Just to bring the tangent on Canadian/U.S. differences back on line with  
the discussion Mary Schweitzer initiated, perhaps one can ask if there are  
significant difference in the way Canadian economists view government  
activity. 
 
To make this more concrete, consider Harold Innis' relationship with the  
early Chicago School economists.  Perhaps other on the list can say more  
about this, but my perception is that Innis had a strong ambivalence  
(sp.?) about government action.  One the one hand, he was influenced by  
the views of Frank Knight, who believed that all government action  
involved the use of force and was coercive (Knight's most powerful  
statement of this comes in his unpublished reflection on the  
Sacco/Vincetti execution, called "The ethics of the state").  Knight  
visited Toronto in 1934 at Innis' invitation and delivered a lecture on  
the downfall of western civilization (published by UofT Quarterly as  
"Social Science and the Political Trend") which re-iterated this theme.   
But Innis was also a nationalist, and his work is often cited by those who  
wish for greater government involvement in the economy in order to  
establish an independent course of development.  Innis also participated in the formation
of
government funding agencies for research in the social sciences (and  
regularly sat on committees that handed out funds). 
 
Perhaps discussion of how specific economists used notions of coercion in  
their work would assist this discussion. 
 
Ross 
 
Ross B. Emmett, Augustana University College, Camrose, Alberta 
CANADA   T4V 2R3   voice: (403) 679-1517   fax: (403) 679-1129 
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