Unit 3 Flashcards
Define accumulative function
Government policies and actions that directly contribute to the accumulation of private sector profits.
Define attenuate
Reduce, weaken, or minimize the power and status of one level of government for the benefit of another
Define balkanize
Degeneration of a country into a group of hostile and warring political units without any sense of common purpose
Define bourteoisie
Upper classes, particularly those who control or manage large business enterprises
Define branch plant
A subsidiary of a foreign-owned corporation
Define Centrifugal forces
Activities and events that promote political decentralization in a federal state
Define Centripetal forces
Activities and events that promote political centralization in a federal state
Define Cleavage
Division within society promoting a long-term political conflict, i.e., English-French
Define Comprador faction
people who manage and operate the branch plants of foreign multinational corporations
Define Dependency
used to explain the underdevelopment of the Atlantic Region, generally the systemic exploitation of one region by another or over-reliance of slow growth areas on government largesse
Define elite
small groups of people who exercise power in a society
Define Federal society
group diversity is territorially based
Define hinterland
outlying area that provides resources to a metropolitan centre
Define legitimization function
Government policies, actions, or both which seek to reinforce the legitimacy of the state in the eyes of the population.
Define national policy
A set of interrelated policies enacted by John A Macdonald to increase Canadian economic prosperity and maintain independence from USA
Define neoclassical economics
Economic approach which holds that decisions should only be made according to the demands of the free market
Define political economy
Study of the relationship between politics and economics
Define region
A homogeneous area which physical and cultural characteristics distinct from those of neighbouring areas
Define regionalism
Personal identification with a particular region
Define Triple E Senate
Reform advocated by the West: elected, with equal representation from each province, with effective powers
Define western alienation
political ideology of regional discontent
What has been the general trend in the evolution of Canadian federalism?
Decentralization
How does the Canadian trend differ from most other federal states?
They have centralized
How does the study of Canada’s political economy explain the changing balance of power within Confederation?
Produce conflicts that cause contending forces to align their interests with varying levels of government
What assumptions about government and society form the basis for Stevenson’s political economy perspective?
State has always been a fundamental part of the economic process and its support is crucial to business interests
Which Canadian provinces began the process of province-building?
Ontario, shortly after confederation
What political and economic forces were unleashed by Macdonald’s National Policy?
Rapid economic growth coupled with geographic disparity
Alliance between Ontario and Quebec (manufacturing), animosity between Ontario north and south, divisions between manufacturing, resource extraction/ export, and agriculture
How did the National Policy affect the role and behaviour of provincial governments?
Increased power of the provinces because of their role over natural resources and land. Created close ties between two levels of government (funding, Senate appointments) and open conflicts were avoided
How did the Great Depression of the 1930s change the political economy of Canadian federalism?
Weakened strength of federal institutions, decline of wheat economy and rise of manufacturing and natural resources economy
How did WWII alter the institutional loyalty of different “class fractions”? Which level of government became the net beneficiary of these changes?
Concentrated wealth in manufacturing, increased reliance on US markets, increased reliance on provinces to build roads and support regional economies
How did the post-war integration of the Canadian and American economies influence the evolution of Canadian federalism?
Shifted power to provinces
What accounts for the revival of centripetal forces during the late 1970s and early 1980s?
Rising Quebec nationalism, increased aggression of western resource economies
What is dependency theory and how does it explain underdevelopment in Atlantic Canada?
Reliance on federal funding for regions, Atlantic provinces have demanded it from the federal government
