John W. Warnock

The Industrialization Process in Canada

 

 

University of Regina

Department of Sociology and Social Science 

Sociology 203-001     The Industrialization Process in Canada
Winter semester 1999  MWF 1:30 - 2:20  p.m.  

Classroom Building CL418
Instructor: Dr. John W. Warnock   

 

Course description:  

 

The origins and development of the industrialization process in Canada.  This course will consider the impact of industrialization on social relations, institutional structures, values systems, and patterns of regional development. The course will introduce the student to the main currents in the Canadian tradition of political economy: the classic staples theory and metropolitan domination of hinterlands, the dependency approach which developed during the 1960s and 1970s,  the expansion of traditional Marxism in the 1970s and 1980s, and the introduction of a feminist approach in the 1980s. This debate has focused on the place of Canada in the international capitalist system and the particular relationship of Canada to the United States.

 

With the expansion of Marxism and feminism in the 1980s, issues of class and gender received more attention. The latter part of the course will examine the impact on Canada of the shift from the Keynesian regime of capital accumulation to the neoliberal regime.

 

Texts for the course: 

 

Gordon Laxer, ed. Perspectives on Canadian Economic Development; Class, Staples, Gender and Elites. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1991. Paperback.

 

Stephen McBride and John Shields. Dismantling A Nation; The Transition to Corporate Rule in Canada. Halifax: Fernwood books, 1997. 2nd edition. Paperback. 

 

A few other readings will be put on overnight reserve for the course in the Main Library.

 

Assignments: 

 

There will be a mid-term exam on February 12. It will be worth 30 marks. Students will prepare a research paper/essay which will be due on April 12. It will be no longer than 2,000 words. Topics are to be selected in consultation with the instructor. It will be worth 30 marks. The final exam, scheduled for April 21, is worth 40 marks.

 

Course outline: 

 

January 6 - 8   Introduction to the class; what is political economy?            

 

              Gordon Laxer, Introduction, pp. xi - xxvii.
             Wallace Clement and Glen Williams, "Introduction", The New Canadian
             Political Economy. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1989,
              pp. 3-11. On reserve. 

 

January 11 - 15    Canada within the mercantilist system.            

 

              David A. Wolfe, "Mercantilism, Liberalism and Keynesianism: Changing
             Forms of State Intervention in Capitalist Economies," Canadian Journal of Political and Social Theory,
             V, Winter/Spring, 1981, pp. 69-96. On reserve.  

 

January 18 - 22    W.A. Mackintosh and the modernization theory of development.            

            

             Laxer, Part I: Essays by Ian Drummond, John McCallum and
             W.A. Mackintosh. 

 

January 25 - 29    The staples theory of Canadian development.            

 

             Laxer, Part II: Essays by Daniel Drache, Harold A. Innis and  Melville H. Watkins. 

 

February 1 - 5      The National Policy as state-directed development.            

 

              Laxer, Part III: Essays by T. W. Acheson, Melville H. Watkins and Glen Williams.  

 

February 8 - 12     The development of social class in Canada.            

 

              Laxer, Part V: Two essays by H. Clare Pentland.
             
 February 12         Mid-term exam. 

 

February 15 - 19   The role of gender in Canadian development.            

 

               Laxer, Part V: Essays by Marjorie Cohen, Bonnie Fox and Sylvia Van Kirk. 

 

February 22 - 26   Mid Term Break 

 

March 1 - 4   Keynesian political economy and World War II.          

 

                Paul Phillips and Stephen Watson, " From Mobilization to Continentalism:The Canadian Economy in the Post-Depression Period," 

                 Michael S. Cross and  Gregory S . Kealey,    Modern Canada, 1930 - 1980s.  Kealey, Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1984, pp. 46-78. 
 

 

March 8 - 12   Post World War II: The Welfare State.        

               McBride and Shields, Chapters 1 & 2. 

 

March 15 - 19 Dependency Theory and Canadian development.        

  

               Laxer, Part III: Essay by Kari Levitt. 

 

March 22 - 26 Marxist theory and Canadian development.        

 

                Laxer, Part IV:  Essays by Gordon Laxer and Leo Panitch. 

 

March 29 - 31: The Macdonald Royal Commission and neoliberalism.        

 

                McBride and Shields, Chapters 3 & 4. 

 

April 5 - 9 Constitutional changes and the welfare state.        

 

                McBride and Shields, Chapters 5 & 6. 

 

April 12 - 14 The free trade regime.        

 

               McBride & Shields, Chapters 7 - 9.
     
 April 12    Research paper due. April 21     Final Exam 2 - 5 p.m.


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