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"Broken down into five sections explaining how public budgets are developed, Canadian Public Finance presents a comprehensive account of the budget process of the federal, provincial, and territorial governments. With a specific focus on the public policy process, Geneviève Tellier walks readers through the five steps involved in the budget process including agenda-setting, formulation, adoption, implementation, and evaluation. Taking a close look at how much influence key decision-makers actually have over the budget process, Tellier highlights recent events that reveal the political, social, and economic constraints that impact budgetary decisions. Tellier uses key words and textboxes at the end of each chapter to reflect on current issues and new developments in the world of public finance, such as gender-sensitive budgets, performance-based budgeting, and fiscal transparency."--

September11th has without a doubt been facilitated by the dysfunction within American information and decision-making systems. However the attacks also marked the beginning of a particular period where decisions are made by a very limited group of men, short-circuiting the normal processes and marginalizing any debate. Hence the wanderings of the "war on terror", which the Obama administration has strived to rectify. Adapted from the source document.

Since the beginning of the 1980s, a growing number of studies have focused on the phenomenon of internationalization. Yet, so far, the question of the impact of internationalization on institutions & decision-making processes has largely been neglected. In this article, we attempt to overcome this weakness by analyzing how internationalization has affected the Swiss decision-making system. To this end, we develop two research hypotheses. The first one deals with the effects of internationalization on decision-making institutions, while the second one focuses on its impact on the degree of elite conflictuality. These hypotheses are tested on all legislative acts adopted by the Federal Assembly during the 1995-1999 legislative term, & submitted to one of the three main direct democratic institutions (ie, popular initiative, optional referendum, & obligatory referendum). Our findings show that, with the exception of cases of autonomous adaptation, legislative acts with a stronger international component are characterized by a weaker degree of pre-parliamentary consultation, as well as by a lower level of parliamentary conflict. 7 Tables, 2 Graphs, 1 Appendix, 50 References. Adapted from the source document.

This paper aims to highlight the impact of the ban on political donations from private organisations on pressure groups' strategies in France. First, we present the framework of the political contribution market before 1995. Analysing the budget of the 1993 legislative election candidates & the accounts of political parties in 1994, we show that the "exchange model" of donation is more relevant than the "support model." In other words, givers seek to influence more public decision than election results. Using this result, we analyse the impact of the ban on the framework of the contribution's market. More especially, we show the decrease in the set of opportunities to influence the public decision process. The impact on how the French democracy is working is also considered. Tables, Appendixes. Adapted from the source document.

Common agricultural policies in Africa have emerged and multiplied in the last decade. This can be understood as resulting from specific policy transfers. The first part of the paper underlines a very high level of influence by external actors (international organizations) bilateral cooperation -- NGOs) on both the nature (policy objectives) instruments) and decision processes of these policies. The second part looks at the reception of the policy transfers. Despite a very low level of implementation of the policies -- some learning processes can be underlined -- as regarding peasants, organizations in particular. The emergence of these common agricultural policies have provided them with new political resources and arenas -- and they are now in a better position to participate actively to the evolving contemporary debate on agricultural policies in Africa. Adapted from the source document.

The composition of the Lebanese Parliament is based on the allocation of a specific number of seats to each of the various minority groups (confessions) in this country, which is considered to be the only parliamentary democracy in Arab Middle East. Using tools from cooperat=ive game theory, this paper analyzes the power of different confessions in the Lebanese parliament. We study the difference between the 'apparent' power and the 'real' power of each minority group involved in the decision process. This paper also analyzes the impact of the new electoral reform on the power of each confession. We will show that the confessional compromise in Lebanon is far from being flawless. Adapted from the source document.

On December 7th, 2007, the Chinese government decided to place traditional festivals on the national calendar. This event, which can be considered a textbook example of "inventing tradition", reinforced the position of those who believe that the Communist Party uses the past in the service of an aggressive foreign policy and to reinforce national unity, which has been jeopardized by the disappearance of socialist ideology. Yet "genealogical" analysis of the decision process reveals that a phenomenon of convergence of interests and representations was at work, bringing together various milieu: Hong Kong deputies, intellectuals, economists, folklorists and businessmen. It also shows the obstacles -- among others, managing the flows brought about by an increased number of holidays in such a heavily populated country -- that the government encountered before ratifying the proposal. Yet China is now also a society of leisure. Proof of this can be found in the popular enthusiasm with which the government's initiative was greeted, especially among the urban middle class, who can now profit from new vacation periods. Adapted from the source document.

Net Assessment is a planning technique that has been used within US defense circles since the 1970s. Combining a systematic survey of the military capability of potential adversaries with a behavioral assessment of the latter, this method generates scenarios and war games that inform the Pentagon's decision-making process.

This article analyzes the process of regime change with the tools of political sociology of law. It examines the 'semi-free' elections in Poland in June 1989. The author studies the codification process during the 'Round Table' negotiations, which produces an ad hoc and ambiguous electoral rule. The various uses, partly unexpected, of the law by the main actors (the Communist Party, Solidarity and the candidates) are reconstructed. They helped transform an election designed to save the communist regime in a tool for its collapse. Adapted from the source document.

Beyond the heterogeneity of a text which juxtaposes federalist, intergovernmental, codifying & constitutional ideas, the arrangements of the constitutional treaty must be examined with regard to three criteria: the synergy between international & supranational logic (decision making in particular), the voting process in intergovernmental fora, & the hierarchy of judicial norms. Following these criteria, the treaty raises a number of ambiguities & creates a third path between supranational integration & the cooperation of States. It improves the functioning of an enlarged Union & marks the passage from an economic Union to a political Union. Adapted from the source document.