Foreign Policy and the Canadian Business Community
| Author | Abraham Rotstein |
| Published date | 01 March 1984 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070208403900106 |
| Date | 01 March 1984 |
| Subject Matter | Domestic Sources of Canada's Foreign Policy |
ABRAHAM
ROTSTEIN
Foreign
policy
and
the
Canadian
business
community
Business
plays an
important
but
elusive
role
in
Canadian
foreign
policy.
Its
recent
behaviour,
it
seems
to
me,
falls
outside
the
orbit
of
the
two
main
theories
being
proposed
in
this
sym-
posium
and
warrants
closer
examination.
Cranford
Pratt
offers
a
widely
shared
assessment
of
the
role
of
Canadian
business, namely,
that
it
is
part
of
a
dominant
class
that
'has
an
influence
within
our
political
system
which
no
other
sector
of
our
society
enjoys.'
He
adds
the
following
supporting
arguments:
'To
find evidence
of
this
dominant
class
bias,
one
need
but
recall
the
personal
and
financial
links
between
the
corporate
sector
and
the
two
major parties,
the
links
between
the
senior
civil
servants
and
the
corporate
sector,
and
the
ideo-
logy
which
is
largely
shared
by
the
dominant
class
and
the
senior
bureaucracy."
The
alternative
view
maintains
that
the
state
possesses
con-
siderable
autonomy
in
relation
to
societal
forces
in
the
identifi-
cation
and
pursuit
of
its
foreign
policy
objectives.
This
latter
view
serves
as
a
focal
point
of
the
recent
book
by
David
Dewitt
and
John
Kirton,
Canada
as a
Principal
Power.
Foreign
policy
in
this
perspective
is
governed
by
the
national
interest
which
reflects
'a
configuration
of
military,
economic,
social,
and
cul-
tural
concerns
which has
evolved
historically.'
2
These
values
Professor
of
Economics, University
of
Toronto.
i
Cranford
Pratt,
'Dominant
class
theory
and
Canadian
foreign
policy:
the
case
of
the
coontcr-consensus,'
Inteonational
Journal
39
(winter
1983-4),
117.
2
David
Dewitt
and
John
Kirton,
Canada
as
a
Principal
Power
(Toronto:
John
Wiley
1983),
36-40.
The
distillation
is
Pratt's,
ibid,
i
12.
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