Stranded on the Common Ground: Global Governance and State Power in England and Canada

In the policy debates about international competitiveness, the ubiquity of the entrepreneur has become so widespread as to occupy the common ground of political economy. However, at the heart of this debate, the seminal work of Michael Porter has tended to overlook the importance of decentralised democratic political institutions for competitive advantage. This article compares policies for fostering innovation in England and Canada to contrast the competitive advantage to be derived from the centralised English and decentralised Canadian polities respectively. The conclusion drawn is that, on almost every measure, the decentralised framework of the Canadian state provides a more effective discovery process for entrepreneurship than the centralised prescription of policy and resources fostered in England during the tenure of the Blair Governments.