| This dissertation examines changes which have occurred in organizational politics of Canadian grain farmers during the twentieth century. One key question raised is, why did farmers abandon confrontational electoral tactics in exchange for more consultative interest group strategies? Identified are two major influences: the international political economy and federal government policy-making. In contrast to the pre-Depression era, in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s the Canadian government was able to devise agricultural policy under favourable economic conditions. Over time, increasingly strong links were forged between the government and such organizations as the Canadian Federation of Agriculture and the various farmer-owned grain co-operatives. However, with regard to a number of policy issues, and beginning in the late 1960s, the aims of many farmer groups and the government began to once again diverge. Under crisis conditions, Canadian farmers in the 1970 and 1980s resorted to using more traditional protest strategies. In the face of such hazards as fundamental shifts away from the moderate interventionism of Keynesian government policy, an unstable international grain regime, the 1980s drought, and the effects of trade globalization, Canadian farmers have been re-examining what were once-thought resolved questions regarding the extent to which they should rely upon consultative organizational strategies. |
