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Copyright of Canadian Geographer is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The situation of Québec has always been considered unique amongst the 10 Canadian provinces and in the case of regional and urban planning there is no exception to this rule. Thus, in 1979, Québec was the last province to adopt a planning law after 20 years of previous attempts. Québec is often portrayed as a special case. It is too easy to explain the situation in Québec by making reference to its particular cultural context, to the detriment of other equally important factors such as the historical context, class relationships and political control over planning. The paper emphasizes on specific conditions within which social relationships are established and to underline the ongoing dialectic which brings together national and international trends, on the one hand and on the other, the internal dynamics of a society, the aim being to set out the conditions within which social practices and policies occur. Changes in Québec society from 1950-60 occurred within narrow limits circumscribed by the state. Following a Keynasian approach, the central state took responsibility for economic development and division of powers of intervention amongst institutions involving sharing out of spheres of influence between local and national factions of the bourgeoisie. Urban planning did not escape this trend leading to a vertical distribution of government responsibilities.

Copyright of Canadian Public Administration is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article presents information about mediated enforcement and the evolution of the state in the Canada. Authors have argued that the modern state is not the monolith pictured, but a much more complex and interesting entity, struggling in the face of mounting pressures to assert control, governing by indirection in a complex organizational milieu, ingeniously maximizing the credit it takes while minimizing the risk of blame, managing at an arm's length and making use of leverage and bargaining power. In seeking to explain the reasons for the creation of urban development corporations, authors have pictured the Canadian federal government as being caught in the middle of a triangle of growing pressures, which pushes it in different directions. One is the growing power of an electorate that demands ever more of government as it becomes more politically knowledgeable and better educated. A second is the growing power of capital which, thanks to its increasing size and mobility, is ever more able to command the terms it seeks. The third is the government's own financial limitations, which impose ever greater constraints on its ability to present itself to the voters in a favorable light and to make concessions to capital.