Discussions of forest certification have tended to characterize certification systems as a prime example of the hollowing out of the state and a shift from government to governance. The continued contention that certification is a product of a retreating state has implications for how we understand democratic participation and fails to pay…

The paper examines the social structure of Canada's agricultural production. It argues that "the official development strategy is typical of state involvement in maturing capitalist economies and that, in so far as these policies are successful, they bring to an end small scale production of primary products by absorbing rural people into an…