Lecture 15: Elites in the Canadian Political System

1. Lecture 15: Elites in the Canadian Political System SOSC 152

2. Key Questions • Class Background of Elites? • Representation Versus Agglutination? • Exit Pattern of Political Elites

3. Class background of Elites • Porter's “Vertical Mosaic,” first major study. a. Economic Elite: • looked at corporate elite of 1940-1960 • critical role of upper class family ties, exclusive private schools, Anglo-Saxon ethnic background, Anglican religion, membership in exclusive clubs • board of directors of 183 corporations--"internally cohesive and concentrated elite characterized by extensive interlocking directorate between corporations.“ • The same people were on many corporations’ boards

4. b. Political Elite: • political and bureaucratic elite less exclusive social backgrounds, still middle and upper classes • strong level of cooptation from other elites, Cabinet membership led to easy entry into corporate elite. • labour elite as lowest social class • Findings: • high level of agglutination and class power • NOT model of pluralist systems as political, corporate, and bureaucratic elites from same background and highly interdependent.

5. 2. Wallace Clements: a. strong movement between law and financial world for PM and Cabinet Ministers. • in 1917, 70% of Cabinet ministers had business relations. • 1965, 21/34 Cabinet ministers had corporate ties • Liberal governments 1935-1957 -- 64% (37/58) had business ties. • ties stronger if includes Crown Corporations, Royal Commissions, Senate, Advisory Boards

6. b. Weakness of Political Elite • political elite lacked institutional cohesion to make it a powerful counter-elite to business elite. • Political elite highly penetrated • very high turnover – in Clement’s study, 40% of politicians don't return for next election, today incumbency is higher • hard for the citizens to develop influence over politicians, easier for business to influence politicians. • Politicians more concerned about jobs after political career than insuring re-election

7. 3. Olsen Study: a. Significance of Education • educational level of elites increases as one moves from municipal, to provincial to national elites. • lawyers very important; from 1960-1980, businessmen replaced lawyers. • experience of federal politicians at local political level decreasing.

8. of 66 Cabinet ministers in 1961-1973: Local Experience of Federal Cabinet Ministers • Most people spend political life working at only one level of government • Why?

9. Province as Autonomous Power Base • Strengthening of province as autonomous power base, with rich resource base--people feel no need to move up to federal politics. • trend likely to have increased in 1980s. • bad news for regional and national integration: Reinforces regional ties • Federal-Provincial Conferences became so important

10. Law of Increasing Disproportion • Before Trudeau era (1968-1984), French Canadians (and Catholics) underrepresented. • percent of Francophones dropped from 36% in 1863 to 22% in 1918. • in 1965, only 5% of senior government bureaucrats were Francophone, while French made up 25% of population. • Jews kept out of corporate elite, banking, railroads. • heavily anti-female bias in government bureaucracy: • 1921 government regulation restricting hiring of married women, in effect until 1955. • until a few years ago, women not allowed in certain clubs in Parliament

11. Law of Increasing Disproportion—cont’d • Why? • Key role of education and graduation from a few key schools such as McGill, Laval, Queens, and University of Toronto. Background of Prime Ministers • Table shows that the majority had law degrees: • some had come up through the Civil Service, • majority come from Ontario and Quebec, • almost all men

12. The Prime Ministers of Canada

13. Exit Pattern of Political Elites • how people retire from political office affects how they behave in office • 1940-1973: 1/3 of Cabinet members received political appointment--judges, Senate, lieutenant governor, chair of regulatory board • 1961-1973: 69 federal ministers left posts, 24 took "patronage post," 13 to business of whom 10 had come from business • When Trudeau retired in 1984, he gave many political allies posts in the Senate.

14. Exit Pattern of Political Elites – cont’d • high degree of circulation from business elite into politics, back into business or direct movement from political elite to business. • Result: very elite oriented decision making, not so open process for popular influence on decision makers • low costs of losing elections: if people lose, go into business