Winner of the Harold Adams Innis Prize, Politics and Ideology in Canada examines a period of crucial historical change in Canada, beginning in the mid-1970s when the crisis of the Keynesian welfare state precipitated a transition to a new political order based on the progressive "downsizing" of state involvement in the economy and society. Using class and ideology as key concepts, Michael Ornstein and Michael Stevenson examine this transition in terms of the nature of hegemony and hegemonic crisis and the conditions of political order and instability. These concepts guide the interpretation of three large surveys of representative samples of the Canadian public and two unique elite surveys, conducted between 1975 and 1981. The surveys cover an exceptionally broad spectrum of political issues, including social programs, civil and economic rights, economic policy, foreign ownership, labour relations, and language issues and sovereignty.
A wide-ranging analysis of public and elite attitudes reveals a hegemonic order through the early 1980s, built around public support for the institutions of the Canadian welfare state. But there was also widespread public alienation from politics. Public opinion was quite strongly linked to class but not to party politics. Regional variation in political ideology on a broad range of issues was less pronounced than differences between Quebec and English Canada. Much deeper ideological divisions separated the elites, with a dramatic polarization between corporate and labour respondents. State elites fell between these two, though generally more favourable to capital. The responses of the business elites reveal the ideological roots of the Mulroney years in support for cuts in social programs, free trade, privatization, and deregulation.
Review quotes
"[Politics and Ideology in Canada] is a very substantial and important piece of work. It is replete with thoughtful analysis, both conceptual and empirical. It pushes forward, significantly, the literature on the State and ideology ... This is a model for how empirical work in the area should be done; it is a model for how theoretical and empirical work may be joined with strong effect." Jim Curtis, Department of Sociology, University of Waterloo.
"Ornstein and Stevenson have produced a very good piece of scholarship - one that will be quoted ... for some time to come." Canadian Book Review Annual "A very substantial and important piece of work. It is replete with thoughtful analysis, both conceptual and empirical. It pushes forward, significantly, the literature on the State and ideology ... This is a model for how empirical work in the area should be done; it is a model for how theoretical and empirical work may be joined with strong effect." Jim Curtis, Department of Sociology, University of Waterloo
Michael Ornstein is director of the Institute for Social Research and associate professor of sociology, York University. H. Michael Stevenson is President and Vice-Chancellor, Simon Fraser University.
