Staples and Beyond : Selected Writings of Mel Watkins

by Watkins, Melville Henry

• ISBN13: 9780773531451
• ISBN10: 0773531459
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-11-01
• Publisher: McGill Queens Univ

Summary

Mel Watkins is an iconic figure in the development of the 'new' political economy. Since the 1960s he has combined scholarly writing with political activism for a range of issues, from Canada's economic dependency on the US to the role of social democratic parties to aboriginal rights.This collection brings together Watkins' most important scholarly articles. In Staples and Beyond Watkins addresses the "staple thesis" of Canadian economic and political development and, in particular, the effort to extend Harold Innis' work by giving more explicit consideration to class relations and the role of the state. He considers the historical nature of Canada's economic dependency in relation to tariff barriers, foreign investment, the multi-national corporation, and wide-ranging free trade and investment agreements. He also examines the evolution of economics and political economy as academic disciplines and reflects on the relationship between intellectual scholarship and political activism.Taken together, the papers in this volume provide an invaluable contribution to our understanding of the nature of the Canadian economy and the political options for forging a more independent and equitable country.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Introduction: Mel Watkins and the Foundations of the New Canadian Political Economy	p. xiii
The Staple Theory of Development	p. 3
A Staple Theory of Economic Growth (1963)	p. 5
The Staple Theory Revisited (1977)	p. 30
The Dene Nation: From Underdevelopment to Development (1977)	p. 51
Canadian Capitalism in Transition (1997)	p. 71
Trade and Investment	p. 91
The American System and Canada's National Policy (1967)	p. 93
A New National Policy (1968)	p. 105
The US-Canada Free Trade Agreement (1988)	p. 122
The Waffle and the National Question (1990)	p. 131
Foreign Ownership and Canadian Nationalism: Reflections on the Watkins Report (1993)	p. 135
The Car and Canadian Political Economy: An Innisian Perspective (1994)	p. 144
Economics and Political Economy	p. 167
The Dismal State of Economics in Canada (1970)	p. 169
The Economics of Nationalism and the Nationality of Economics: A Critique of Neoclassical Theorizing (1978)	p. 180
The Innis Tradition in Canadian Political Economy (1982)	p. 212
Economics, Politics and the Relevance of Social Democracy (1989)	p. 237
The Intellectual and the Public: A Neo-Innisian Perspective on the Contemporary English Canadian Condition (1994)	p. 250
Index	p. 265
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