Canadian Political Economy and the Theory of the Contemporary State: Critical Perspectives on the Sociological Imagination

Canadian Political Economy and the Theory of the Contemporary State: Critical Perspectives on the Sociological Imagination DANIEL SALEE Taking the discursive production of the New Canadian Political Economy on the state as an example, this essay seeks to account for the reasons why some areas of Canadian Studies have failed to engage in distinctly homegrown theorizing. This essay argues that analyses and studies of the Canadian state that emanate from the New Canadian Political Economy tradition have not contributed significantly to the advancement of modern theories of the state. Proponents of this tradition have been borrowers of theoretical frameworks produced elsewhere rather than producers of original theorizations on the state. Two sets of factors are presented as explaining this situation. First, the literature of the New Canadian Political Economy rests on problematic conceptual biases that prevent it from imagining alternative conceptions of the state. Second, the literature is pervaded by the quintessential Canadian obsession with the identity question, a condition that largely inhibits creative impulse necessary for the development of overarching theoretical visions. A few years ago, a Canadian specialist in communication studies noted the following with respect to theoretical practice in Canadian social science: Theoretical discourse - like the product of any cultural practice - does not naively reflect a reality existing "out there," nor does it constitute that reality. Theorizing involves textualizing, which results in a mediating expressive form through which the social order is communicated, reproduced, experienced and explored. Theoretical discourse therefore entails "narration" or "story - making"; it is a creative practice employed to explain to ourselves certain contemporary objects, developments and relationships in our world, and which therefore advocates a particular way of seeing that world.(f.1) If such an observation holds true, then it inevitably implies that theorizing is more than the mere outgrowth of any abstract scientific endeavour; it is an intrinsic part of comprehending one's social and physical environment. Admittedly, it can be argued that theory - making for the sake of theory - making only produces metadiscourses rooted in intellectual obscurity, grand propositions whose immediate social relevance may seem tenuous at best.(f.2) Yet, in the process of making sense of our world, we use and even create concepts, explanations and standards of truth that guide our understanding of the world and with which we hope to convince others of the rectitude of our analyses. In other words, theorizing is naturally inscribed in human life experience. For all that the last two or three decades have witnessed, the proliferation of research and studies on the various dimensions of Canada's social, cultural, political and economic life, distinctly Canadian conceptual frameworks or theories have not been developed to the same extent. One well - informed observer went so far as to say that the area of "Canadian Studies has remained - at least as a generic whole - largely untheorized."(f.3) While in all fairness such a generalization does not apply to all disciplines or subjects, many others are still unable to boast a genuinely Canadian theoretical foundation. Such is the case with the analysis of the Canadian state. Indeed, the literature on the Canadian state produced in the last 20 years provides interesting insights into the reasons why some spheres of Canadian Studies seem hard - pressed to engage in the "creative practice" that is theorizing, why "evidence within the country of a confident spirit of conceptual generalization"(f.4) seems to be lacking. This essay takes the literature on the state developed within what is generally known as the New Canadian Political Economy (NCPE) tradition(f.5) as a case in point. Reflecting on the theoretical and methodological debates that perplexed and opposed adherents of the New Canadian Political Economy, Daniel Drache concluded over a decade ago that "the study of Canada requires a distinct methodological approach and a belief (whether articulated or not) that Canadian capitalism is sufficiently different to require original theoretical work on the mode of development and its institutional structures. …