Continuity and Change in the U.S. Decision-Making Process in Raw Materials

Since the beginning of the 1970s, the production and distribution of raw materials have become subjects of intense public debate and scholarly analysis in the United States. Part of this attention has been caused by the "energy crisis" and by the sudden realization that it brought of the nonrenewable nature of once-plentiful domestic minerals. Another contributing factor has been the surge of interest in the activities of transnational corporations. ¹ These vertically integrated companies, primarily U.S.-based, play a dominant role in the production, extraction, and fabrication of fuels, ores, and metals. There has also been recent academic research concerning the role of non-governmental, non-official, and bureaucratic actors in governmental decision-making. The actions of governmental bureaucracies, functioning independently of their central governments or in accord with their own internal norms, ² have proved to be important in establishing patterns of resource use and distribution. The examination of the raw materials decision-making process has taken on particular significance in the U.S.-Canadian relationship because of the interpenetration of the two economies, the vast number of informal ties across the border, and the importance of raw materials in the bilateral trading pattern.