Government R C oo CANADIAN bn The demands associated with good governance and good public management are at an erte gh all-time high. Yet the discipline of Canadian public administration is in flux, and the e time is ripe for an open and frank analysis of its state and possibilities. Canadian Public PUBLIC Administration in the 21st Century brings together emerging voices in Canadian C public administration to consider current and future prospects in the discipline. A A new wave of scholars has brought new energy, ambition, and perspectives to the field. N In this book, they take stock and build on established traditions and current trends, A ADMINISTRATION focusing on emerging, or reemerging, issues and challenges. D I A The book identifies and analyzes the emergent research agenda in public administra- N tion, focusing on Canada to illustrate key concepts, frameworks, and issues. It con- IN THE sists of three thematically organized sections, exploring processes, structures, and P U principles of Canadian public administration. It addresses the broad, emergent trend B in processes of service delivery or policy implementation generally referred to as the L I new public governance. It then critically examines the structural and institutional C 21st CENTURY dimensions of Canadian public administration in light of recent directions in the field. A A complete exploration of new principles, methods, values, and ethics in Canadian D public administration research and practice rounds out the coverage. M I Features N • Considers and analyzes recurring, new, and emerging trends in public IS administration, with a focus on Canada T R • Brings together a new generation of scholars who will shape the field A for years to come T I O • Uses traditional as well as critical and innovative theoretical and N methodological approaches • Bridges the Anglophone and Francophone academic traditions I N • Presents a comprehensive research agenda on which to build T H E Bringing together emerging scholars, the book bridges the gap between established analytical traditions and novel theoretical and methodological approaches in the field. 2 1 It proposes a new, more interdisciplinary public administration increasingly focused s t on governance and not solely on management. C E N Edited by T K20527 U ISBN: 978-1-4665-9171-4 R Charles Conteh 90000 Y www.crcpress.com 9 781466 591714 Ian Roberge w w w. c r c p r e s s . c o m K20527 cvr mech.indd 1 7/10/13 7:52 AM CANADIAN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN THE 21st CENTURY CANADIAN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN THE 21st CENTURY Edited by Charles Conteh Ian Roberge CRC Press Taylor & Francis Group 6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300 Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742 © 2014 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business No claim to original U.S. Government works Version Date: 20130417 International Standard Book Number-13: 978-1-4665-9172-1 (eBook - PDF) This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reasonable efforts have been made to publish reliable data and information, but the author and publisher cannot assume responsibility for the validity of all materials or the consequences of their use. 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Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at http://www.taylorandfrancis.com and the CRC Press Web site at http://www.crcpress.com Contents Prologue ................................................................................................vii Acknowledgments ..............................................................................xiii About the Editors .................................................................................xv Contributors ........................................................................................xvii Chapter 1 Introduction to Canadian Public Administration in the Twenty-First Century ..............................................1 Charles Conteh Chapter 2 New Public Governance: The Changing Landscape of Canadian Public Administration ...............................21 Frank L. K. Ohemeng Chapter 3 Policy Advice and New Political Governance: Revisiting the Orthodox ..................................................41 Jonathan Craft Chapter 4 Deep and Wide: Citizen Engagement in the Era of Social Media .................................................................61 Rachel Laforest Chapter 5 Is There a Canadian Model of Public Administration? Lessons from a Cross- Canada Comparison of Budget Management and Performance. .............................................................79 Benoît Rigaud, Paul-Émile Arsenault, and Louis Côté Chapter 6 First Nations Public Administration ..............................99 Christa Scholtz © 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC v vi  •  Contents Chapter 7 Environmental Governance, Public Action Tools, and Public Participation: The Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement and the Régie de l’énergie (Québec) .......................................................... 117 Louis Simard Chapter 8 Reengaging with Our Roots: The Critical Past (and Future) of Public Administration .........................141 Jonathan Paquette Chapter 9 Governmental Priorities and Administrative Rhetoric: The Case of Briefing Notes ...........................157 Jean-François Savard and Christiane Melançon Chapter 10 Public Policy Analysis and Management at the Crossroads: An Epistemological Investigation of Ethics and Public Action ...........................................173 Magaly Brodeur Chapter 11 Foresight: Constructing Futures in Public Administration ...................................................189 Ian Roberge and Bethan Dinning Chapter 12 Concluding Thoughts on Canadian Public Administration in the Twenty-First Century. ..............207 Charles Conteh and Ian Roberge (Editors) © 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC Prologue THE ORIGINS OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN CANADA: IN SEARCH OF LEGITIMACY Ken Rasmussen Public administration has long been accused of being methodologically and theoretically impoverished. This, however, is a lingering mischarac- terization, which may stem from its close connection to political science. A question, then, is whether public administration will disassociate itself from political science. Most political scientists would not miss the depar- ture of public administration, and we have witnessed some new institu- tional space opening up in the graduate schools of public administration and public policy emerging across Canada. Yet, even here public adminis- tration is not at the core of the curriculum. This is due not only to the fact that public administration, because of its practical turn, is suspect in some academic quarters but also because there is less interest in domestic issues among political scientists more broadly. Evidence of this trend is visible in the absence of urban politics in most political science departments and in the neglect of offerings in Canadian government and provincial politics. This neglect of public administration comes at a time, ironically, when public administration has made tremendous progress as an academic discipline and when the demands associated with good governance and good public management are at an all-time high in Canada and around the world. So, how did public administration get to this point, and what are its future prospects? To answer this question, we need to do a brief recognizance and point out where the discipline came from and how this might have an impact on its future trajectory. Three claims are advanced. One is that Canadian public administration as a discipline was established by public servants and only in the mid-20th century did academics take up the challenge. The second is that public administration began with strong reformist tendencies and still regards administrative reform as one of the key aspects of its mandate, its self-definition, and its relevance to broader social values. Third, the discipline has always been hostile to our © 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC vii viii  •  Prologue political institutions, seeing them as unable, by themselves, of producing truly democratic outcomes. The first claim is that public administration was originally something that only public servants gave serious attention to and was not, as in the United States, something that traced its origins to the activity of highly influential political actors. American public administration is often linked to the federalist papers, particularly to Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, or later to Woodrow Wilson’s seminal 1887 article. In Canada, our conceptions of public administration were initially articulated, appro- priately enough, by middle class, mostly anonymous, public servants and only later became part of the academic discipline of political science. It was low key in its orientation and was preoccupied with finding space for public servants to exercise influence in the political life of Canada. This was true prior to Confederation but was even more so in the post- Confederation era that witnessed the clearest articulation of this theme. The individuals espousing early Canadian public administration ideas fol- lowed on the heels of colonial administrators like Lord Durham and were neither politicians nor scholars but were practicing public administrators. They were also part of a new, broad-based reform movement motivated by both public spiritedness and personal self-interest. They wanted to see the nascent Canadian state functioning on a more rational, universal basis as opposed to the patronage-based politics that had dominated colonial and postcolonial Canada. Typically, they held negative views of political par- ties and tended to see dispassionate civil servants as better able to recog- nize the broader interests of the nation. The state needed some intellectual guidance as there was a feeling among these men that neither politicians nor the majority of voters were really able to judge good policies and the details of good public administration. Senior civil servants wanted to create a bureaucracy that would act as a professional interest group, building a structure of professional rights guaranteeing tenure and autonomy, while limiting their accountability to outsiders. This belief helps to explain the desire of civil servants in the late 19th and early 20th century to promote reforms that would increase their control of conditions of appointment, working conditions, salary, and ten- ure. They also promoted a professional ethic centered on the primary obli- gation to serve society as a whole rather than any particular group within it. For the senior civil servants at the center of administrative reform at the time, the major goal was to see the civil service become a profession dedicated to efficient, effective, and “business-like” public administration. © 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC