bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
An Attempt at a Rigorous Restatement of Ricardo's Long-Run Equilibrium
Authors: Brems Hans
Published: June 2006

Ricardo's Principles are the most difficult book on economics ever written. It is difficult enough even to understand it, more difficult to interpret it and most difficult to estimate it properly.

–Joseph A. Schumpeter

Judging the accomplishments of the past by the standards of the present, perhaps each generation must make its own attempt at understanding the great masters. It has been said that “Ricardo was the first to present a complete model—one which, for all its faults, was self-consistent and displayed the whole economy as a single interdependent system.” The present paper is an attempt to isolate that self-consistent model and to set it out rigorously. Anyone trying to isolate it must be painfully aware of the possibility that what he is removing may be more valuable than what he is preserving. However, the criterion of consistency leaves him little choice. Having isolated the self-consistent model, he must relate it to our own thinking. The latter emphasizes aggregation, occupies itself increasingly with the underdeveloped two-thirds of the world, and sees no “law” of diminishing returns outside agriculture. In these three senses it is becoming more Ricardian.

Consider three sectors, each producing a homogeneous product or service, that is, a consumers' goods industry, a producers' goods industry, and a labour household sector. The subscripts used to designate the three sectors are c, p, and l, respectively. The consumers' goods industry is facing a production function having one output and three inputs in it. The output consists of consumers' goods, the inputs consist of labour services, services rendered by durable man-made producers' goods, and services rendered by indestructible nature-given land.
Quebec and Canadian Federalism
Authors: Brady Alexander
Published: June 2006

Canada's federation is distinct from the other two major federations in the English-speaking world in resting upon an alliance of two peoples and two cultures. Other differences exist, but this is fundamental. Since 1867 the dualism of culture has been slowly woven into the political fabric of the nation, although outside Quebec its implications are still not always appreciated or wholly accepted. With the appearance in 1956 of the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry on Constitutional Problems, English-speaking Canadians have little excuse for misunderstanding the position of their French-speaking compatriots. The Commission was appointed by provincial statute in January, 1953, under the chairmanship of Judge Thomas Tremblay. Its bulky report is never likely to be widely read. It is prolix and sometimes repetitious to the point of tedium; its analysis would have been more telling had it been tidier and more compressed. Yet, despite such flaws, it is a landmark in the literature of federalism: it describes and explains more fully than any other public document the position and anxieties of Quebec in the federal state, and defends the concept of a strict federalism as the essential basis for the success of Canada's national experiment. For the Tremblay Commissioners the issue of Quebec in the federation and the issue of the French in the nation are one and the same. In harmony with their theme they submit numerous recommendations. We cannot, however, assess these or do justice to their premises, without first reviewing briefly the historical position of Quebec in Canadian federalism.
Some Aspects of the Financial Difficulties of the Province of Canada
Authors: Faucher Albert
Published: June 2006

Our subject concerns the dialogue held between English financiers and Canadian politicians and the response of Lombard Street to the calls of the Province of Canada over the last ten or fifteen years of its existence. Its scope is limited because of the limited array of materials surveyed. The intention is to review some of the correspondence between the financial agents in London and the Canadian ministers or other officials entrusted with English money through the agents. The materials comprise some two hundred letters, a few duplicates of which can be found in the Baring collection at the Public Archives in Ottawa, which the author was fortunate enough to peruse at Glyn, Mills & Co., Lombard Street, London.

These fragmentary materials have been marshalled back into the conventional framework of Canadian economic history, where in the author's estimation they belong, in order that they might shed some more light on matters already known. The role of the agents in money matters exerted a remarkable influence on Canada's political affairs, to the extent that the presence of the English investor implied some kind of participation in the decision-making process of the Province of Canada. The English press may have exerted a similar influence, since it reflected the attitude of those financially interested in Canada, whether directly or indirectly.

Not all of the difficulties that the Province had been through in the last decade of its existence can be traced back, however, to its financial connection with the English money market. Indeed, several problems arose from its commercial structure, its precarious trade pattern upon which the neighbouring states exerted a continuous pull, the deflated expectations of Canadian traders as regards the western trade, and the over-all modification of trade channels which accompanied the cotton revolution. Yet we have chosen here to single out one factor—the opinion of Lombard Street—by way of suggesting the importance of market forces in the shaping of Canadian economic policies.
Political Tendencies and Parties in Germany
Authors: Heberle Rudolf
Published: June 2006

To the observer who has experienced the transformation of Germany from imperial to republican regimes and the struggles for and against the establishment of democracy after the First World War, the most striking feature of the political scene in present-day West Germany–the Bundesrepublik–is the nearly complete absence of social or political mass movements. Whereas German society from 1918 to 1933 was virtually seething with political and social schemes, creeds, sects, and parties, post-Nazi Germany seems quiet and sober. The labour unions have become even less concerned with fundamental changes in the social order than they were in the days of the Weimar Republic. The youth movement seems dead. There is no mass movement of former Nazis or of neo-Fascists. Even the Communists are no longer a strong force.

Voting in all kinds of elections is very heavy, but organized membership in political parties is low. There seems to be a widespread reluctance among the older people to join any kind of organized political group or to commit themselves to any kind of “cause.” Most Germans, having burnt their fingers once or twice, seem to refrain from active participation in public life as much as possible. This does not mean that the channels through which a common will, a political consensus, is formed have ceased to function. Political parties, though fewer in number than in the Weimar era, do exist; trade unions and organizations of farmers, artisans, business men, and industrialists exert their influence along with numerous and varied “lobby” organizations (refugees and expellees, victims of nazism, veterans' organizations, war invalids' associations, and so on); and last though not least the Roman Catholic Church and the Evangelical (Protestant) churches raise their voices and take a stand on all important issues of public life. But none of these influential groups seems to aim at radical changes in the political or economic order. Nor is any large and powerful group opposed to the democratic system of government which was formed under the authority of the American, British, and French occupation regimes.
Under-Developed Countries in the World Economy
Authors: Britnell G. E.
Published: June 2006

It is with some misgiving that I put forward the suggestion that a Canadian may be in a better position than either an Englishman or an American—despite the experience of the former, the energy of the latter, and the assurance of both—to appreciate the complex problems of under-developed countries. Nevertheless, emboldened by the modest, freely admitted and unhesitating recognition (by Canadians) of Canada's success in the historic role of interpreting the United States to Great Britain and Great Britain to the United States, and undeterred by the somewhat less striking evidence of our capacity to interpret ourselves to one another within the framework of a federal state, I am ambitious to extend the operations of such an honest broker of goodwill to include a more racially variegated, linguistically diversified, and culturally challenging clientele.

The credentials which a Canadian may offer in asking to be considered as a possible interpreter of at least some of the problems of under-developed countries cannot be brushed aside as completely fraudulent. As an expert on under-developed countries has pointed out, “one might almost say that a country is ‘underdeveloped,’ if its government considers development a problem, in a way which calls for positive policy. In this sense, Canada would have been an underdeveloped country throughout the nineteenth century, and might even be considered so to-day, despite its high per capita income and its current rate of economic growth.” Certainly if one of the more important criteria of an under-developed country is a heavy reliance on foreign capital for economic development, Canada may still be looked upon as an underdeveloped country subject to many of the stubborn political and social, no less than economic, problems and frictions which such a position involves.
The Select Standing Committee on Public Accounts, 1867-78
Authors: Ward Norman
Published: June 2006

On April 25, 1950, when convening the House of Commons Select Standing Committee on Public Accounts, Mr. L. Philippe Picard, M.P., remarked: “This committee, so far as I understand, has sat only about six times in the last twenty years, and it has been traditional that the committee would sit upon a request by any member to the elected chairman. There is no fixed date, no definite time at which we should sit. I wish to inform the committee that I have received a letter from the member for Winnipeg, Mr. Stewart, asking for the committee to be assembled.” The haphazard approach then taken by the committee towards its work, despite the importance of parliamentary control of public expenditure, was actually rather worse than its chairman's observations suggested: the committee had not in reality met in six of the previous twenty years for the consideration of public accounts, but on occasion had taken up quite other matters, as in its romp through the Bren Gun Contract in 1939. It is true that during those years other committees of the House of Commons studied various aspects of public finance, and that modern governmental procedures of accounting and auditing have made almost redundant the additional examination of some parts of the public accounts by legislative members.
The Index-Number Theorem: A Geometrical Note
Authors: Johnson Harry G.
Published: June 2006

The index-number theorem is the theorem that, if two sets of price and quantity data on consumption are compared, the Laspeyres (base-weighted) index-number of the price or quantity of one collection as compared with the other will be greater than the Paasche index-number for the same comparison: the Laspeyres index will show a larger increase or a smaller decrease than the Paasche index, as the case may be. In symbols, the theorem is that

where p and q refer respectively to price and quantity, and the subscripts 0 and 1 to the base and the other collection of price and quantity data.

As developed by J. R. Hicks, the index-number theorem is presented as a deduction from, and an empirical test of, the “preference hypothesis” (that consumers choose according to a scale of preferences). But R. L. Marris has shown that the theorem is not necessarily contradicted by a change in tastes, so that it cannot be regarded as a test of the hypothesis of given preferences; rather, it is an inference from, and test of, the hypothesis that consumers' preferences are consistent. As such, it depends on an assumption, which must either be argued in general or proved in the particular case, about what consumption would have been had relative prices been the same in the two situations. The purpose of this paper is to explain the index-number theorem, and the assumptions on which it depends, by means of an application of the geometry of the familiar two-goods case.
United States Recessions and Selected Imports
Authors: Degen R. A.
Published: June 2006

The sheer size of the United States economy makes it vitally important to much of the rest of the world. Indeed cyclical and structural changes within it may have more profound effects on foreigners than on Americans. Foreigners are understandably concerned about their vulnerability, and it is clear that this problem has for some time been recognized by economists and policy-makers everywhere.

In particular, since the experiences of the 1930's, United States recessions have assumed the ominous role of an economic plague capable of rapidly and seriously debilitating productive activity in many countries. The principal cause of this debilitation is the curtailment of United States imports. Only if economic activity is maintained at reasonably high levels in the United States does this problem appear to be manageable. An optimistic view of the possibility of avoiding deep depression is widespread, and it is supported by the record of the past twelve years; but less severe or “normal” cyclical activity is something we must live with, and recessions of the magnitudes of those of 1948-9, 1953-4, and 1957-8 may be capable of sufficiently strong “side effects” on imports to cause serious difficulty in other countries. That this danger has been a principal theme of international economics in the post-war period is reflected in recent commentaries on its failure to materialize in 1957-8. The discovery that recession in the United States need not seriously depress imports is perhaps the most surprising feature of the 1957-8 downswing.
The Economics of Under-Developed Countries
Authors: Higgins Benjamin
Published: June 2006

Perhaps never in the history of economic thought, and certainly not since the crash of 1929, has economic analysis lagged so far behind the demands of policy as it does at present. The elevation of economic development to the top ranks of policy issues, in under-developed and advanced countries alike, has caught professional economists more than ever unprepared to deal with the most pressing economic problem of the moment. One result of this unusually large inflationary gap between the demand for solid policy recommendations and the supply of them has been an unprecedented concentration of economists’ effort on the study of economic growth. The technical assistance programmes under the United Nations, the International Cooperation Administration, the Colombo Plan, other bilateral programmes, and the Ford Foundation have given economists opportunities for “laboratory work” on a scale never before open to them. In the universities, too, more and more economists have redirected their interests in research towards economic development.
Demographic Trends in Canada, 1941–56, and Some of Their Implications
Authors: LeNeveu A. H. , Kasahara Y.
Published: June 2006

While more than half of the world's population is still confronted by the “Malthusian menace” of poverty, hunger, and disease, Canadians have been able to enjoy a steadily rising level of well-being. The phenomenal expansion of the Canadian economy has not only facilitated improvements in the general standard of living, but has also given impetus to significant demographic changes in this country.

Contrary to the “predictions” made by some demographers, the pre-war downward trend in fertility was reversed in the early years of the Second World War, and a “baby boom” set in, in Canada as elsewhere. Even after the boom had subsided in most other countries and their birth rates had shown a sign of swinging back to the pre-war level, Canada's growth in population continued to gather momentum. Sustained high fertility, steadily declining mortality, and resumption of immigration on a substantial scale following the war have resulted in an impressive enlargement of Canada's human resources. Shifts in vital trends and in immigration in recent years have also modified the structure of the Canadian population. Furthermore, advances in industrial technology and consequent alterations in the utilization of manpower have stimulated a large-scale geographical and occupational redistribution of the population. The trend toward a decrease in population in the farm areas, a heavy influx of migrants into metropolitan centres, and the suburban development of some of the oldest cities of the country are but manifestations of demographic response to social and economic changes occurring in present-day Canada.
Marshall and Slutsky on the Theory of Demand
Authors: Liebhafsky H. H.
Published: June 2006

This paper provides a reconciliation of the Marshallian and Slutsky theories of demand. Incidentally, it also demonstrates that vertically parallel indifference curves involve unitary price elasticity and clarifies Marshall's analysis of consumer's surplus.

In Figure 1 the consumer is assumed to be initially in equilibrium at A, where he purchases OA′ of X (a composite commodity) at a price of P, as indicated by price line FA, and devotes OM of his given money income to all uses, Y, other than expenditures on X. Thus Y represents dollars spent on all uses other than X. The price of X is then allowed to decrease to (P − ΔP) as indicated by price line FB and the quantity of X increases to (X + ΔX), or to OB′, while the price of Y remains constant at unity, and the quantity of Y decreases to ON. Since the consumer's money income remains constant, any change in the total amount spent on X must produce an equal and an opposite change in the total amount spent on all other goods. The change in the total amount spent on all other goods is defined as the difference between the amount spent on X in the initial position at A and that spent on X in the new position at B, or as:

.
Some Liberal Marxists and Left-Wing Catholics in Contemporary Poland
Authors: Hiscocks Richard
Published: June 2006

The Polish left-wing Catholics, who are to be dealt with in this paper, are not the confessed fellow-travellers, who were at the height of their influence during the Stalinist period. They are rather the members of the “Znak” parliamentary group and others associated with the Catholic weekly, Tygodnik Powszechny, which comes close to being the mouthpiece of the Polish Primate, Cardinal Wyszyński. The left-wing Catholics to be considered, therefore, have been dependent for their activities on the comparatively tolerant attitude of Polish Communist leadership. So it will be logical and convenient to deal with the liberal Marxists first.

Rosa Luxemburg, the greatest intellectual leader that the Polish Marxist movement has so far produced, was murdered in 1919. Yet she was so typical of Polish Communism, and she exerted so great an influence on the character that it has assumed, that a brief reference to her will be made by way of introduction. She was an outstanding revolutionary and a great woman, combining such varied qualities as physical and mental courage, great energy and powers of endurance, and unusual oratorical gifts, with more characteristically feminine attributes, such as a deep sensitivity and love of beauty in all its forms. She could stand up to Lenin when she differed from him, but she commanded his respect. However, what concerns us most here is that her deep Marxist convictions were tempered by liberal elements characteristic of what would now be called Western democracy.
A Perspective on Middle-Class Delinquency
Authors: Scott Joseph W. , Vaz Edmund W.
Published: June 2006

Most literature on juvenile delinquency describes it as essentially a product of the lower socio-economic classes. While there has been some speculation over the incidence and quality of middle-class delinquency, what evidence exists is largely impressionistic. Nevertheless, the prevailing view is that delinquency among middle-class youth has increased in recent years. The present paper seeks a sociological and theoretical perspective to help account for the dominant forms of juvenile delinquency among middle-class youth. It attempts also to explain the emergence and the particular qualities of middle-class delinquency as a consequence of structural changes taking place in the larger society.

Accounting for middle-class delinquency in North America requires an understanding of the dominant culture of middle-class youth. Structural changes in society over the last half-century have produced opportunities for extensive adolescent peer-group participation and the emergence of a mass youth culture. During the growth of this youth culture, in which the majority of middle-class teenagers participate, there have emerged, jointly, both delinquent and non-delinquent patterns of behaviour. It is the thesis of this paper that the bulk of middle-class delinquency occurs in the course of customary, non-delinquent activities and falls within the limits of adolescent group norms. Moreover the knowledge of both delinquent and non-delinquent patterns in the youth culture is widely shared among middle-class teenagers. Thus, in order to account for middle-class delinquency one need not look for a separate “delinquent subculture.”
Disraeli and the Natural Aristocracy
Authors: Tucker Albert
Published: June 2006

Eighty years after his death, judgments of Disraeli tend to focus on two opposing impressions. One of them derives from the portrait which he created of himself in his own lifetime. Striving as he did to exaggerate his personality in social and public life, he inevitably left the impression of being too much the opportunist ever to be sincere. The word “charlatan” was attached to him before he was out of his twenties, and he never completely outgrew it. When he was in his forties even a maverick like Lord Brougham felt free to point him out on the street as “the greatest blackguard in England.” What annoyed so many of his contemporaries was not simply that Disraeli was a Jew or an upstart, but that he did not accept the moral patterns of English politics. He seemed always too ready to make alignments beyond the fixed boundaries of party, and to use even his conservatism as a means towards personal power and fame. Dislike of him on this ground existed in various quarters from earnest statesmen like Bright, Gladstone, and Shaftesbury on the one hand, to Tory aristocrats like Derby and Salisbury on the other. By the end of his life there had developed also the criticism that his political career had been essentially a failure. Walter Bagehot, for example, wrote in 1876 that Disraeli possessed an inaccurate mind with little capacity for the real business of parliament. J. A. Froude in 1891 was even more negative when he said that Disraeli's real triumph was of short duration, since “no public man in England ever rose so high and acquired power so great, so little of whose work has survived him.”
The Public Control of Broadcasting: The Canadian and Australian Experiences
Authors: Hull W. H. N.
Published: June 2006

Both Canadian and Australian governments were quick to appreciate the benefits to be gained from wireless broadcasting. In 1905 in Australia and in 1913 in Canada, ministers of the Crown were given the power to oversee the development of wireless telegraphy. Shortly after the First World War, technical advances made possible the broadcasting of music and the human voice; in 1919 the Marconi Company, through its station XWA, Montreal, initiated radio broadcasting in Canada; in the same year, Amalgamated Wireless of Australasia Pty. Limited, through a small station in Sydney, broadcast Australia's first radio programmes. By the late 1920s, Canada boasted seventy-nine broadcasting stations and 297,000 licensed receivers, while Australia had twenty broadcasting stations and approximately 225,000 receivers. With few exceptions, these stations were privately owned, subject to little government regulation and, in Canada at least, supported entirely by commercial revenues.

In the first thirteen years of Australian broadcasting, from 1920 to 1932, at least three different attempts were made to find a satisfactory economic basis for broadcasting. Each reform, however, failed to silence the complaints about poor reception, tardy news reporting, indifferent programming, and the concentration of broadcasting in the urban areas of the country. Limitations of space prevent a discussion of all the schemes attempted, but brief mention will be made of one of them which, if not unique in the annals of broadcasting, is of interest as an historical oddity and an example of man's ingenuity.
The Denominational Basis of Representation in the Newfoundland Assembly, 1919–1962
Authors: Rothney Gordon O.
Published: June 2006

Newfoundland before 1934 had a Governor, a responsible Executive Council, and an appointed Legislative Council. The Governor “with the advice and consent” of the Executive Council, summoned and called together the General Assembly, and “the persons thereupon duly elected to be members of the said Assembly,” before their sitting, took the Oath of Allegiance. The Governor from time to time prorogued the Legislative Council and the House of Assembly, and also from time to time dissolved the House of Assembly. Laws were made by the Governor “with the advice and consent of the said Legislative Council and Assembly.”

From February 16, 1934, to March 31, 1949, Newfoundland was ruled by a Commission of Government. Upon the union with Canada in 1949, the constitution of the legislature as it existed immediately prior to February 16, 1934, continued as the constitution of the legislature of the province of Newfoundland, except in so far as it related to the Legislative Council. Laws are now “enacted by the Lieutenant-Governor and the House of Assembly” only.

Prior to 1928 the Assembly contained thirty-six members. In that year (by an act passed in 1925) the number was raised to forty, but in 1932 it was reduced to twenty-seven. In 1949 it rose to twenty-eight, and in 1956 (by an act passed in 1955) it once again reached thirty-six. Now, by an amendment adopted in 1962, the House of Assembly consists, from the dissolution of the General Assembly in October, of forty-two members.
Residential Capital Formation in Canada, 1871–1921
Authors: Pickett James
Published: June 2006

Partly because there is at present so much concern with problems of economic growth and partly because much has already been done to account for the years before the First World War, interest is now quickening in the process and magnitude of capital formation in Canada between Confederation and the end of the nineteenth century. An important part of Canadian capital formation has been in housing, and a historical series on housing investment, covering the years 1926–1941, was presented in an official publication prepared by Firestone and Urquhart in 1945. This series was superseded by revised estimates (which still form the basis for the historical figures in the National Accounts) made by Firestone in 1951; Buckley, partly on the basis of Firestone's later estimates, produced a series going back to 1896; and Firestone has recently returned to the problem. A consistent series from Confederation to the turn of the century is, however, still lacking.

The main purpose of this paper is to derive and present annual estimates of residential capital formation for the years 1871–1921. It is in three parts: the first presents annual estimates of the number of dwellings completed; the second considers the problem of securing annual average values and presents the final estimates of residential capital formation; and the third compares the new estimates with those published earlier, discusses the estimates and their limitations, and makes suggestions for their improvement. An effort has been made to present the material in such a way that the reader could go a long way towards reproducing the results. Inadequate data invite endless ingenuity: but unbridled wit can sometimes be dangerous and an effort has been made to keep the paper within the bounds of the plausible.
Social Studies
Authors: Ashley C. A.
Published: June 2006

What I have to say will, I fear, be either obvious or presumptuous. However, what is obvious is worth looking at occasionally, and presumption is not a new phenomenon in university circles. I hope it may be agreed that the purpose of social studies is to acquire a better understanding of society in its widest sense, with a view to the formulation of policy, individual or collective. Dr. W. A. Mackintosh, in his presidential address to this Association, said that “any social science must ultimately be justified by the basis which it affords for policy,” and Father G.-H. Lévesque, “Les sciences sociales ont pour objet la connaissance de ce que sont et doivent être les sociétés.” What I suggest is obvious is that the intelligent formulation of policy almost invariably involves more than one and often several of the social studies.

All too frequently we find experts in particular studies, or in particular aspects of them, who might profit by a knowledge and understanding of what others are doing, becoming so absorbed in what they themselves are doing as to neglect, or dismiss as irrelevant, everything else. This Association is an excellent example of what can be achieved by co-operation, and attracts political scientists, economic theorists, economic historians, sociologists, anthropologists, and statisticians. In some countries, there are six separate associations, and I am sure something important is lost as a result. My own department at Toronto includes all of these except anthropologists, and adds commerce and finance as a branch of economics.
Social Theory and the Mass Media
Authors: McCormack Thelma
Published: June 2006

This paper is an attempt to offer a functional theory of the mass media, and to suggest criteria for evaluating the media which emerge from it—criteria which are not taken from other disciplines or from the technology of the media. First, the present stage of communications research is considered; second, the contributions of Marx and Freud; and third, an alternative hypothesis is suggested.

Urban sociologists ought to be parties to any discussion of the mass media, for it is difficult to imagine anything more symbolically urban than the mass circulation daily newspaper, the car radio, or the TV antenna. Yet judging from books on urban sociology interest in this aspect of urban life has, in recent years, dwindled to almost nothing. Neglect here is matched by the peculiar evasion in communications research of the urban context. Comparisons are routinely made between rural and urban populations with respect to readership, audiences and programme preferences, but these tabulations are not weighted any differently from comparisons along such dimensions as marital status, sex, education, and others in our standard repertoire. The two bodies of knowledge, then, have developed independently of each other despite the common-sense observation that they are inextricably related.
Investment Control in Post-War Rritain, 1945-1955
Authors: Rozen Marvin E.
Published: June 2006

In a world beset by problems of accelerated development and structural adjustment, influencing the level and direction of investment has become a major governmental preoccupation. Investment is the key to economic growth and transformation; hence there is concern over where it will go. In this connection investment control in post-war Britain provides a fairly good but neglected case study. Although generalization must hurdle many obstacles of time, place, institutional framework, and history, British experience affords some insights into the nature and workings of investment control, its limitations, and its possibilities.
Economic Opportunity and the Westward Migration of Canadians during the Late Nineteenth Century
Authors: Studness Charles M.
Published: June 2006

Over 250,000 native-born Canadians moved west to the Canadian prairies and the American frontier during the last three decades of the nineteenth century. Of this total, almost half settled on the American side of the border. This paper relates the geographical structure of this migration to economic opportunity, and focuses on the importance of economic factors in leading so many Canadian settlers to locate in North Dakota rather than in Manitoba.
Pressure Groups in Canadian Politics: Recent Revisions of the Anti-Combines Legislation
Authors: Thorburn H. G.
Published: June 2006

The role of interest groups in influencing policy decisions in Canada has received little close analysis, yet it is obviously important. Lobbying is inevitable when government regulations touch everyone's affairs; the only defence for those adversely affected is to seek to influence the government itself. Anti-combines legislation offers a particularly good example of this process because it is the case par excellence in which the interests of business, particularly big business, and those of the public, both as citizens concerned with freedom and as economically self-interested consumers, conflict. The 1960 amendments to the Canadian anti-combines legislation were implemented by a new government whose attitude on the combines question when it assumed office was not clear. Consequently those concerned with anti-combines questions set about converting the new government to their point of view. Fortunately for the researcher, the written submissions to the government on this question were tabled in the House of Commons, and of course the proceedings in Parliament and its committees are part of the public record. Consequently in this instance the general pattern of lobbying and its effects can be pieced together.
Technology and Aggregate Demand in J. S. Mill's Economic System
Authors: Hollander Samuel
Published: June 2006

The literature on the relationship between Keynesian and classical economics lays almost exclusive emphasis on monetary phenomena; relatively little attention is paid to technological relationships, although an understanding of the precise nature of the production function assumed in each system is clearly of relevance. In particular, the assumption of variable proportions between inputs is crucial to Keynes' approach, and it is usually taken to be an assumption of classical writers too. At times, it is recognized that the classics denied the possibility of obtaining additional output by increasing the quantity of labour used with other (given) inputs, but rarely is this seen as important. The customary interpretation possibly derives, in part, from the fact that the classics made use of the wages fund theory whereby full employment of labour is assured; attention is diverted, by this theory, from technological capital to wage-goods capital, and it becomes easy to jump to the conclusion that output in the classical system can be regarded as a simple function of the quantity of labour employed.

In this paper I shall argue that in fact considerable attention was given to the assumption of fixed coefficients of production in classical economic literature (Section I). It will be necessary to show how this assumption could reasonably be maintained by writers who, at the same time, advocated the wages fund theory (Section II). In concluding the paper, I shall suggest a possible implication of the classical authors' approach to technology for their macro-economic policy, in particular for their tendency to minimize the significance of aggregate demand as a determinant of aggregate output (Section III).
Nationality, Size of Firm, and Exploration for Petroleum in Western Canada, 1946–1954
Authors: Shearer Ronald A.
Published: June 2006

This paper presents estimates of the relative importance of Canadian-controlled and non-resident-controlled firms in the exploration for and discovery of petroleum (including natural gas) in western Canada for the years 1946 to 1954, and offers a tentative explanation of the difference in performance of the two groups in terms of the relative sizes of the firms involved. This hypothesis tends to minimize the importance of non-resident control per se in explaining the dominant role of foreign-controlled firms in the early postwar expansion of this industry. If it provides a valid interpretation of this particularly important case it would lend limited support to a more general thesis, namely, that the apparently leading role played by non-resident-controlled firms in Canadian resource developments in the late 1940's and 1950's was due in the main, not to superior entrepreneurial talent or access to superior technological skills, but rather to readier access to massive capital resources. The study therefore has a twofold interest. It is primarily a study of the relationship between size and economic performance in one type of economic activity generally recognized as inherently highly risky. At the same time, however, it makes a minor contribution to the analysis of the role of non-resident-controlled firms in the expansion of the Canadian economy in the late 1940's and early 1950's.
Benefits from Restrictive Agreements: The British Experience
Authors: Cairns James P.
Published: June 2006

The British Restrictive Trade Practices Act, 1956, states, in Section 21, that “a restriction accepted in pursuance of any agreement shall be deemed to be contrary to the public interest unless the Court is satisfied” of one or more of certain specified circumstances. Thus, the onus of refuting the general presumption that restrictions on competition are against the public interest is placed on the parties to a restrictive agreement, and the arguments they may employ (or circumstances they may seek to prove) are stated in the legislation. One such argument or circumstance is given in Section 21 (1) (b): “That the removal of the restriction would deny to the public as purchasers, consumers or users of any goods specific and substantial benefits or advantages enjoyed or likely to be enjoyed by them as such, whether by virtue of the restriction itself or of any arrangements or operations resulting therefrom.” If the restriction passes through this, or any other, “gateway,” the “tailpiece,” or balancing procedure must still be faced, as the Court must be “further satisfied (in any such case) that the restriction is not unreasonable having regard to the balance between those circumstances and any detriment to the public or to persons not parties to the agreement (being purchasers, consumers or users of goods produced or sold by such parties, or persons engaged or seeking to become engaged in the trade or business of selling such goods or of producing or selling similar goods) resulting or likely to result from the operation of the restriction.” Thus, if an agreement, for example, convinces the court that it meets the “specific and substantial benefits or advantages” requirement of 21 (1) (b), it will be found not contrary to the public interest only if it also survives the balancing test in which any public detriments resulting from the agreement may be taken into consideration. These, in brief, are the guide-lines given the Restrictive Practices Court by means of which it performs its obligation to pluck, from the class of all restrictive agreements, those presumably few agreements from which the public derives, on balance, a benefit.
Simple Majority Voting, Game Theory, and Resource Use
Authors: Buchanan James M.
Published: June 2006

I propose in this paper to examine majority voting with the tools of elementary game theory. This, in itself, represents nothing new. The “majority game” has been analysed by numerous game theorists. I propose, however, to derive certain implications from the analysis for the utilization of resources in the public or collective sector of the economy.

The models of collective decision-making that must be employed are necessarily abstract; so much so that the analyses may seem to appear to some observers as caricatures of actual political processes. Analysis must start somewhere, however, and even the most abstract of models, by isolating specific features of real-world institutions, may prove helpful to our over-all understanding. I shall introduce a model of pure democracy. That is to say, I shall assume that all collective decisions are to be made by a simple majority voting process in which all citizens participate. All problems of representation, leadership, parties, and coalitions shall be left out of account. Furthermore, I shall assume that the individual citizens in the model are motivated by utility-maximizing considerations; that is, each individual is assumed to vote in such a manner as to maximize his own utility. This assumption allows numerical values to be placed in the expected pay-offs that individuals receive through political processes. If the expected pay-offs can be numerically correlated with observable economic quantities or magnitudes, some provisional and tentative implications may be drawn concerning the tendency of majority voting rules to “over-extend” or to “starve” the public sector of the economy relative to the private sector.
The Presidential Politics of the Franco-Americans
Authors: Walker David B.
Published: June 2006

The way the Franco-American views the issues, candidates and the parties largely determines the vote in at least thirty cities and towns in New England. Though constituting about 12 per cent of the region's inhabitants and considered by some as the most unassimilable of all the ethnic groups in the area, the Franco-Americans have not enjoyed the same degree of attention from students of politics that larger, more widely distributed ethnic minorities have received. But a brief survey of their political past and of their vote in the 1960 presidential election will demonstrate that the French provide an excellent case study in ethnic politics.

Migration and other processes swelled the Franco-American population of New England from an estimated 150,000 in 1850, to 400,000 in 1880, to 800000 by 1908. Though some influx occurred in subsequent decades, especially in Maine, the great migration from French Canada ended by the turn of the century. Overpopulation, a dwindling supply of good agricultural land, and the absence of a good transportation system to the Canadian northwest were the reasons for this exodus southward. Most of the emigrés settled in New England's smaller cities and larger towns, and became textile, leather, or paper-mill workers.
The Rate of Change of Money Stock as a Leading Canadian Indicator
Authors: Macesich George
Published: June 2006

The purpose of this paper is to examine the behaviour of the rate of increase in the money stock as a leading indicator of the Canadian economy over the period 1924–58. The study was suggested by work done by Milton Friedman for the United States showing that changes in the rate of increase in the stock of money lead changes in economic activity. Section I presents the theoretical framework underlying the concept of “leading monetary indicator.” Section II presents the specific cycles of the seasonally adjusted rate of change in the Canadian stock of money and the relation of this series to Canadian reference cycles. Section III presents the conclusions. An appendix discusses the sources of the Canadian stock of money and its components.

The quantity theory of money is the theoretical framework underlying the “leading monetary indicator” approach. This theory argues that the stock of money is an important determinant of economic activity. On this view individual non-bank holders of money cannot change its nominal quantity, but they can in the aggregate change the real value of their cash balances. Thus, holders of money may decide that they are holding excessive cash balances which they may individually attempt to reduce by an increase in their rate of spending. In the aggregate, however, they cannot do so for the money disposed of by one holder will be acquired by another so that the nominal stock of money will remain unchanged. The attempts by holders of money to reduce their nominal cash balances will raise the flow of expenditures and so money income and prices.
The Ontario “Gestapo” Affair, 1943–1945
Authors: Caplan Gerald L.
Published: June 2006

The Ontario election of June 4, 1945, will likely be remembered by historians as the “Gestapo election.” For it was in that election that Edward B. Jolliffe, leader of the official CCF opposition in the legislature, made the remarkable accusation that Premier George Drew was “maintaining in Ontario … a secret political police, a paid government spy organization, a Gestapo to try and keep himself in power.” A provincial Royal Commission was named to investigate Jolliffe's charges. Unfortunately, however, it has been impossible to locate a complete transcript of the Commission's proceedings. It is the purpose of this paper to assess, using the material that is available, the validity of the CCF leader's spectacular accusations.

Most observers agreed that Drew's minority Conservative administration would be re-elected in 1945. Yet the CCF was still considered a serious contender. The CCF's opponents certainly did not discount its challenge. Anti-socialist politicians and professional propagandists alike played heavily on the theme that a CCF government would impose a dictatorship on the citizens of Ontario. The CCF's campaign, in contrast, was relatively undramatic initially. Its propaganda centred primarily upon its uncomplicated “Five Star Programme For Ontario,” the five stars representing security on the job, for the farm, the home, health, and nation.
The Toronto Transit Commission: A Case Study of the Structural-Functional Approach to Administrative Organizations
Authors: Kaplan Harold
Published: June 2006

Political scientists have approached the study of administrative organizations with widely divergent purposes and modes of analysis. The early studies in this field were suffused with a desire to improve administrative institutions. Attention was centred on the “problems” of administrative accountability, red tape and inertia, administrative efficiency, and the public's low estimation of government service. Emphasis in these early studies was placed on the description of formal institutions and arrangements, since these arrangements, rather than informal behavioural patterns, were amenable to reform. This approach still characterizes the great body of literature on “public administration” in all western countries.

In the 1930s and 1940s some American political scientists began to focus their analysis on the “leadership” or “political” behaviour of top-level administrators. Rejecting the notion that public administration could be studied or taught apart from the general concerns of political science, this approach viewed administration as simply one phase in the political process. Emphasis was shifted from the internal aspects of administrative organizations to the environmental or “political” problems of these organizations. Emphasis was shifted from reform to value-free, neutral analysis. This “administrative politics” approach developed at the same time as the “behavioural revolution” in American political science and applied many aspects of that revolution to the study of public administration.