The Public Servant’s Guide to Government in Canada is a concise primer on the inner workings of government in Canada. This is a go-to resource for students, for early career public servants, and for anyone who wants to know more about how government works. Grounded in experience, the book connects core concepts in political science and public administration to the real-world practice of working in the public service. The authors provide valuable insights into the messy realities of governing and the art of diplomacy, as well as best practices for climbing the career ladder.
Canada's machinery of government is out of joint. In Breaking the Bargain, Donald J. Savoie reveals how the traditional deal struck between politicians and career officials that underpins the workings of our national political and administrative process is today being challenged. He argues that the role of bureaucracy within the Canadian political machine has never been properly defined, that the relationship between elected and permanent government officials is increasingly problematic, and that the public service cannot function if it is expected to be both independent of, and subordinate to, elected officials. While the public service attempts to define its own political sphere, the House of Commons is also in flux: the prime minister and his close advisors wield ever more power, and cabinet no longer occupies the policy ground to which it is entitled. Ministers, who have traditionally been able to develop their own roles, have increasingly lost their autonomy. Federal departmental structures are crumbling, giving way to a new model that eschews boundaries in favour of sharing policy and program space with outsiders. The implications of this functional shift are profound, having a deep impact on how public policies are struck, how government operates, and, ultimately, the capacity for accountability.
This report looks at the capacity and capabilities of civil servants of OECD countries and suggests approaches for addressing skills gaps through recruitment, development and workforce management
How can governments reduce workforce costs while ensuring civil servants remain engaged and productive? This report addresses this question, using evidence from the 2014 OECD Survey on Managing Budgeting Constraints: Implications for HRM and Employment in Central Public Administration.
Have you ever wondered how the day-to-day business of government actually works? What do prime ministers and ministers do when away from the spotlight of Question Period? How does a government stay on track, and how can a career be derailed? How can a new minister balance the conflicting demands of their chief of staff, their department, their constituency office, and their family at home? In this practical handbook, Michael Wernick, a career public servant with decades of experience in the highest levels of Canadian government, shares candid advice and information that is usually only provided behind closed doors. From cautioning against common pitfalls for neophyte ministers to outlining the learnable skills that are needed to succeed, Wernick lays the business of governance bare. It’s a first-time look behind the curtain at how government functions, and essential reading for anyone interested in the business of Canadian politics.
The civil service provides the administrative infrastructure of western government. Its functions are central to any question of efficiency, the distribution of power in the state, the role of the state in society and the operation of democracy itself. When such issues transcend national boundaries a comparative perspective is invaluable. This book provides the first comprehensive study of civil services in the West. Aimed at first year students and above, the book applies a common framework of analysis to the study of each country's political setting, historical background, political executive, structure, bureaucracy, control, accountability, management and policy-making. The book is a timely and comprehensive introduction to this vital but neglected area of study. Countries covered include: Britain, Ireland, Canada, France, Italy, Sweden, United States and West Germany.
In 1908, after decades of struggling with a public administration undermined by systemic patronage, the Canadian parliament decided that public servants would be selected on the basis of merit, through a system administered by an independent agency: the Public Service Commission of Canada. This history, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Commission, recounts its unique contribution to the development of an independent public service, which has become a pillar of Canadian parliamentary democracy.
This book addresses an important issue and debate in public administration: the politicization of civil service systems and personnel. Using a comparative framework the authors address issues such as compensation, appointments made from outside the civil service system, anonymity, partisanship and systems used to handle appointees of prior administrations in the US, Canada, Germany, France, Britain, New Zealand, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Greece.
Public administration as an American profession originated in the early twentieth century with urban reformers advocating the application of scientific and business practices to rehabilitate corrupt city governments. That approach transformed governance in the United States but also guaranteed recurrent debate over the proper role of public administrators, who must balance the often contradictory demands of efficiency and politically defined notions of the public good. Currently the business approach holds sway. Legitimated by Al Gore's National Performance Review, the New Public Management movement promotes entrepreneurs over civil servants, performance over process, decentralization over centralization, and flexibility over rules. John Rohr demurs, arguing that the movement goes too far in downplaying the distinctively American challenges arising from the separated powers principle. Consequently, the NPM alienates public management from its natural home—a nation-state established within a constitutional order. According to Rohr, "nothing is more fundamental to governance than a constitution; and therefore to stress the constitutional character of administration is to establish the proper role of administration as governance that includes management but transcends it as well." This is not a novel argument for Rohr, who was recognized in 1999 by the Louis Brownlow Committee of the National Academy of Public Administration for his lifetime contributions on the "constitutional underpinnings" of public administration. But this new version of his rule-of-law critique directly addresses the NPM's excesses, framed convincingly as a comparative study of cases found in four countries spanning three centuries. As a result, Rohr establishes that the constitutional-administrative nexus is intimate, stable, pervasive, and enduring. The first half of the book examines the linkages between constitutions and administrations in France, the United Kingdom, and Canada, all of them sufficiently similar to the United States to make comparisons meaningful and sufficiently different to provide illuminating perspectives on domestic practices. The examples extend from the French Revolution through the founding of the Canadian Confederation in the 1860s to such contemporary issues as the influence of administrative directives from Brussels on the British courts. The second half of the book examines American cases in three categories: separation of powers, individual rights, and federalism. In each case Rohr highlights instances of public management "with all its warts and wrinkles tending to the mundane details of translating great constitutional principles into everyday actions." American administrative law, Rohr concludes, has structured safeguards to protect the integrity of administrative decision-making while also holding it accountable. Constitutional law has helped establish civil servants' freedom of speech and applied the fundamental principles of federalism to the administrative process. He summarizes his findings from the case studies by saying that the constitutional role of American civil servants comes not only from specific American experiences but also from the very nature of civil service.
