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Developments in Advanced Capitalist Ideology*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2009

Koula Mellos
Koula Mellos
Affiliation:
University of Ottawa
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Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 11 , Issue 4 , December 1978 , pp. 829 - 862
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association (l'Association canadienne de science politique) and/et la Société québécoise de science politique 1978

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References

1 Following roughly James O'Connor's classification of modern capitalist state functions in the Fiscal Crisis of the State (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1973)Google Scholar. Although this distinction is useful to emphasize the predominantly economic nature of the accumulation functions, we emphasize that all state activities aim ultimately at legitimizing the capitalist institutional order, that is, the private appropriation of socially-produced surplus. In this sense, then, all state functions are legitimation functions.

2 Habermas, Jürgen, Legitimation Crisis (Boston: Beacon Press, 1975)Google Scholar. This position is opposed by a number of Marxists. See, for example, Müller, W. and Neusüss, , “The Illusion of State Socialism,” Telos 25 (1975), 13–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Altvater, E., “Notes on Some Problems of State Intervention,” Kapitalstate. 1 (1973), 96–108Google Scholar and 2 (1973), 76–83.

3 In particular its economic structure reflects heavy corporate concentration of production such that oligopoly dominance prevails in some major industries and monopoly in others. The 3,924 mining corporations operating in Canada range in asset size from under $150,000 to over $100,000,000. One per cent of these have 60.2 per cent of the total assets ($20,502,700,000) and 68.9 per cent of the profits after tax ($1,484,200,000). This pattern of concentration also appears in the manufacturing industry where in the same asset size range, the total of 24,218 corporations assume a distribution such that 14,187 or 58 per cent of corporations have total assets of a mere $1,203,000 but 98 or 0.4 per cent of the total number of corporations command 47.4 per cent of the total assets ($20,502,700,000) and 68.9 per cent of the profits after tax ($1,484,200,000). This pattern of concentration also appears in the manufacturing corporations, 9 or 2 per cent have 81.9 per cent of the assets and 68.5 per cent of the profits after tax and 239 corporations constituting 53.6 per cent of the total have 0.5 per cent of the assets and 5.2 percent of the profits after tax. In the total nonfinancial industries of the 137,074 corporations, 76.2 per cent have 5.5 per cent of the total profits after tax whereas 0.1 per cent of the corporations have 49.2 per cent of the assets and 42.5 per cent of the profits after tax. These are statistics for 1973 from Statistics Canada, Business Finance Division.

4 Recent statistics reveal that the total assets held by foreign-controlled corporations in nonfinancial industries is 34 per cent and their share of total taxable income is 46 per cent. (Annual Report of the Minister of Trade and Commerce under the Corporations and Labour Unions Act, Part 1, 1973, 16–21Google Scholar).

5 Farm implements, aluminum industries and finance capital may be cited as the most notable examples. Massey-Ferguson and Alcan figure among the top segment of the 300 largest non-American multinational corporations. (“The 300 Largest Industrials Outside the U.S.” Fortune Magazine (1972), 155–59Google Scholar.)

6 Some argue that the Canadian bourgeois class is dependent and subordinated to foreign capitalists not only economically but politically and culturally as well. Prominent among these are Teeple, Gary in Capitalism and the National Question in Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1972)Google Scholar; James, and Laxer, Robert in Canada Ltd. (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart Limited, 1973)Google Scholar; Levitt, Kari in Silent Surrender, The Multinational Corporation in Canada (Toronto: Macmillan Company of Canada Ltd., 1970)Google Scholar, and others. There are those who emphasize as well the fact of Canadian-owned multinationals and argue that Canada's bourgeois class is an imperialist one in successful pursuit of capital expansion wherever it can be achieved. Its command of a significant economic base situates it in an independent position, indeed, a controlling one in such industries as farm implements and aluminum in a number of countries. This group recognizes Canadian dependence but projects an increasingly imperialist future. See, for example, Moore, Steve and Wells, Debi, Imperialism and the National Question in Canada (Toronto: S. Moore, 1975)Google Scholar.

7 Marx, Karl and Engels, Frederick, The German Ideology (New York: International Publishers, 1947), 41Google Scholar.

8 Ibid., The Holy Family (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1975), 131–40Google Scholar. This is also discussed in Avineri, S., The Social and Political Thought of Karl Marx (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968), 41–64CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 Laski, Harold, The Rise of European Liberalism (London: Ruskin House, 1936)Google Scholar; Vachet, André, L'idéologie libérate (Paris: Editions Anthropos, 1970)Google Scholar.

10 Marcuse, Herbert, “The Struggle Against Liberalism in the Totalitarian View of the State” in Negations: Essays in Critical Theory, trans, by Shapiro, Jeremy (Boston: Beacon Press, 1968), 21Google Scholar

11 See, for example, Naylor, Tom, The History of Canadian Business 1867–1914, Vols. I and II (Toronto: James Lorimer & Company, 1975)Google Scholar.

12 This interpretation of the modem capitalist-state does not, of course, discount the dialectics of the class struggle in winning these benefits for the working class including the chronically unemployable. It emphasizes rather, that while the welfare programmes constitute economic relief, they assist in the regulation of the crisis-generating capitalist economy and thus, paradoxically, partly serve to reinforce capitalism.

13 The activity of the Canadian state exemplifies this pattern. The federal budgetary estimates forthe fiscal yearending March 31,1976 show $2,080,200,000 or 7.4 per cent of the allocated budget allotted to transportation and communications. The total estimate for health and welfare including infrastructural programmes is $7,835,900,000 or 27.8 per cent of the budget. Education assistance plus culture and recreation total 4.8 per cent or $1,362,900,000. (Estimates, 1975–76, Government of Canada.) In the Canadian federal system where education is an area of provincial jurisdiction, however, this figure is only partial. Ontario allotted 26.7 per cent of the total budget to education and 39 per cent to health and welfare. The corresponding figures for Quebec are 25 and 31 per cent respectively. (Provincial Governmen Finance, Statistics Canada, cat. no. L68–007, T.2, 1973.).

14 Indeed, a major argument of ideologues of advanced capitalism is that economic expansion and growth are of benefit to the total society including the traditional working class or proletariat. It is this which deflates the revolutionary consciousness and precludes the class struggle foreseen by Marx, according to such prominent ideologues as Daniel Bell, Robert Dahl, Ralf Dahrendorf and others. (Bell, Daniel, The Coming of Post-Industrial Society [New York: Basic Books, 1973]Google Scholar; Dahl, Robert, After the Revolution? [New Haven: Yale University Press, 1970]Google Scholar; Dahrendorf, Ralf, Class and Class Struggle in Industrial Society [Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1959]Google Scholar.)

15 The pervasiveness of this conception of knowledge both in the natural and social sciences is analyzed by Habermas, who points to consequent repression in the social realm where the unity of science principle and the assumptions of control of reality, both physical and social, permeates the whole scientific endeavour. (Habermas, Jürgen, Knowledge and Human Interests [Boston: Beacon Press, 1971]Google Scholar.)

16 Habermas, , “Technology and Science as ‘Ideology,’” in his Toward a Rational Society (Boston: Beacon Press, 1970), 81–122Google Scholar.

17 Schmitter, Philippe C., “Still the Century of Corporatism,” The Review of Politics 36 (1974), 97CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

18 This development is but a tendency in Canada. In other more advanced capitalist societies a higher degree of corporatism can be determined.

19 These texts are public statements of directors of some 200 largest corporations operating in Canada and representing the major corporate sectors of the Canadian economy namely the manufacturing industry, finance, insurance and real estate, transportation, communication, mining. The list of these corporations appears in the Canadian Business Magazine 48 (July 1975), 11–17Google Scholar. The classification of these economic sectors follows the Standard Industrial Classification Manual (Ottawa: Dominion Bureau of Statistics, 1970)Google Scholar, and conforms with that used in Concentration in the Manufacturing Industries of Canada (Ottawa: Department of Consumer and Corporate Affairs, 1970)Google Scholar, in which the extent of concentration is indicated. Although all texts received (80 per cent response which includes all corporations with assets over $100 million) and all interviews were carefully reviewed, the actual citations included in this paper were selected to assure the following: (1) that the executive of the biggest corporations in each of the above sectors of the corporate economy be represented, (b) that in cases of repetition of substance, directors of the larger or largest corporations be chosen so as to restrain the length of this paper. Every effort was made to ensure that selected quotations were characteristic of the larger texts from which they were drawn. All citations were quoted in context to prevent misinterpretation and ambiguity.

20 Some of these issues surrounding the historical process of capital formation in Canada are raised by Tom Naylor in The History of Canadian Business 1867–1914, and critically discussed by Ryerson, Stanley in “Who's Looking After Business,” This Magazine 10 (December 1976)Google Scholar to which Naylor replies (“The Last Word,” This Magazine 11 [May–June 1977]Google Scholar). See also the Rosenblum-Naylor exchange in Our Generation 11 (1975–1976), 5–24Google Scholar.

21 Bliss, Michael, A Living Profit, Studies in the Social History of Canadian Business, 1883–1911 (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart Limited, 1974), 134Google Scholar.

22 Ibid., 183.

23 Documented in ibid., 50.

24 Goodwin, Craufurd D. W., Canadian Economic Thought (Durham: Duke University Press, 1961), 50Google Scholar.

25 Documented in ibid., 55.

26 Argued by R. G. Haliburton, lawyer and businessman, documented in ibid., 46.

27 Confidential interview, April 1976Google Scholar.

28 W. J. D. Lewis, Chairman, Canadian Life Insurance Association, President, Prudential Insurance Company of America, addressing the Rotary Club of Vancouver, April 1976Google Scholar.

29 Ian Sinclair, Chairman, Canadian Pacific, in A Case for the Enterprise System (n.p.: n.p., September 1975)Google Scholar.

30 W. J. D. Lewis, addressing the Vancouver Rotary Club.

31 Habermas, Legitimation Crisis, 42.

32 Earle McLaughlin, Chairman and President, Royal Bank of Canada, addressing the Canadian Club of Montreal, March 1976Google Scholar.

33 Macpherson, C. B., “Do We Need a Theory of the State?” Archives européennes de Sociologie 18 (1977), 233–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

34 Thornbrough, Albert A., President, Massey-Ferguson, addressing the Seventeenth Annual Business Conference, University of Western Ontario, June 1973Google Scholar.

35 Mulholland, William, President, Bank of Montreal, addressing the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario, October 1975Google Scholar.

36 McLaughlin, Earle, addressing the Vancouver Board of Trade, October 1975Google Scholar.

37 Ibid.

38 Fraser, H. Ronald, Chairman, Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Co. Ltd., addressing the Copper Forum, October 1975Google Scholar.

39 Mclvor, D. K., Vice-President, Imperial Oil, addressing the Empire Club of Canada, February 1976Google Scholar.

40 Earle McLaughlin in A Case for the Enterprise System.

41 Notably, Galbraith, John Kenneth, The Affluent Society (New York: Mentor Books, 1970)Google Scholar; The New Industrial State (Cambridge: Houghton Mifflin, 1967)Google Scholar; Economics and the Public Purpose (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1972)Google Scholar.

42 Earle McLaughlin, in A Case for the Enterprise System.

43 Frazee, R. C., Vice-President, Royal Bank of Canada, addressing the Canadian Association of Sickness Insurers, June 1973Google Scholar.

44 Daniel, William, President, Shell Canada Ltd., addressing the Canadian Club of Vancouver, December 1975Google Scholar.

45 Daniel, William, addressing the Faculty of Management Studies, University of Toronto, November 1975Google Scholar.

46 Article in La Presse, October 23, 1976Google Scholar, referring to a recent statement by W. D. H. Gardiner, Vice-President of the Royal Bank of Canada.

47 de Grandpré, A. J., President, Bell Canada, addressing the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants, September 1975Google Scholar.

48 Bevan, George, Vice-President, Shell Canada Ltd., addressing the Academy of Dentistry, Winter Clinic, Toronto, November 1975Google Scholar.

49 Stan, Nathan, Vice-President, Acklands Ltd., addressing the Toronto Club, June 1975Google Scholar.

50 McLaughlin, Earle, addressing the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, September 1973Google Scholar.

51 McNeil, Fred, Chairman and Chief Officer, Bank of Montreal, addressing the Employers' Council of British Columbia, February 1976Google Scholar.

52 de Grandpré, A. J., addressing the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants, September 1975Google Scholar.

53 Burbridge, F., President, Canadian Pacific, addressing the Faculty of Management Studies, University of Toronto, November 1975Google Scholar.

54 A. D. Hamilton, President and Chief Executive Officer, Domtar, addressing the Royal Commission on Corporate Concentration.

55 Dawsett, R. C., President, Canadian Life Insurance Association, addressing the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce, April 1975Google Scholar.

56 McLaughlin, Earle, addressing the Canadian Club of Montreal, March 1976Google Scholar.

57 It must be pointed out here that until the phase of advanced capital concentration in Canada covering roughly the post-Second World War period, the reproduction of labour power was not mainly the responsibility of the state. This can be accounted for by two factors. First, the required manual labour power in agriculture, railway construction, manufacturing and other sectors was supplied by waves of immigration. Secondly, the close link between education and science-technology as an important force of production had not yet fully emerged.

58 Ward, Walter G., Chairman, Canadian General Electric Company Ltd., addressing the Conference Board of Canada, November 1974Google Scholar.

59 Lewis, W. J. D., Chairman, Canadian Life Insurance Association, President, Prudential Insurance Company of America, addressing the Rotary Club of Vancouver, April 1976Google Scholar.

60 Burbridge, F., President, Canadian Pacific, addressing the Faculty of Management Studies, University of Toronto, November 1975Google Scholar.

61 W. J. D. Lewis, addressing Vancouver Rotary Club.

62 de Grandpré, A. J., addressing the Royal Commission on Corporate Concentration, October 1975Google Scholar.

63 Shell Canada Ltd. submission to the Royal Commission on Corporate Concentration, October 1975Google Scholar.

64 A. D. Hamilton, addressing the Royal Commission on Corporate Concentration.

65 Mulholland, William, President, Bank of Montreal, addressing the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario, October 1975Google Scholar.

66 Richardson, Robert G., President, Dupont of Canada, addressing the School of International Affairs, Carleton University, May 1975Google Scholar.

67 Ibid.

68 Daniel, C. William, President, Shell Canada, addressing the Canadian Club of Vancouver, December 1975Google Scholar.

69 McCreedy, John, Vice-President, INCO, addressing the Convention of Prospectors and Developers Association, March 1976Google Scholar.

70 Confidential interview, April 1976Google Scholar.

71 Habermas, Legitimation Crisis, 17.