Suchergebnisse

The economic crisis has revealed the extent to which sustaining the key tenets of the 'Common Sense Revolution', implemented by the Conservative government of Premier Mike Harris, have eroded the fiscal capacity of Ontario. The proposal to freeze public sector wages and the ensuing consultation with public sector unions and employers in the spring/summer of 2010 signal Ontario is about to return to the rollback neoliberalism that dominated the 1990s. The difference between now and then is the more defensive posture of organized labour and the limited capacities that exist to resist such an assault. La crise économique a révélé l'étendue avec laquelle le maintien des principaux principes du 'Common Sense Révolution', introduits par le gouvernement conservateur du Premier Mike Harris, a érodé la capacité fiscale de l'Ontario. La proposition de geler les salaires de la fonction publique et la consultation qui s'ensuivit avec les syndicats et les employeurs du secteur public au cours du printemps et de l'été de 2010 indiquent que l'Ontario est sur le point de retourner au néolibéralisme qui dominait les années 1990. La différence entre aujourd'hui et hier est la position plus défensive du mouvement syndical et les capacités limitées qui existent pour s'opposer à une telle attaque.

The economic crisis has revealed the extent to which sustaining the key tenets of the 'Common Sense Revolution', implemented by the Conservative government of Premier Mike Harris, have eroded the fiscal capacity of Ontario. The proposal to freeze public sector wages and the ensuing consultation with public sector unions and employers in the spring/summer of 2010 signal Ontario is about to return to the rollback neoliberalism that dominated the 1990s. The difference between now and then is the more defensive posture of organized labour and the limited capacities that exist to resist such an assault. La crise économique a révélé l'étendue avec laquelle le maintien des principaux principes du 'Common Sense Révolution', introduits par le gouvernement conservateur du Premier Mike Harris, a érodé la capacité fiscale de l'Ontario. La proposition de geler les salaires de la fonction publique et la consultation qui s'ensuivit avec les syndicats et les employeurs du secteur public au cours du printemps et de l'été de 2010 indiquent que l'Ontario est sur le point de retourner au néolibéralisme qui dominait les années 1990. La différence entre aujourd'hui et hier est la position plus défensive du mouvement syndical et les capacités limitées qui existent pour s'opposer à une telle attaque.

The Politics of Public Management: The HRDC Audit of Grants and
Contributions, David A. Good, The Institute of Public Administration of
Canada Series in Public Management and Governance; Toronto, University of
Toronto Press, 2003, pp. 240The literature in public administration in some ways suffers from not
having more practitioners reflecting, writing and analyzing their
experiences. Thus David Good's book analyzing the HRDC's
so-called "billion dollar boondoggle" is a welcome
contribution. His background as both a senior manager/executive within
the Federal government and his academic credentials—a doctorate in
policy and administration sets him apart—as a practitioner-academic.
Good possesses the senior public manager's mind for detail and this
book provides a clear account of the ebbing and flowing of events,
beginning with the January 2000 release of HRDC's internal audit that
implied a loss of a billion dollars, to the Auditor General's report
of October that same year which, while critical of monitoring and
reporting practices, concluded that only $85,000 was unaccounted for. The
media and the opposition, at this point quickly lost interest.

The author aims at establishing the concept of a framework within which the arms procurement patterns of the ASEAN members can be evaluated. There is a danger that existing differences and areas of potential conflict within ASEAN may be exacerbated by an escalation of arms transfers into the region. Consequently, it might be possible to achieve a certain level of understanding and cooperation within ASEAN if there was a useful framework for assessing the nature of arms purchases which will have to be defined as including both arms procurement and defence industrialization. (DÜI-Sen)

Despite the market triumphalism that greeted the end of the Cold War, the collapse of the Soviet empire seemed initially to herald new possibilities for social democracy. In the 1990s, with a new era of peace and economic prosperity apparently imminent, people discontented with the realities of global capitalism swept social democrats into power in many Western countries. The resurgence was, however, brief. Neither the recurring economic crises of the 2000s nor the ongoing War on Terror was conducive to social democracy, which soon gave way to a prolonged decline in countries where social democrats had once held power. Arguing that neither globalization nor demographic change was key to the failure of social democracy, the contributors to this volume analyze the rise and decline of Third Way social democracy and seek to lay the groundwork for the reformulation of progressive class politics. Offering a comparative look at social democratic experience since the Cold War, the volume examines countries where social democracy has long been an influential political force--Sweden, Germany, Britain, and Australia--while also considering the history of Canada's NDP, the social democratic tradition in the United States, and the emergence of New Left parties in Germany and the province of Québec. The case studies point to a social democracy that has confirmed its rupture with the postwar order and its role as the primary political representative of working class interests. Once marked by redistributive and egalitarian policy perspectives, social democracy has, the book argues, assumed a new role--that of a modernizing force advancing the neoliberal cause.--Publisher description.

AbstractThis paper explores the role of nonprofit organizations in the immigrant settlement and integration sector in the public policy process in three Canadian provinces. Drawing on thirty one (31) semi-structured interviews with nonprofit and mid-level policy officials (working for a provincial government) in three provinces (Ontario, British Columbia and Saskatchewan), the place of nonprofit agencies in providing input and voice to policy issues in the area of settlement and integration services is presented. Issues regarding the willingness to use advocacy/voice with government funders, the usefulness of government consultations, strategies used in approaching government, the role of research in making evidence-based cases regarding policy and program change, among other considerations are examined. The assessments provided by key nonprofit actors and government policy officials are used to bring better understanding of the perceived roles of nonprofit organizations in the daily work of policy.

AbstractThis article introduces the special issue on policy work at the sub-national government level and non-governmental sector in three countries: Australia, Canada, and the Czech Republic. It consists of three parts. First, new public governance theory is presented as a general theoretical perspective that captures some of the important macro factors influencing the nature of current policy work. Second, an overview of empirical findings on policy work of subnational governments and NGOs is provided. This review discusses different possible interpretations of these findings. Third, main findings from each paper presented in this special issue are summarized.

Recently, there have been a number of Canadian-based studies of federal and provincial government policy workers. One key theme across all of these studies is the importance of well-established networks outside of government. However, these studies have demonstrated that government policy workers interact very infrequently outside the comfort of their own department cubicles. This stands in contrast to the considerable literature on new public governance theory, which suggests that non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including nonprofit groups, should, and do, play an important role in shaping public policy. This article provides some insights into this question and identifies where NGO–government interaction does exist. The descriptive results from a survey of non -governmental organization policy workers across four fields (environment, health, labour, and immigration) in three Canadian provinces (British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Ontario) clearly illustrate the limitations, at all levels, on interaction between NGO groups and government officials. The article argues that this does not disprove the basic tenet of new governance theory—that non-state actors are engaged, to some degree, in the policy process. The article examines the results of an ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model to determine what factors shape and drive NGO interaction with government.