Uncle Sam and Us: Globalization, Neoconservatism, and the Canadian State

by Stephen Clarkson

Between them, Brian Mulroney and Jean Chrétien radically altered the structure and functions of the federal government, first by signing and implementing major trade liberalization projects, and then by cutting back the size of their governments' budgets and the scope of their policies. Uncle Sam and Us analyzes the Mulroney-Chrétien era's impact on Canadian governance through two related factors, globalization from without and neoconservatism from within. Stephen Clarkson begins his study by conceptualizing the present Canadian state as a five-tiered, nested system stretching from the municipal and provincial levels, through the federal government, and on to the new continental and global spheres of in effect, he argues, the North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization have added a 'supraconstitution' to Canada's existing institutions. His analysis concerns the changes that have occurred not just in the federal government, but in provincial and municipal governance as well. The impact of globalization and neoconservatism is examined extensively in the second part of Clarkson's study, which examines how the functions of the Canadian state have altered. Clarkson addresses the changes in a number of policy areas such as macro and monetary policy, regulatory, industrial, and trade policy, as well as social, labour, environmental, cultural, and foreign policy. In linking external forces and internal factors in his analysis, Clarkson brings together separate aspects of the Canadian state into a comprehensive understanding of the current Canadian political climate. He combines a global knowledge of the international political economy with a micro concern for detailed analyses of policy issues, and concludes that the responsibility for Canada's predicament lies less with external forces, than with Canadians and the governments they elected. He ends with a hopeful look into the future, pointing towards a realization of the shortcomings of neoconservative globalization, and the expectation of a new governing paradigm. Co-published with Woodrow Wilson Center Press

480 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Chris Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know how I feel about this book. I read it on and off for about a year, and finally decided to blitz it this month. Clarkson is basically trying to lead readers from the 1980s (with some background on the post-war Keynesian era) through to 2000 in order to show how CUFTA and NAFTA radically changed Canada economically, politically, and socially. It is a real slog to get through, and I feel that without basic knowledge from an Econ 101 class it might be hard to follow. To his credit, he does try to explain some basic concepts in the first couple of chapters. But the book has a very wide scope, and not a lot of time is spent on each topic. I'd often find myself saying, "oh, and then what happened?" only for Clarkson to move on to something else, and leave whatever he was saying vague. This was a shame because many of the topics were very interesting, but the book was already quite long as well. For me personally, the most interesting chapters were near the end, where Clarkson was describing the various ways NAFTA constrains governments at all levels, governments' industrial strategies throughout the 1990s, and the ways cutbacks dismantled the Canadian welfare state.