Marketing Boards in the White Dominions, with Special Reference to Australia and Canada

Abstract

The original ‘Dominions’ of the British Commonwealth — Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa — are examples of what W. W. Rostow has taught us to call ‘countries of New Settlement’. So are some Latin American states, such as Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and perhaps Brazil. Although differing in many important respects, all such states — especially perhaps the former ‘white dominions’ — share certain characteristics, one of which is a reticence about their domestic institutional arrangements. This reticence is easy to understand. Because the domestic, political and intellectual establishments are usually quite small, inward looking, and in part expatriate, every interested person at home thinks he knows all he needs to know about the local institutions, and believes that no one abroad could possibly care about them. In the circumstances why write about them? This reticence is troublesome to those of us who want to trace common patterns or explore divergences, but it is a fact of scholarly life.