Federalism and the Strong-State/Weak-State Conundrum: Canadian Economic Policymaking in Comparative Perspective

The areal dispersion of power and constitutional division of responsibilities in federal arrangements are generally felt to limit the ability of federal systems to improve economic performance. Examining Canada within a comparative framework, we assess “the federations as weak states” hypothesis as well as the utility of the “strong-state/weak-state” model itself. Although some aspects of the Canadian federal system—namely the combination of …