Understanding Canadian Federalism provides an accessible and straightforward overview of the complex world of Canadian federalism and intergovernmental relations. Its boxed features, reader-friendly language, and interrogative style make the book an engaging and lively read. Understanding Canadian Federalism deals thematically with the theoretical and practical issues that have shaped, and continue to confront, Canadian federalism and presents them through the lens of a political economy perspective. It provides an understanding of the essential elements of Canadian federalism will grant readers a solid foundation in the intergovernmental issues that shape Canadian politics.
Understanding Canadian Public Administration offers excellent coverage of all the important and significant areas of public administration. While still providing a background of the theory and practice of public administration in Canada, the new fourth edition has been updated to reflect political changes in recent years. New topics - such as the financial crisis, the proroguing crisis of 2008/2009, Aboriginal Self-Government, and the Public Service Renewal Action Plan- have been added. Content on departmental organizations, agents of Parliament, political staff, and Human Resources Management have also been updated. In discussing these new topics, as well as information from the previous edition, Understanding Canadian Public Administration remains an easily accessible introductory text that is neither encyclopaedic nor esoteric. It provides you with an overview of essential theoretical issues in the field and then uses that theoretical grounding to examine the actual practice of public administration. The text compares the roles of the private and public sectors and examines the impact that the latter has had on the former. From a practical approach, it analyzes how public policy is actually set within the context of the Canadian federal state.
Gregory Inwood, Carolyn Johns, and Patricia O'Reilly offer unique insights into intergovernmental policy capacity, revealing what key decision-makers and policy advisors behind the scenes think the barriers are to improved intergovernmental policy capacity and what changes they recommend. Senior public servants from all jurisdictions in Canada discuss the ideas, institutions, actors, and relations that assist or impede intergovernmental policy capacity. Covering good and bad economic times and comparing insiders' concerns and recommendations with those of scholars of federalism, public policy, and public administration, they provide a comparative analysis of major policy areas across fourteen governments. Intergovernmental policy capacity, while of increasing importance, is not well understood. By examining how the Canadian federation copes with today's policy challenges, the authors provide guideposts for federations and governments around the world working on the major policy issues of our day.
Free trade has been a highly contentious issue since the Conservative government of Brian Mulroney negotiated the first deal with the United States in the 1980s. Tracing the roots of Canada's contemporary involvement in North American free trade back to the Royal Commission on the Economic Union and Development Prospects for Canada in 1985 - also known as the Macdonald Commission - Gregory J. Inwood offers a critical examination of the commission and how its findings affected Canada's political and economic landscape, including its present-day reverberations. Using original research - including content analysis, interviews, archival information, and surveys of relevant literature - Inwood argues that the Macdonald Commission created an atmosphere and political discourse that made the continentalization of Canada possible by way of free trade agreements with the U.S. and Mexico. Through the use of a suspect research program, and with the aid of a select oligarchy within the Commission and the government bureaucracy, opposition to continentalism from both the majority of the Canadian population and even several commissioners was ignored. Accessible to readers interested in Canadian politics, policy, or economy, Continentalizing Canada offers a thorough examination into the Macdonald Commission and the resulting discourse in the Canadian political economy.
Governance and Public Policy in Canada lays the foundation for a systematic analysis of policy developments, shaped as they are by multiple players, institutional tensions, and governance legacies. Arguing that provinces are now the most central site of governance and policy innovation, the book assesses the role of the provinces and places the provincial state in its broader economic, institutional, social, and territorial context. The aim throughout is to highlight the crucial role of provinces in policy changes that directly affect the lives of citizens. Three key themes unify this book. First, it addresses the role of policy convergence and divergence among provinces. Although the analysis acknowledges enduring differences in political culture and institutions, it also points to patterns of policy diffusion and convergence in specific areas in a number of provinces. Second, the book explores the push and pull between centralization and decentralization in Canada as it affects intergovernmental relations. Third, it underscores that although the provinces play a greater role in policy development than ever before, they now face a growing tension between their expanding policy ambitions and their capacity to develop, fund, implement, manage, and evaluate policy programs. Governance and Public Policy in Canada describes how the provincial state has adapted in the context of these changing circumstances to transcend its limited capacity while engaging with a growing number of civil society actors, policy networks, and intergovernmental bodies.
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.