differences between Canadian and American politics. This article argues that the interpretation is best understood as a form of neo-Marxism, that its basic weaknesses are most easily seen by examining its treatment of French Canada, and that its explanation for the exceptional strength of socialism in English Canada, linking socialism to toryism, can be strengthened by linking both socialism and toryism to nationalism.

Many authors, both in academic and political circles, consider that the National Energy Program (NEP) was responsible for the “Canadianization” of the oil and gas industry. This article challenges that interpretation and shows, supported by data, that the decline of foreign control in the Canadian oil and gas industry started well before the launching of the NEP, and that it went on after the abolition of the Program. In fact, the “Canadianization” of the oil and gas industry can be interpreted as a larger process, of the decline of bargaining power of the multinational firms in this industry. A similar process has taken place in other countries, even if the Canadian model has some dimensions of its own.

This article analyzes the impact of freer trade on Canadian foreign investment policy. Its object is to identify new measures of control that were applied to the activities of foreign companies between 1975 and 1983. The evolution of relations between governments and multinationals is traced and followed by an analysis of the various measures that were implemented to control foreign investment by these governments. Finally, the study of the Canadian situation focusses on the four following measures: direct aid, procurement policies, the Foreign Investment Review Agency and world product mandates. These measures have a specific sectorial impact and attempt to increase Canadian benefits from foreign multinationals.

With a theoretical framework based on Duverger and Epstein we examine the mass party and compare it to the cadre party. The Parti Québécois fits its criteria. In 1977 it imposed its fund-raising methodology on other Quebec parties by barring donations from moral persons. Only Quebec electors may now donate anything. Only the Quebec Liberal party has adapted. The hypothesis is that a loss in popularity leads to a loss of membership and a financial crisis. This may lead to a crise de conscience and a split in membership, leading to disintegration and defeat. Such a crisis shook the PQ from 1981 to 1985 and the defeat of December 2, 1985, was an inevitable consequence.

This study assesses the contribution of five of the research studies done for the Macdonald Royal Commission and of the opening chapter of the Commission Report to our understanding of the state. It examines the use of the term state, the economic and social functions that the latter is seen to perform, and the light that these studies may shed on such thorny topics as authority, legitimacy and citizenship in the late twentieth century. It concludes that, despite individual contributions of note, there are real limitations to what this Commission and its research associates tell us about the state.