Overview

Regulatory Failure and Renewal develops a framework to understand the choice of regulatory instrument used in Canada for natural monopolies such as telephone companies, water utilities, streetcars, hydroelectricity, and railways from the 1880s to the 1930s. Using the transaction-cost literature pioneered by Oliver Williamson, John Baldwin examines the nature of contractual failure in Canada in natural monopoly cases, asking why initial forms of contracts between the state and private enterprise failed and why this failure so often resulted in the use of public enterprise. Baldwin outlines early attempts to deal with natural monopolies – from the use of a franchise contract to regulatory tribunals and finally to public enterprise – and compares Canadian experiences to US approaches, which turned more frequently to regulatory tribunals. This difference is due to Canada’s more limited constraints on the state’s ability to exercise coercive power, which sometimes leads to contractual failure that results in replacing franchise and regulatory frameworks with public enterprise. Regulatory Failure and Renewal demonstrates that public enterprise arose not so much as part of a purposive choice but because of reoccurring failures in the contractual process between the Canadian state and private enterprise.

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9780228011811

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Reviews

""Deindustrializing Montreal is an excellent book animated by a rich and rigorous use of oral history and careful attention to race and language. High combines a mastery of international literature with a serious engagement with place. The result is a fascinating study of neighbourhood in the context of capitalism, community, politics, and economic change."" Steve Penfold, University of Toronto ""Steven High offers an original and innovative analysis of deindustrialization and gentrification in two neighbourhoods that have been at the heart of the expansion of industrial capitalism in Canada since the nineteenth century. The book's rich illustrations and its insistence on including and engaging the voices of citizens of Pointe Saint-Charles and Little Burgundy make it directly relevant to residents and community groups in those neighbourhoods but also to anyone in the myriad urban communities living with deindustrialization. High has a special gift for connecting the issues of the past with the challenges of the present and for reminding us that the creation of historical knowledge is a communal endeavour."" Martin Petitclerc, Université du Québec à Montréal

Deindustrializing Montreal is an excellent book animated by a rich and rigorous use of oral history and careful attention to race and language. High combines a mastery of international literature with a serious engagement with place. The result is a fascinating study of neighbourhood in the context of capitalism, community, politics, and economic change. Steve Penfold, University of Toronto Steven High offers an original and innovative analysis of deindustrialization and gentrification in two neighbourhoods that have been at the heart of the expansion of industrial capitalism in Canada since the nineteenth century. The book's rich illustrations and its insistence on including and engaging the voices of citizens of Pointe Saint-Charles and Little Burgundy make it directly relevant to residents and community groups in those neighbourhoods but also to anyone in the myriad urban communities living with deindustrialization. High has a special gift for connecting the issues of the past with the challenges of the present and for reminding us that the creation of historical knowledge is a communal endeavour. Martin Petitclerc, Universite du Quebec a Montreal

"""Deindustrializing Montreal is an excellent book animated by a rich and rigorous use of oral history and careful attention to race and language. High combines a mastery of international literature with a serious engagement with place. The result is a fascinating study of neighbourhood in the context of capitalism, community, politics, and economic change."" Steve Penfold, University of Toronto ""Steven High offers an original and innovative analysis of deindustrialization and gentrification in two neighbourhoods that have been at the heart of the expansion of industrial capitalism in Canada since the nineteenth century. The book's rich illustrations and its insistence on including and engaging the voices of citizens of Pointe Saint-Charles and Little Burgundy make it directly relevant to residents and community groups in those neighbourhoods but also to anyone in the myriad urban communities living with deindustrialization. High has a special gift for connecting the issues of the past with the challenges of the present and for reminding us that the creation of historical knowledge is a communal endeavour."" Martin Petitclerc, Université du Québec à Montréal"

Author Information

John R. Baldwin taught in the economics department at Queen’s University, worked at the Economic Council of Canada, and is the former head of the Economic Analysis Research Group at Statistics Canada.

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