Reviews/Comptes rendus
Reviews/Comptes rendus
339
BOOKS REVIEWED
Joseph H. Carens (ed.) Is Quebec Nationalism
Just? Perspectives from Anglophone Canada compte
rendu par Luc Bernier 345
F.P. Gingras (ed.) Gender and Politics in Contemporary Canada reviewed by Margaret Hillyard Little 347
Kathryn Harrison Passing the Buck: Federalism
and Canadian Environmental Policy and
Kenneth M. Holland, F.L. Morton and Brian
Galligan (eds.) Federalism and the Environment:
Environmental Policymaking in Australia, Canada
and the United States, Contributions in Political
Science 368 reviewed by Ted Schrecker 340
Carin Holroyd and Ken Coates Pacific Partners:
The Japanese Presence in Canadian Business, Society and Culture reviewed by Akira Kubota 341
Douglas A. Irwin Against the Tide: An Intellectual
History of Free Trade reviewed by Peter W.B.
Phillips 344
Larry Johnston Ideologies: An Analytic and Contextual Approach reviewed by David A. Nock 349
Anne Laperrière, Varpu Lindström and Tamara
Palmer Seiler (eds.) Ethnicity and Immigration in
Canada/Ethnicité et immigration au Canada reviewed by Leslie S. Laczko 346
Marc Linder The Dilemmas of Laissez-Faire Population Policy in Capitalist Societies: When the Invisible Hand Controls Reproduction reviewed by
Cecilia Benoit 348
William McArthur, Cynthia Ramsey and Michael
Walker (eds.) Healthy Incentives: Canadian Health
Reform in an International Context reviewed by
Barry Edginton 341
Francois Rocher and Miriam Smith (eds.) New
Trends in Canadian Federalism reviewed by Bohdan
Harasymiw 343
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE POLITIQUES,
VOL . XXIII, NO . 3 1997
340 Reviews/Comptes rendus
Passing the Buck: Federalism and Canadian
Environmental Policy
by Kathryn Harrison. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1996. Pp. x, 238.
Federalism and the Environment:
Environmental Policymaking in Australia,
Canada and the United States, Contributions in
Political Science 368
edited by Kenneth M. Holland, F.L. Morton and
Brian Galligan. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press,
1996. Pp. viii, 231.
Political institutions matter. That is the message of
these two fine and topical books about environmental policy. Although organized around the theme of
federalism, both highlight such issues as the breadth
of executive discretion that goes along with Westminster-style political institutions. And both explicitly integrate institutional analysis with a political
economy approach that focuses on how the costs and
benefits of environmental protection are distributed.
After a masterful introduction by Kenneth Holland, Federalism and the Environment compares the
effect of federalism on environmental policy in
Canada, the United States, and Australia under three
headings: the division of power, intergovernmental
relations, and the role of the courts. The authors
quite rightly note that the distinctive prominence of
the judiciary in US environmental policy has provided an avenue of access to decision making that
would otherwise be unavailable. Conversely, the
restricted role of the judiciary in Canada and Australia has limited the opportunities for an entrepreneurial environmental politics to emerge in contrast
to the client politics in which state or provincial
governments are allied with private firms in pursuit
of similar economic development objectives. Litigation, initiated both by federal government authorities and by citizen groups, has enabled the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to play a role
described by one former administrator as “a gorilla
in the closet,” both helping and prodding the states
to enforce national environmental standards. Is such
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE POLITIQUES,
a role desirable? The authors’ descriptive work provides a useful framework for asking such questions,
and considering the nature of the public interest and
the relative effectiveness of alternative sets of political institutions in promoting it.
Development in resource-reliant regional economies illustrates the general point that the costs of
environmental protection tend to be concentrated,
and its benefits diffuse. Passing the Buck fits this
insight into a theoretical framework of “blame avoidance” in which both national and provincial governments seek to claim credit for the politically visible benefits of environmental policy, while avoiding fallout from its costs. Harrison traces Canadian
environmental policy at the federal level through
three stages, combining documentary sources with
available access to informants within both provincial and federal governments, to explain the federal
government’s retreat from environmental jurisdiction whenever hard choices might be involved about
the balance between environmental protection and
regionally significant sources of growth, jobs, and
tax revenues. This retreat has, of course, continued
in recent months. Harrison observes that “parliamentary institutions facilitate governments’ ability to
strategically retreat from environmental commitments without reviving public interest” of a kind that
led to acrimonious conflict between environmentalists and the Reagan-era EPA. She concludes that
governments, both federal and provincial, “generally will be unwilling to pursue policies to protect
the environment” in Canada except when extraordinary events give environmental issues a political
salience that overrides more familiar and immediate public concerns.
Both books make valuable connections between
political and legal institutions and the broader social
and economic context within which those institutions operate. Passing the Buck is far richer in detailed case studies (for instance, of the federal preference for subsidizing pollution abatement as an
alternative to conscientious law enforcement) and
in its exploration of the intra- as well as interVOL . XXIII, NO . 3 1997
Reviews/Comptes rendus
governmental dimension of policy and implementation. This is what one would expect given the
book’s single-country focus. Federalism and the
Environment provides indispensable comparative
perspective. For example, the applicability of blame
avoidance to explaining US policy dynamics is
shown by the continuing controversy over unfunded
mandates, whether they involve workfare or waste
treatment requirements. Further, Congress has failed
to impose the costs of environmental protection on
voters through such measures as raising gasoline
taxes to the levels which, as John Kincaid points
out, are “already prevalent in most industrial
democracies.”
More detailed citations of primary sources and
case law would be useful in a few chapters of Federalism and the Environment, as would (in the US
context) more critical treatment of the conventional
dichotomy between judicial activism and judicial
restraint. These are minor weaknesses. Both books
are well worth reading, requisitioning for libraries,
and (especially) using as teaching resources.
TED SCHRECKER, Public Policy Consultant, London,
Ontario
Pacific Partners: The Japanese Presence in
Canadian Business, Society and Culture
by Carin Holroyd and Ken Coates. Toronto: James
Lorimer & Company, 1996. Pp. xii, 186.
Professors Carin Holroyd and Ken Coates have written an informative and useful book on Japanese business. Pacific Partners: The Japanese Presence in
Canadian Business, Society and Culture is an informative book in the sense that it includes a fairly
extensive introduction to Japanese business culture,
and it is a useful book in the sense that it includes a
variety of statistics and descriptive information on
the presence of Japanese business in Canadian society. Additionally, the book includes an extensive
and up-to-date bibliography on this general topic,
an invaluable supplement, which is not always found
in a book of this nature.
341
I cannot but help admire the manner in which Pacific Partners guides us to Japanese business culture,
since I know this is not an easy task. I am inclined to
suspect that for some time to come, Canadian public
education is unlikely to offer sufficient material to help
Canadians prepare for professional training focusing
on some aspects of Asian culture as compared to Japanese public education which does include many aspects of North American culture or Western culture in
general. Professors Holroyd and Coates are to be
commended for successfully filling this critical gap.
Pacific Partners also presents an adequate survey of the substantive aspect of the Japanese business presence in Canada and offers an extensive and
up-to-date body of information on the essential component of this topic. This is by no means a modest
accomplishment because Canada is geographically
quite expansive, and in general, Canada does not
publish as much information on this kind of topic
as many other major nations do. Nevertheless, given
the stark fact that this book is relatively brief at 186
pages, one has little choice but to realize that what
can be achieved here is bound to be limited. Newly
developing business areas such as computer software, home construction, and tourism do not appear
to be as thoroughly covered as they might have been.
In conclusion, there is little doubt that Pacific
Partners is a valuable addition to the rapidly growing scholarly field of studies of the role of Japanese
business not just in Canadian society but also in the
global economy.
A KIRA K UBOTA , Department of Political Science,
University of Windsor
Healthy Incentives: Canadian Health Reform in
an International Context
edited by William McArthur, Cynthia Ramsay and
Michael Walker. Vancouver: The Fraser Institute,
1996. Pp. xxiv, 199.
This latest offering from The Fraser Institute purports to shift our focus from the United States to
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE POLITIQUES,
VOL . XXIII, NO . 3 1997
342 Reviews/Comptes rendus
the OECD countries in order to investigate “vibrant,
practical and affordable alternatives” to the Canadian health-care system. Healthy Incentives is divided into two parts. The first part is a set of relatively unconnected papers by various international
authors covering specific aspects of their nation’s
health-care system. The second part, written by the
editors, is on the Canadian system and how recent
changes in OECD health-care policies might be
adopted to better the Canadian system. Overall this
is not a satisfying text; the lack of organization and
textual integration make it a difficult read.
Part one, “Health Care Systems in Europe and
Australia,” is composed of nine articles ranging from
descriptions of health-care systems (“Sweden’s
Health Care System”) through specific arguments
about the reference pricing of pharmaceuticals (the
last three in the section) to debates about specific
issues. Written as research articles, interviews, arguments, and political statements these articles have
little consistency, although taken on their own, are interesting in themselves. If the purpose of this section
is to provide a background of OECD health-care policies from which to critique the Canadian system, then
the book has led us astray. Even though the editors
state that the authors worked independently and their
views do not reflect the ideology of The Fraser Institute, I question the selection of these particular articles to support health-care policy statements in the
second part. In other words, although I disagree with
the ideas put forward, I think the editors, in their choice
of articles, should have done better to support their
case and provide a background for their audience.
Part two, “The Health Care System in Canada,”
is written better and is more consistent. In this part
the editors give a brief history of our health-care
system and then go on to provide specific remedies
based on some of the topics raised in the first part
of the book. Again, this is a very selective discussion. I believe there are many problems with this
section, and I will outline some of the more general
ones here. First, I am not convinced that the simple
use of data on reforms used in other countries shows
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE POLITIQUES,
that they are either better than or compatible with
the Canadian system: description is not explanation.
Second, the focus of the book is the Canadian system. The text, however, is about British Columbia
(this is particularly relevant in the case of hospital
management), and although the comparison is with
OECD countries, examples from the United States
are often cited in the discussion. Third, there is little acknowledgement that even after reforms and
increased competition there have been no great savings (e.g., Britain). Fourth, why must we focus on
changes that are contrary to the basic principles of
the Canadian system instead of looking at changes
within the current structure (for example, using private sector management techniques within the system instead of privatizing the system)?
Fifth, why isn’t the interventionist mind set of
medical practice and the training of the medical profession challenged and why is labour the problem?
Last, providing information on the relation between
the health status of a population and the percent of
GDP each country spends on health care only obfuscates the problems of dealing with cultural differences and individual choices.
There are many ways to reduce significantly the
health-care budget. These, however, would cause a
transformation in the practice and not the delivery
of health care, e.g., the institution of lay midwifery
and development of separate birthing hospitals.
If the goal of this book is “ ... to identify and create
incentives that will improve efficiency, productivity
and thereby the quality of care for all Canadians” we
might expect that there be some discussion of quality
of care that includes the caregivers and those who are
cared for. By not addressing the practice of medicine
and the national character of our health-care system
with all its provincial differences, Health Incentives is
little more than fodder for the clash of ideologies surrounding the great health-care debate.
BARRY EDGINTON, Department of Sociology, University of Winnipeg
VOL . XXIII, NO . 3 1997
Reviews/Comptes rendus
New Trends in Canadian Federalism
edited by Francois Rocher and Miriam Smith, 1995.
Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press. Pp. 440,
$31.95.
Whether you are a scholar, a student, or an informed
layman, it is a daunting challenge to master
singlehandedly the complicated subject of Canadian
federalism. Even a collective effort such as this one
falls short of complete success. The book’s purpose
is “to introduce students to the changes of the last
decades that have shaped the role and functions of
Canadian federal institutions as well as federalprovincial relations” (p. 7). Its aim is “to outline
the major changes in ... Canadian federalism ... and
to identify some of the consequences of these
changes for future developments” (p. 9). In pursuit
of these goals, the volume under review is divided
into two parts: developments in the realm of the
constitution and Canadian identity; and public policy
areas and the division of powers. From the essays
in part one, it becomes clear that: (i) there is a crisis
of identity in this country with which its existing
institutions cannot adequately cope and for which
the constitution offers no remedy, and (ii) the structure and operation of the Canadian federation are
so bizarre, overlapping and all-encompassing that
“federalism” has become synonymous with “Canadian politics.” Part two implicitly raises the question of how Canada manages to persist in the face
of its endless constitutional crisis. It provides the
answer — “residual federalism,” meaning that, in
spite of all the attention directed at the constitutional
division of powers and intergovernmental relations,
federalism actually matters very little to Canadian
politics because politics and not federalism is decisive. Otherwise, Canadian federalism is like classic
Chinese opera — entertaining, but also interminable.
In the case at hand, the search for meaning is not
helped by the contributors’ characteristically Canadian posture of gazing exclusively at the collective
navel. Some comparative perspectives might have
been employed to explain the current situation and
developments — yet that would require a revolution
343
in Canadian political science. For instance, the proliferation of identities, which makes the Canadian constitution (itself territorially based) now so
difficult to operate and to adjust, is certainly a phenomenon of the present postmodern world and of
postmodern political culture. Or it could be
explained as associated with postmaterialism. It is
not exclusive to Canada. It cannot be understood
without reference to the outside world. Similarly,
although the introduction promises us that the policy
chapters will show how the global political economy
is overshadowing both federal and provincial governments, neither the chapter on energy nor the one
on environmentalism does so. Surely Canada and
its politics exist within a broader context.
From an editorial point of view the book has a
few, relatively minor, shortcomings. There is a certain amount of duplication, as several chapters go
over the entrails of the Charter, Meech Lake, and
the Charlottetown Accord. Some sections dealing
with Quebec have been overtaken by the referendum of October 1995. While each chapter includes
a list of references, there is no index.
In a book with 18 contributors one naturally encounters a few chapters appearing to be unfocused
and disorganized, hence of little likely use to students. Among the best contributions, however, is the
editors’ essay “Four Dimensions of the Canadian
Constitutional Debate.” Yet even here the key notion of “political identity” is neither elaborated as a
concept and theory, nor given any empirical assessment as to which sections of Canadian society actually share a particular identity, how prevalent such
identities are, and how influential. It remains a metaphor. The chapter by Kenneth McRoberts, “Living
with Dualism and Multiculturalism,” which likewise
emphasizes the problem of defining Canada and its
people, is also a good one. In the policy section of
the book, Ian Robinson’s “Trade Policy, Globalization, and the Future of Canadian Federalism,” stands
out as important and interesting. Likewise, “Regional Development: A Policy for All Seasons” by
Donald J. Savoie, goes very much to the heart of
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE POLITIQUES,
VOL . XXIII, NO . 3 1997
344 Reviews/Comptes rendus
the matter — in this area, there is no policy; Ottawa
is just a piggybank. Despite its odd failure even to
mention the Rio Summit, Kathryn Harrison’s concluding chapter on “Federalism, Environmental Protection, and Blame Avoidance,” is an engaging one,
showing that there is more to federalism than intergovernmental relations alone. The best chapters go
beyond constitutional documents to the broader sociopolitical context, and beyond the borders of
Canada to the encroaching world.
BOHDAN HARASYMIW , Department of Political Science, The University of Calgary
Against the Tide: An Intellectual History of
Free Trade
by Douglas A. Irwin, 1996. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press. Pp. viii, 265.
Can 95 percent of economists in the United States
by wrong? That is how many believe that free trade
“is on the whole economically more beneficial than
protection.”
Douglas Irwin of the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago has produced a
thoroughly readable explanation of why economists
believe as they do. He has done this by surveying
the development of the theory of free trade from the
days of ancient Greece to David Ricardo and by
examining the eight main challenges to the theory
since then. This book should be accessible to anyone who can follow a logical argument. Apart from
four arithmetic equations on one page (that could
have been buried in a footnote without loss of continuity), the book is written in clear prose.
Irwin defines free trade in theoretical terms as
the absence of artificial impediments to the exchange
of goods across national markets, so that prices faced
by domestic producers and consumers are the same
as those determined by the world market. In practice, this translates into an absence of import barriers or export restraints.
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE POLITIQUES,
The threshold between development of the theory
and challenges to the theory came in the early 1800s.
Before then philosophers, pamphleteers, and the
governments saw the value of exports, but were uncertain of the benefits of “free trade.” Then Adam
Smith (1776) and Ricardo (1817) articulated the new
theory, positing that self-interested entrepreneurs,
when allowed to employ their capital and labour to
production of greatest relative value, will specialize depending on their relative endowment of land,
labour, and capital. By specializing and then trading, the sum total of goods produced can increase.
If you are skeptical of the theory, you are not
alone. At some time in the past 150 years almost
every economist has doubted the theory. Irwin examines and assesses the merit of the eight main challenges. He concludes that there are two strong contenders. The “terms of trade argument” shows that
for most countries there exists an “optimal” tariff
that could improve their terms of trade, so that they
can get more imports for the same volume of exports. As a result, unilateral free trade is not desirable — instead most economists opt for multilateral trade negotiations. Free trade also creates winners and losers in an economy (the Australian case
and welfare economics approaches) — theory and
practice show that the specialization resulting from
free trade benefits those factors of production that
are most abundant, with the relatively scarce factors suffering losses of earnings. Governments may
dislike that outcome, especially when workers are
the losers.
A number of other arguments against free trade
have been proposed, examined, and mostly relegated
to the status of special cases. These include the concern that high wages in developed rich countries
make free trade untenable, the “infant industry” argument, the cases of increasing returns to scale and
imperfect competition, and Keynes’ defeatist view
that protection at times is the only feasible policy
option. In each of these cases, trade protectionism
is at most a second-best option; there are usually
better means of achieving the same ends.
VOL . XXIII, NO . 3 1997
Reviews/Comptes rendus
Alfred Marshall summed it best when he argued
that free trade is an advantageous expedient because
“the simplicity and naturalness of Free Trade — that
is, the absence of any device — may continue to
outweigh the series of different small gains which
could be obtained by any manipulations of tariffs,
however, scientific and astute.”
P ETER W.B. P HILLIPS, Department of Agricultural
Economics, University of Saskatchewan
Is Quebec Nationalism Just? Perspectives from
Anglophone Canada
edited by Joseph H. Carens. Montreal and Kingston:
McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1995. Pp. x, 225.
$17.95.
Il serait facile de répondre à la blague à la question
du titre que le nationalisme québécois est juste mais
que les perspectives du Canada anglais à son sujet
ne le sont pas. Un détail au départ m’a irrité qui
aurait pu faire que ce ne soit pas une blague. En
lisant rapidement les notes à la fin des chapitres, je
n’ai pas compté plus de cinq références en français.
Même si j’en ai manqué, même s’il y en a dix, je
demeure perplexe à l’idée qu’on puisse écrire un
livre complet sur le nationalisme québécois et si peu
lire la langue de ceux dont il est question. Que
pensons-nous d’un livre écrit aux États-Unis sur
l’Italie par quelqu’un qui ne lit pas l’italien? Dans
le cas du Québec, n’est-ce pas une triste illustration
de la thèse des deux solitudes? C’est déjà mieux,
diront certains, que la correspondance unilingue
anglophone de cette revue concernant ce livre. Peuton avoir une juste perspective en posant un regard
lointain sur l’évolution d’une société?
Le livre comporte huit chapitres. Au chapitre un,
Joseph Carens pose que ce livre prend comme point
de départ l’analyse du lien entre le libéralisme et le
nationalisme. Carens explique en introduction que
le Québec est à cet égard un cas intéressant en ce
que ces deux visions souvent antinomiques y sont
réconciliées. Différentes facettes du nationalisme
québécois sont jugées dans ce livre en fonction de
345
diverses conceptions de la démocratie libérale. Il est
aussi clairement établi dans l’introduction que tous
les auteurs de ce volume sont des Canadiens anglais
qui préféreraient que le Québec continue à rester au
Canada.
Au chapitre deux, Carens aborde la question de
l’immigration, enjeu important pour l’État
québécois, et Howard Hadelman complète au
chapitre trois en traitant de la question des réfugiés
qui, elle, semble avoir été oubliée par les promoteurs
d’une politique d’immigration distinctive. Robert
Vipond traite, au chapitre quatre, de deux conceptions du fédéralisme qui sont en compétition: la
rhétorique de l’égalité des provinces et celle de
l’autonomie des provinces. Janet Ajzenstat poursuit
au chapitre cinq en expliquant que le problème
constitutionnel depuis 1982 tient moins à la
difficulté de reconnaissance des buts collectifs du
nationalisme québécois qu’à la perte de légitimité
des institutions et des procédures par l’entremise
desquelles des aménagements pourraient être
négociés. Les chapitres suivants traitent de la
moralité de la sécession. Wayne Norman propose
au chapitre six que c’est moins de partager des
valeurs qui importe que le sens de l’identité qui est
la clé de l’unité nationale. Au chapitre 7, Adelman
joue sur la différence entre deux sens du mot
Québécois: membre d’une communauté politique ou
d’une communauté nationale. Finalement Reg
Whitaker aborde l’épineuse question du lien entre
le droit à l’auto-détermination des Québécois et
l’intérêt des autochtones pour l’auto-gouvernement.
Ces chapitres se complètent parfois et ils sont parfois
en contradiction, ce qui n’est pas sans intérêt.
Ce n’est pas dans la connaissance du Québec, plus
ou moins approfondie, qu’ont les auteurs qu’est
l’intérêt du livre mais dans leur talent à interpréter
avec justesse, à analyser des phénomènes complexes. Bien que le livre ait été publié en 1995, il
demeurera une lecture intéressante pour de
nombreuses années. Les explications suggérées par
les auteurs méritent une analyse plus exhaustive,
qu’on y retourne pour mieux comprendre les
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE POLITIQUES,
VOL . XXIII, NO . 3 1997
346 Reviews/Comptes rendus
politiques publiques au Québec ou ailleurs. Il
présente en effet une perspective normative qui ne
risque guère de se démoder. Selon l’introduction, le
livre s’adresse à deux publics: celui que la question
du Québec intéresse et celui qui s’intéresse à la
philosophie politique contemporaine. Selon moi,
c’est le deuxième public qui trouvera un intérêt à la
lecture de ce livre et ceux qui veulent comprendre
les politiques publiques à travers cette lunette.
L UC B ERNIER , École nationale d’administration
publique, Montréal
Ethnicity and Immigration in Canada/Ethnicité
et immigration au Canada
edited by Anne Laperrière, Varpu Lindström and
Tamara Palmer Seiler. Montreal: Association for
Canadian Studies/Association d’études canadiennes,
1996. Pp. 214.
Although its generic title is modestly silent about
it, the ten chapters of this nicely focused collection
of papers from a 1995 conference all have in common an emphasis on comparative research of one
sort or another. Two of the papers are in French and
a diverse array of disciplines, research styles, and
data sources is represented.
Several contributions are quantitative in orientation. Chen, Wilkins, and Ng’s analysis of recent statistical data reveals that immigrants, and especially
non-European immigrants, have a longer life expectancy and fewer disabilities than the Canadian-born
population. This reflects Canada’s restrictive immigration policy and the tendency for healthy individuals to be more likely to migrate. Firbank’s chapter
reports that many immigrants display distinct retirement strategies and that third-world immigrants often face particular disadvantages. Mata’s factor
analyses of census data for Toronto examines the
relationship between birthplace and economic status among males and females of 12 different places
of origin in 1981 and 1991. He finds that those born
in the US were the most advantaged group, with
those born in the UK, Germany, the Soviet Union,
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE POLITIQUES,
and Canada occupying intermediate positions. Immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean
occupied the bottom positions even though their
skills and educational levels were often comparable to those of European immigrants. Razin and
Langlois’ study of immigrant and ethnic entrepreneurs in Canada and the United States concludes that
in both countries, groups that are clearly distinguished from the mainstream population in terms
of race, religion, or appearance are more likely to
be self-employed in peripheral metropolitan areas
than in larger urban centres.
Freund and Quilici’s oral history interviews with
German and Italian immigrant women in Vancouver highlight their respondents’ subjective experience of their work and their gender, ethnic, and immigrant identities. Jaumain and Sanfilippo use material from the Vatican archives to explore Belgian
immigration to North America before 1914. Their
account distinguishes between three waves of immigrants and weaves in differences between Flemish and Walloon communities in Canada and the
United States. In her comparison of two literary
translations of works by minority authors, Rose
shows how the larger societal context very much
influences the end result. Sauer’s chapter looks at
the involvement of Lutheran churches and the Canadian and Australian governments in shaping German immigration to these two countries between
1947 and 1952. Texeira’s geographical analysis
shows many parallels in the suburbanization patterns
found among the Portuguese communities in Montreal and Toronto.
Ostow and Omatsu’s piece brings out fascinating parallels between the restitution movement
among Japanese Canadians and East German Jews
in the 1980s. They show that in both cases, similar
shifts in state-minority relations were shaped both
by internal and external factors. I found this the most
stimulating essay of the lot.
On the whole, this book leaves a very positive
impression and shows the diversity and quality of
VOL . XXIII, NO . 3 1997
Reviews/Comptes rendus
work being done in the area. A conclusion and an
index would have increased its utility, but scholars
will still find it to be a valuable reference.
LESLIE S. LACZKO, Department of Sociology, University of Ottawa
Gender and Politics in Contemporary Canada
edited by F.P. Gingras. Toronto: Oxford University
Press, 1995. Pp. xii, 273. $24.95.
Francois-Pierre Gingras’ edited book entitled Gender and Politics in Contemporary Canada makes a
useful addition to any undergraduate Canadian politics course. This collection of articles by 14 authors
is representative in two important ways. First, for
the uninitiated, it includes articles which represent
the state of conventional Canadian political science
regarding the question of gender. And second, the
articles also represent the two founding cultures of
Canada, raising issues of significance to both French
and English Canadians.
This collection is more cohesive than most collective enterprises of this kind. The articles are divided into three sections, representing three distinct
areas within conventional Canadian political study:
political parties, public policy, and media and survey data. The first section on political parties includes two case studies of the problem: whether
there is a gender difference in political party delegates’ attitudes and whether women politicians
support feminist issues more than their male counterparts. But it is the final article in this section by
Jane Arscott which asks the most probing questions
regarding political representation. Arscott goes beyond an initial analysis of the Royal Commission
on Electoral Reform and Party Financing to ask
whether equal representation within the legislature
will adequately address the gender question or
whether, instead, we need to consider a different,
more complex, and deeper notion of representation.
In doing so, Arscott challenges the limits of liberal
democracy.
347
The second section contains five articles which
address how Canadian public policy has affected
women. These authors explore a variety of public
policies and attempt to assess which policies most
effectively meet the distinct needs of Canadian
women. Two articles, in particular, are more than a
mere assessment of the state of public policy. Each
of them, in their own way, begins with different tools
from those used in traditional public policy analysis. Meredith Ralston’s starting point is the everyday lived experiences of homeless women. By assessing the needs and desires of homeless women
she provides evidence that family violence is a major factor in prompting women to go to the streets.
Starting from the specifics of daily life she then turns
to political ideology — in this case, the New Right
ideology, and expects political theory to explain the
realities of poor women’s lives. Roberta Hamilton
begins with the lives and aspirations of Quebec
women. She demonstrates that Quebec women are
not dupes of either nationalist or federalist forces
in their decisions about childbearing. Through this
Quebec study Hamilton gives grounding to Denise
Riley’s theoretical question about the difficulty of
utilizing a single category of woman.
The final section contains two articles about the
media and two about survey research. The media
articles conclude that the media remains gender biased. The most provocative article in this section,
by David Northrup, demonstrates that the gender of
the person conducting the survey affects the results.
In particular, men express less egalitarian positions
when they are interviewed by men than by women.
This finding challenges both the tools we use and
the results we cull from survey research.
While this collection addresses convential themes
of Canadian political science, the findings prompt
the reader to move beyond them. As the authors suggest, it is not merely about adding women in. Instead, the articles hint at a much more radical notion of politics. By highlighting questions of gender this challenges the very foundations of what is
politics. Caroline Andrew, in the concluding article,
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE POLITIQUES,
VOL . XXIII, NO . 3 1997
348 Reviews/Comptes rendus
is aware of the radical potential of a truly genderaware political science but the book, as a whole, does
not fully realize this.
For too long conventional Canadian political science has accepted the liberal notion of a divided
public and private sphere and has concentrated on
the study of the public sphere: constitutional politics, political parties, elected representatives, public policy, and the role of the media. But politics is
the study of power relations and power relations are
not contained merely in the public sphere but are
also found in our families, communities and everyday interactions. Also, political action to change
these power relations does not occur only within
legislatures and political parties; it also occurs in
kitchens, shelters, and consciousness-raising groups.
The contemporary women’s movement and its motto
“the personal is political” has emphasized this informal realm of politics. In doing so, the women’s
movement has found new sites of political action
and new political actors. While some of the authors
hint at this informal politics the book, as a whole,
does not attempt to address this.
A second shortcoming of this collection is its
inability to unravel the category of gender. Women
are not all equal. Roberta Hamilton raises the question of whether Quebec nationalism can continue to
view women as a single category — Canadian political scientists need to ask the same question about
their discipline. Women within the contemporary
women’s movement have raised issues of difference
and inequality which we as political scientists must
address. Race, class, sexual orientation, ability, age
all affect how women become political actors and
where they choose to engage in politics.
Consequently, Gender and Politics is but a starting place from which to begin to develop a genderinclusive Canadian political science.
MARGARET HILLYARD LITTLE, Department of Political Studies, Queen’s University
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE POLITIQUES,
The Dilemmas of Laissez-Faire Population
Policy in Capitalist Societies: When the
Invisible Hand Controls Reproduction
by Marc Linder. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press,
1997. Pp. xvii, 354.
Marc Linder has written an outstanding book on
human reproduction and the consequences for
“child-rich” families in capitalist societies where
laissez-faire rather than democratic principles allow
the “invisible hand” of the market to control reproduction. The Dilemmas of Laissez-Faire Population
Policy in Capitalist Societies presents a complex
analysis of working class family life, exploitation
in the marketplace, inadequate or non-existent social policies, and endemic poverty. This is particularly so in liberal democracies such as the United
States, a country which, argues Linder, is characterized by “individualism, competition, privacy, exploitation, greed, indifference and, at best, mutual
tolerance” (p. 313).
Linder’s thesis is that there is an urgent need for
a visible population state policy, one that is equitable for all citizens, including the sizable American
working class caught in the “cycle of poverty.”
Rather than movement towards a viable democratic
population policy, however, the US pushes its poor
to the margins of democracy, stigmatizing them as
“overprocreators,” awarding them ever fewer opportunities to build a viable future for their children.
The author contrasts the US approach to that of
other capitalist countries in regard to how the disadvantaged are treated, discussing state social policies, including universal family allowances, that help
parents avoid the poverty trap. Social policies in
countries such as Sweden provide a “social wage”
that compensates for the inadequacies of the cash
wage awarded to marginal workers under capitalism. At the same time, notes Linder, no capitalist
country to date has succeeded in formulating a collective consensus decision regarding the optimum
balance between population size and available
resources.
VOL . XXIII, NO . 3 1997
Reviews/Comptes rendus
This book makes a substantial contribution to our
understanding of population policy and welfare
states. It offers a rigorous critique of Malthusian
economic-demographic thinking about the apparently chronic poverty found in all capitalist societies, albeit more extreme in the US with its everthinner public welfare system. Although he focuses
on the working poor who labour under capitalism
and are accused of producing too many children,
Linder is well aware of the racial and gendered face
of lasting poverty in America. It is indeed disturbing to realize, for example, that nearly 35 percent
of persons estimated to live below the poverty line
in 1992 were in single-mother families (p. xv). These
women and their children encompass “the other
motherhood,”1 caught in the feeble thread of welfare policy, the dispossessed who receive a great deal
less than others in a society that remains all but silent about the relationship between politics, power,
and equality. For students and researchers interested
in these processes as they relate to overall population policy (or the lack thereof) in capitalist societies, Linder’s book is essential reading.
NOTE
1
Polakow, V. (1993), Lives on the Edge: Single Mothers
and their Children in the Other America (Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press).
CECILIA BENOIT, Department of Sociology, University of Victoria
Ideologies: An Analytic and Contextual
Approach
by Larry Johnston. Peterborough: Broadview Press,
1996. Pp. 232. $17.95.
This book is intended as a textbook for use in courses
about ideologies, political thought, and the like. This
pedagogic intent is signaled not only by the preface, which indicates that this book emerged out of a
chapter the author had printed in an introductory text
(Democracy and the State 1994) and the difficulties that arise in “convey[ing] to students” various
349
matters, but also by the device of providing brief
but well-chosen direct quotations from myriads of
well-known authors on ideology.
Johnston’s volume should be judged principally
as a textbook for students. Of course, it is handy
even for seasoned academics to have a summary of
such important subject matter available. I certainly
learned some new things, about the anti-free trade
political economist Friedrich List and his criticism
of Smith and Ricardo published in 1837, for
example.
Perhaps the heart of the book consists of four
chapters on ideologies of the first, second, and third
generation. The term generation here is not restricted
to a narrow human reproductive period but rather to
a shared time frame and the social contexts which
fostered specific ideological configurations. Thus in
the first generation (several hundred years ago), the
ideologies of liberalism, conservativism, and socialism were produced in the period ranging from the
seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries; in the second generation, new changes in society and new critiques of the main ideologies led to revisions and
reforms of the early classical ideologies. Thus
laissez-faire liberalism had to yield to a reform liberalism that accepted a greater role for the state;
modern conservativism had to get beyond a nostalgia for the vanished feudal society to which it had
originally been allied and has done so by mixing
traditional conservativism with liberalism; socialism has had to accommodate to the market economy.
Each of these revisions of the original classical ideologies has been in the context of “the pervasive
success of liberalism” (p. 116).
Third-generation ideologies encompass anarchism, populism, feminism, and environmentalism.
They fall outside the classical mainstream and have
different assumptions and points of departure. The
subtitle of this chapter, “Challenging the Consensus,” gives the flavour of them. Another chapter,
“Outside the Consensus,” discusses authoritarianism, nationalism, Marxism-Leninism/Stalinism,
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE POLITIQUES,
VOL . XXIII, NO . 3 1997
350 Reviews/Comptes rendus
fascism, and religious fundamentalism. The author
identifies these ideologies as dominant in “nondemocratic contexts” and largely outside Europe
(p. 197). One could argue with some of the assumptions here as we have in Canada, a major form of
nationalist (and democratic) ideology in the form
of the Parti (Bloc) Québécois.
Chapters other than these at the core include ones
on definitions and dimensions of ideology; ideologies grappling with issues of justice and democracy;
movement toward the consensus encouraged by the
market society; and the prospects of ideology, including an inventory of the shortcomings and benefits provided by ideology.
Let me conclude with a similar inventory of this
book’s contents. About 15 ideologies are discussed
with only a brief space for some (space allocated
for the core classical ideologies is more generous).
This means that some finer distinctions may be lost
on students when the overall discussion of an ideology is too brief. For example, rather than an attempt to draw out distinctions between radical, socialist, liberal, and Marxist feminisms perhaps a
more composite discussion would be clearer given
the space available. Populism receives just over two
pages, possibly too brief given the recent salience
of the topic in light of the Reform Party.
Although he does reject the end of ideology thesis
(p. 222), he does seem to accept as given that the
success of the market economy has foreshortened
the range of dispute for a degree of consensus. While
this might seem evident in 1997, it might have
seemed less obvious in 1967 and one might ask if
the consensus is more an illusion manufactured by
neo-conservatives or neo-liberals, a type of false
consciousness even, than something caused by the
inevitable march of history. In my own mind, this
sort of conclusion has been engendered by the tragic
failure of the communist experiment which claimed
to speak for socialism (instead of what it actually
was — its deformation).
On the more positive side, the book is clear, comprehensive, admirably brief, and adds pedagogical
value by providing boxed quotations from exemplars
of the leading ideologies. The author makes a strong
effort to relate the ideologies to the surrounding
socioeconomic conditions. The key question is probably whether the book would strike the professional
reader as a likely candidate for course adoption. My
answer about Larry Johnston’s text is a definite yes.
I haven’t taught political sociology in a few years
but I would certainly use the book if given the
opportunity.
DAVID A. NOCK, Department of Sociology, Lakehead
University
Some might argue with the author’s idea that the
market society has led us toward a consensus.
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE POLITIQUES,
VOL . XXIII, NO . 3 1997
Reviews/Comptes rendus
NEW BOOKS
Stephen Brooks. Canadian Democracy: An Introduction, Second Edition. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1996. Pp.x,398. $29.95
Canadian Ethnic Studies. Canadian Ethnic Studies: Special Issue: From Russia with Love, The
Doukhobors (Volume XXVII, No. 3, 1995). Toronto:
Canadian Ethnic Studies Association, 1995. Pp.303.
David Cheal. New Poverty: Families in Postmodern
Society. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996.
Pp.xix,209. $55.00.
Ronald J. Daniels and Randall Morck (eds.). Corporate Decision-Making in Canada. Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 1995. Pp.xiv,705. $55.95.
Harish C. Jain and S. Muthuchidambaram. Ontario Labour Law Reform: A History and Evaluation of Bill 40. Kingston: IRC Press, 1995. Pp.v,142.
$25.00.
John Kleinig. The Ethics of Policing. New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1996. Pp.viii,335.
$19.95.
Heather MacIvor. Women and Politics in Canada.
Peterborough: Broadview Press, 1996. Pp.413.
$26.95.
John F. Marriott and Ann L. Mable. The Hospital
351
Sector: Reform Initiatives. Kingston: Queen’s University Press, 1994. Pp.v,82.
Noel F. McGinn (ed.). Crossing Lines: Research
and Policy Networks for Developing Country Education. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1996.
Pp.xi,195. $55.00.
James Midgley and Michael Sherraden (eds.).
Alternatives to Social Security: An International
Inquiry. Westport, CT: Auburn House, 1997.
Pp.xiii,153. $49.95.
Thomas Michael Power. Lost Landscapes and
Failed Economies: The Search for a Value of Place.
Washington, DC: Island Press, 1996. Pp.xiii,304.
$29.95.
A.E. Safarian and Wendy Dobson (eds.). East
Asian Capitalism: Diversity and Dynamism
(Hongkong Bank of Canada Papers on Asia, Volume 2). Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996.
Pp.vi,146. $16.95.
Bernard Schissel and Linda Mahood. Social Control in Canada: Issues in the Social Construction of
Deviance. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press,
1996. Pp.425. $24.95.
Chris E. Stout. The Integration of Psychological
Principles in Policy Development. Westport, CT:
Praeger Publishers, 1996. Pp.xi,286. $65.00.
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE POLITIQUES,
VOL . XXIII, NO . 3 1997