Re-evaluating the Washington Loan Agreement: a revisionist view of the limits of postwar American power

1992 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 241-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Burnham
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Economic Policy ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
International Relations ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Power ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Financial Agreement ◽  
Client State

The Financial Agreement signed between the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom on the 6th December 1945 (popularly known as the Washington Loan Agreement, and hereafter referred to as ‘the Agreement’) is widely interpreted as an agreement which imposed fundamental constraints on British external economic policy and is even seen as a benchmark in postwar international relations signalling the subordination of Britain to the level almost of a client state of the United States.

scholarly journals From Dreams to Reality: The Evolution of Anglo-Canadian Trade During the Diefenbaker Era

2006 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 243-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce Muirhead
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Economic Policy ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Trade Policy ◽  
Normal Development ◽  
The United States ◽  
Foreign Economic Policy ◽  
Conservative Government ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Us

Abstract The articulated foreign economic policy of the Conservative government of John Diefenbaker following its election in June 1957 was to redirect trade away from the United States and toward the United Kingdom. This policy reflected Diefenbaker's almost religious attachment to the Commonwealth and to Britain, as well as his abiding suspicion of continentalism. However, from these brave beginnings, Conservative trade policy ended up pretty much where the Liberals had been before their 1957 defeat-increasingly reliant on the US market for Canada's domestic prosperity. This was a result partly of the normal development of trade between the two North American countries, but it also reflected Diefenbaker's growing realisation of the market differences between Canada and the United Kingdom, and the impossibility of enhancing the flow of Canadian exports to Britain.

Institutions, Interests, and Ideology in Economic Policy in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States

1994 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-176
Author(s):  
N C Thomas
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Economic Policy ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
The United States ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Role Of Government ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Governmental Institutions

In previous research on economic policy in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States, from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s, the author found that the primary determinant of economic policies and their outcomes appeared to be powerful organized interest groups, with differences in governmental institutions having little apparent impact. The ideologies of Thatcherism and Reaganism contributed to the reduction of the role of government and established conservative agendas, but left their postwar welfare state programs intact. This study of economic policymaking in the three countries since the mid-1980s confirms the ‘new institutionalist’ position in political science that institutions—government organizations, political parties, and electoral systems—do matter. Interest groups are also crucial, but they are not as determinative as previously argued. Ideology can be critical, but the influence of ideology is neither pervasive nor continuous. Strong, forceful, goal-directed leadership can also play a vital role.

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