Domestic Political Instability in North America

Abstract

As we have seen, the question of whether the USA is in relative decline has almost exclusively been addressed by considering the US role in international affairs.¹ Yet, as we saw in the last chapter, the ‘American empire’ does not exist as an external so much as a continental regime, although a ‘periphery’ of informal imperialistic activity can be defined outside the ‘core’. So, to examine the question of US decline, one must look at the domestic affairs of the USA itself, and to do so effectively it is interesting to consider it in comparison with Canada, its continental neighbour. It will be seen that many of the processes of change visible in the contemporary USA also exist in Canada and they are, in a few cases, further advanced in Canada than they are in the USA. The prospects for the USA can, therefore, in some such cases, be evaluated in relation to trends already more advanced in Canada. This comparison is made more important by evidence of convergence between the USA and Canada and this, too, will be examined in this chapter.