Le libre-échange Canada-Etats-Unis : l'importance du contexte international et la complexité du support social

Many analyses from the New Political Economy (NPE) perceive the Free Trade Agreement (FTA), either from the narrow angle of Canada-United States relationship, or as the result of pressures from dominant monolithic social forces. The present thesis offers a different angle of analysis by demonstrating the importance of the international context in shaping changes in domestic politics such as those relating to the FTA. The thesis also puts emphasis on the complexity of social support and political bargaining that resulted in the adoption of the FTA.Building of Peter Gourevitch's framework, which evaluates the impact of international crises on domestic politics, the thesis focuses on five possible factors that could explain the free trade outcome. Firstly, constraints and opportunities arising from the international system are assessed to evaluate if the government might have adopted the FTA to protect the "raison d'Etat": it rather appears that it is through the mediation of social actors that the post 1970 international crisis was felt. Secondly, a sectorial analysis finds that two coalitions, each one with two sets of preferences, were opposed on the FTA issue. Thirdly, the role of intermediate associations (business groups, unions and farmers associations) is assessed to see if their impact went beyond the sectorial interest they defended. Fourthly, the influence of economic ideologies is analyzed. Fifthly, the state structure is taken into account to show essentially that the Mulroney government had a double and complementary agenda with the FTA and the Meech Lake negotiations, both of which had a degree of independence from domestic economic and social pressures. (Abstract shortened by UMI.