The Canadian political economy school has argued since the late 1960s that Canada shares
economic and social characteristics with semi-colonial third world countries. Consistent
with this 'dependency' influenced assessment of the Canadian social formation it has also
usually argued that national economic sovereignty should be a strategic concern in popular
and socialist programs. This study critically evaluates this view of the economic and social
context for planning interventions in Canada, in particular by examining the main empirical
evidence traditionally advanced in its favour, namely the relative extent of foreign
economic control in the Canadian economy.
The study first reviews the various characterizations of Canada in the political economy
literature, with an emphasis on the empirical evidence offered in their support. It then
extends and broadens previous examinations of foreign economic control in Canada using
recently released Statistics Canada data on foreign control of corporate assets and revenue
up to 1992, and by comparing Canada with other OECD countries on the basis of the
extent of inward and outward foreign direct investment (FDI).
The studies main findings are that:
i) The exclusion of the financial industries in most previous discussions of the level
of foreign economic control in Canada has resulted in the actual level being overstated -
in nominal terms, by about one-quarter;
ii) Contrary to dependency influenced predictions of the period, foreign control of
the Canadian economy decreased very significantly after the early 1970s, though this
declining trend apparently ended and even partially reversed after the mid 1980s. Given
the central place of the US in dependency accounts it is notable that the decline in US
economic control has been greater than for all foreign control, and does not appear to
have recovered in the recent period up to 1992;
iii) The dependency influenced categorization of Canada with countries like 'semicolonial'
Argentina or even 'peripheral' Spain cannot be sustained when the evidence
shows that in absolute, but especially relative terms, Canada ranks as a world leader in the
scale of direct investments held in other countries. Canadian FDI in the US has also been
growing considerably faster than has US FDI in Canada;
iv) The level of foreign economic penetration in Canada is notably higher than
most OECD countries. However, when the relative size of the Canadian economy, a
'natural' degree of continental integration and recent trends among other OECD countries
are considered, Canada is not as exceptional in this regard as has often been suggested.
The study concludes that this evidence indicates that Canada is more accurately conceived
of as a major advanced capitalist country than a dependent (if rich) semi-colony, and that
planning interventions based on the latter assessment are not only likely to fail, they are a
major diversion from the required strategy.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/3464 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Burgess, William Irvine |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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