Citizen participation and public policy in rural development : the rural development association movement in Newfoundland and Labrador

Abstract

This thesis is a study of the rural development association movement in Newfoundland and Labrador from its roots in the late 1960's through to the late 1980's. To provide an overall context it first examines the patterns of underdevelopment in both the pre-Confederation and post-Confederation periods to determine the long-term historical factors and the immediate conditions from which the movement emerged. The movement is then examined in terms of its immediate origins, composition, ideology, activities and relationship to the state. Attention is drawn to be complex of class relations, in particular the role of the petit-bourgeoisie new class elements that were expanded during the industrialization and modernization period in which the movement emerged. The movement's career is traced from a collection of organizations mobilized to resist the state development policies through a period of state supported expansion and growth to its eventual phase of institutionalization.

The movement's composition and ideology is addressed in terms of how these interrelationships contributed to the movement's eventual co-option. The movement's relationship to the state, while expressed in terms of a partnership, is seen to be for all intents and purposes a dependency relationship; whereby the movement acts as an administrator of state programs and policies designed mainly to temporarily alleviate chronic unemployment rather than contribute to a comprehensive program of rural development.