Patrons, Clients, Brokers : : Ontario Society and Politics, 1791–1896 / / S.J.R. Noel.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Toronto Press eBook-Package Archive 1933-1999
• VerfasserIn: Noel, S.J.R.,
• Place / Publishing House: Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2020]; ©1990
• Year of Publication: 2020
• Language: English
• Series: Heritage
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (344 p.)

At the heart of social and economic structures in Ontario at the end of the eighteenth century was land. The relationships that centred around land – who controlled it, who needed it, who got access to it – developed along patron/client lines. Professor Noel argues that these relationships eventually became the basis of provincial party politics in post-Confederation Ontario. As the province evolved through various stages of agricultural, resource-based, and industrial development, so too did the patron-client bond. This bond became the cement holding together the decentralized, brokerage-based political formations of the mid-nineteenth century. Later, to meet the new exigencies of post-Confederation politics, it was brilliantly crafted into the structure of Ontario’s first large-scale, cohesive, recognizably modern political party: the Liberals of Oliver Mowat. The primary focus of this study is on political practices rather than ideologies; political processes rather than institutions; political economy rather than the administrative organization of government; leaders, parties, and factions rather than legislatures or cabinets; and above all, after 1867, on Ontario politics rather than federal politics in Ontario. Noel develops a theory of clientelism to explain the gradual evolution of the key linkages in the political process from simple patron-client dyads to progressively more complex forms of brokerage and machine politics. He presents a revealing study of the nature of political relationships, the influences that shape them, and their consequences.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction: The Culture of Clientelism -- Part One. Upper Canada -- 1. The Upper Canadian Outlook -- 2. Political Ideals and Economic Realities -- 3. Patrons and Clients -- 4. Clientelism and Reform -- Part Two. Canada West -- 5. The Broker's Art -- 6. The Reign of Harmony -- 7. Francis Hincks and the Politics of Accommodation -- 8. The Juggling of Men and Money -- 9. Brokerage and the Politics of Power-Sharing -- 10. The Majoritarian Challenge -- 11. George Brown, the Great Reform Convention, and the Transition to Federalism -- Part Three. Ontario -- 12. The Patent Combination -- 13. Oliver Mowat and the Politics of Husbandry -- 14. Northern Ontario: The Boundary Issue and the Bribery Plot -- 15. The Mowat Machine -- 16. The Anti-Party Reaction -- Conclusion: Clientelism in Practice and Theory -- Index