| The contribution of political science within the natural resources discipline is examined in this dissertation. A macro-level, a meso-level, and an empirical level of inquiry are employed in order to understand complexity and change throughout the Canadian natural resources sector.; Chapter Two considers the importance of staples production when studying the state. The competitive state, a reply to the declining Keynesian National Welfare State (KNWS), is adopted in order to reconcile the continued importance of natural resource production in many parts of Canada with the changing composition of capitalist production and globalization.; Chapter Three addresses two significant gaps encountered by all policy scientists: a lack of interaction between policy-making levels (national domain, provincial policy communities, and communities) and an underdeveloped or incomplete conception of policy-making organizations. As a result, popular policy frameworks have a limited capacity. Complexity theory and fuzzy logic are adopted, leading to the development of a framework allowing a simultaneous consideration of the different levels of policymaking and an organization's capacity and commitment.; A structural equation model is developed in Chapter Four in order to examine the role of informal coordination networks and the concern about climate change. The data from this study came from responses to an online web survey of Canadian prairie agriculture, forestry, and water based policy elite. The survey garnered 356 responses (41.8% response rate). The results found that respondents looked to the federal government as a potential ally. However, the federal government did not reciprocate to the other major organizational clusters (agriculture and forest industry, provincial government, environment groups and research organizations). |
