Consolidating a Neoliberal Policy Bloc in Canada, 1976 to 1996

Abstract

This paper charts the development of a neoliberal policy bloc in Canada by considering five sites of business activism: two organizations with roots in the 1950s, which more or less embraced neoliberal projects in the 1980s; two that emerged in the 1970s; and one that was formed in 1994. Our investigation focuses on how these groups contributed to the consolidation of neoliberal hegemony in Canadian public policy. To that end, we present comparative case studies of the five groups (their ideological trajectories and their contemporary niches within an organizational ecology of neoliberal policy formation) and a network analysis of the positions they have taken up in the web of interlocking corporate directorates. Some political implications in the current era are discussed.