Published in 1984, How Ottawa Decides is an insider's view of how Ottawa tried throughout the 1970s to establish priorities and act on them. The book anatomizes the politics of the bureaucracy and the Cabinet, showing how power really operated in Ottawa during this period. It tracks the failure of many ambitious efforts to impose political control over government departments long used to operating without undue interference from elected officials. How Ottawa Decides is startling first-hand account of the forces that really ran the federal government in the 1970s.
Drawing on the work of academics and other experts from across Canada, Carleton University's School of Public Policy and Administration's annual book takes a focused and robust look at an era where a political coronation seemed inevitable but high expectations had to be managed downwards almost immediately. A less-than-buoyant fiscal surplus, escalating concerns about liberal ethics and corruption, and a growing volatility in public opinion are examined as are Canadians' increasingly uncertain views about the new Liberal leadership versus the old Liberal Party's ten-year hold on power. A new Conservative Party and a suddenly feisty New Democratic Party are also a central part of the new 2004-2005 Canadian political and policy milieu.
Here are 19 short stories about Canadian politics and government. These fictional “inside accounts” of political and governmental events, discussions and decisions give the reader an unvarnished view into how Ottawa works. That is, how politicians think, what it’s like to live with the pressures of decisions, and what kinds of issues and preoccupations confront political activists, organizers, prime ministers, governments, elected politicians, their staffs and lobbyists. It covers people trying to do their best for the country, and those less idealistic. The stories go from the recruitment of a candidate, through an election campaign, to appointment to Cabinet then to decline in political fortune, defeat and what happens after. In between are stories about political staff, a lobbyist, an Opposition MP who takes things seriously, and a Government MP that does not, political leadership, and even how a single person missing from a situation changes the outcome. So the various stories cover honesty and dishonesty, loyalty and disloyalty, marital fidelity and marital betrayal, political wisdom, political stupidity, luck both good and bad, how things might happen, or are planned to happen, are hoped to happen or didn’t happen. Nothing in Government and politics is as simple as it sometimes seems, but sometimes the confusion is deliberate. For anyone interested in Canadian politics, these stories will inform, amuse, confuse, and beguile you.
In this book, addressed primarily to business leaders, politicians, andpublic servants, the author speculates about the economic problems thatchanging international conditions appear to be creating; argues that existing policies no longer work and must be replaced with new ones basedon a new national consensus about economic goals; reviews the ways businessand government have worked together in the past to formuate economic strategies; and suggests ways the government can create a new consensus andthe prospects for its success in doing so.
David A. Good's The Politics of Public Money examines the extent to which the Canadian federal budgetary process is shifting from one based on a bilateral relationship between departmental spenders and central guardians to one based on a more complex, multilateral relationship involving a variety of players.
As a stunning tide of democratization sweeps across much of the world, countries must cope with increasing problems of economic development, political and social integration, and greater public demand of scarce resources. That ability to respond effectively to these issues depends largely on the institutional choices of each of these newly democratizing countries. With critics of national political institutions in the United States arguing that the American separation-of-powers system promotes ineffectiveness and policy deadlock, many question whether these countries should emulate American institutions or choose parliamentary institutions instead. The essays in this book fully examine whether parliamentary government is superior to the separation-of-powers system through a direct comparison of the two. In addressing specific policy areas—such as innovation and implementation of energy policies after the oil shocks of 1970, management of societal cleavages, setting of government priorities in budgeting, representation of diffuse interest in environmental policy, and management of defense forces—the authors define capabilities that allow governments to respond to policy problems. Do Institutions Matter? includes case studies that bear important evidence on when and how institutions influence government effectiveness. The authors discover a widespread variation among parliamentary systems both in institutional arrangements and in governmental capabilities, and find that many of the failings of policy performance commonly attributed to American political institutions are in fact widely shared among western industrial countries. Moreover, they show how American political institutions inhibit some government capabilities while enhancing others. Changing American institutions to improve some aspects of governmental performance could hurt other widely valued capabilities. The authors draw important guidelines for institutional reformers wh
Based on a survey of all national business associations, and interviews with many interest-group executives, Business and Politics outlines the wide variety of roles assumed by interest groups in the Canadian policy process. Coleman argues that the present fragmention of business interests makes consultation with major socio-economic producer groups highly unlikely. Instead, adjustment takes place as a series of ad hoc bailouts related to an electoral calculus rather than to a more reflective consideration of the longer-term evolution of the Canadian economy and the relative economic position of Canadians. As there are no organizations that prompt business to take a broad look at its responsibilities to society at large, some economic policy options that political leaders might want to consider are ruled out. Attempts to redress difficulties in the Canadian economy and social welfare system consequently suffer. Coleman concludes that the business community is not appropriately accountable to Canadians for its actions, nor is it sufficiently organized to assume the political responsibilities that come with the private economic power it possesses. He argues that Canada could benefit from examining models of the political institutions in smaller European states and adopting some of their solutions for reform in this country.
Since World War II, the way economic policy has been formed both in Canada and abroad has changed radically. This book shows that the course taken in Canada has much to do with the crisis in the Canadian economy in the post-war period. Thornburn examines the response of other Western nations to the changing economic order of the postwar world, and then turns to an analysis of Canadian economic policy-making at the federal level and in all ten provinces. Thorburn points to the need for a central planning agency to correct the drift in Canada's economic policy. First published in 1984, Planning and the Economy is a strongly argued entry into the vital debates over Canadian political and economic policy in the early 1980s.
