Governing Under Stress

Middle Powers and the Challenge of Globalization

Edited by Stephen Clarkson and Marjorie Griffin Cohen  

Paperback $32.95

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Certain countries are characterized by the distinctive structural condition of semi-peripherality. Whether defined in social, cultural, economic or simply spatial terms, semi-peripheral countries share a consciousness of subordination to the centre–specifically the United States–as well as a means to resist. This differentiates them from both the countries at the centre that lack any such consciousness and poor and powerless countries on the periphery. The contributors focus on Canada, Mexico, Norway and Australia. They examine the international institutions, including NAFTA, the WTO and the EU, forming the framework of globalization. They detail the restraints facing these countries and the possibilities for pursuing their own independent policies. They discuss the new economics, political and social issues of governance that are emerging and the possibilities for the future.

  • Globalization
  • ISBN: 9781552661451
  • January 2004
  • 220 Pages
  • $32.95
  • For sale in Canada

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Authors

  • Stephen Clarkson

    University of Toronto

    Stephen Clarkson is one of Canada’s preeminent political scientists and a professor of political economy at the University of Toronto. His current work focuses primarily on two areas: the evolution of North America as a continental state, reinstitutionalized by NAFTA and two decades of neo-conservatism; and the impact of globalization and trade liberalization on the Canadian state. His recent publications on these themes include Uncle Sam and Us: Globalization, Neoconservatism and the Canadian State, published in 2002; and Global Governance and the Semi-peripheral State: The WTO and NAFTA as Canada’s External Constitution in Governing under Stress: Middle Powers and the Challenge of Globalization. Clarkson has taught and written on Canadian foreign policy and Canadian federal politics. Following an unsuccessful campaign as Liberal candidate for the mayoralty of Toronto in 1969, Clarkson was active in the Liberal Party for six years. After Pierre Trudeau’s retirement from active politics in 1984, Clarkson spent a decade co-authoring the epic, Trudeau and Our Times, with his wife Christina McCall, which won the Governor General’s Award for non-fiction. His knowledge and experience in Canadian politics led to the commissioning of a history of federal election campaigns in Canada from 1974 onward. These essays were the basis of his 2005 book, “The Big Red Machine: How the Liberal Party Dominates Canadian Politics”. Clarkson is renowned for his teaching, receiving many teaching awards in his tenure at the University of Toronto. He is a great encourager of “the engaged” life, taking his students on extra-curricular field studies to Washington, DC and Mexico, and urging them to resist the world around them if they feel so inclined. Clarkson is a frequent commentator of Canadian politics, in both English and French. A lover of languages, he is also proficient in Spanish, German, Russian and Italian.

  • Marjorie Griffin Cohen

    Simon Fraser University

    Marjorie Griffin Cohen, Professor, has written extensively in the areas of public policy and political economy with special emphasis on issues concerning international trade agreements, the Canadian economy, electricity deregulation, women, and labour. She is the author of Free Trade and the Future of Women’s work; Women’s Work, Markets and Economic Development; and a two volume series on Canadian Women’s Issues: Bold Visions and Strong women. Among her edited collections are Sexual Economics (Atlantis), Training the Excluded for Work, Global Turbulence, and Governing Under Stress.

    Professor Cohen is currently a director of NewGrade Energy (Sask) and has served on several boards and commissions in British Columbia including the B.C. Industrial Inquiry Commission on the Fisheries; Board of Directors of B.C. Hydro; Board of Directors of B.C. Power Exchange. She was also instrumental in establishing the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives in B.C., was its first Chair, and is on its Board of Directors. She has also been active in feminist issues, serving for many years on the executive board of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women. She is past Chair of Women’s Studies at SFU and heads the Economic Security Project.

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