Description
Challenging standard dependency theory, William Carroll argues from
empirical evidence that Canada's financial-industrial elite have
maintained and consolidated their competitive position at the centre of
an inter-corporate network. Corporate Power and Canadian
Capitalism thus acknowledges the unusually high degree to which
capital is concentrated in a relatively few giant corporations in
Canada, but it denies that these commercial interests are subordinated
to American corporate capital.
To test the validity of this new perspective on the transformation
of indigenous capitalists into a national bourgeoisie, Carroll traces
the accumulation of capital in the largest Canadian corporations and
the institutional relations that have existed among the same firms
since World War II. Instead of selling out to foreign capital, Canadian
firms have in fact become increasingly interlocked, and
Canadian-controlled firms have been and continue to be the focus of
both the industrial and financial sectors, with foreign-controlled
companies occupying decidedly peripheral positions.
From this interpretative position, Canada's development is seen
as markedly similar to that of other advanced capitalist countries,
culminating in consolidation of control under an elite accompanied both
by penetration of foreign economies by domestic financial capitalists
and a concomitant penetration of the domestic economy by foreign
capital.
Reviews
The book is an excellent critical assessment of Canadian dependency theory - rethinking of Canadian dependency and providing empirical data in support of the renewed conceptualization ... This solid empirical work should be of great interest to various social scientists including sociologists.
- Raj Gandhi
The strength of this book lies in elaborating the internal organisation and processes of capitalist development within Canada from a perspective that looks outside it, if not in terms of dependency and underdevelopment. It is a most valuable contribution.
- Peter R. Sinclair