CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS IN CANADIAN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

Little more than a decade ago the basic structure of the Canadian public service was radically reformed. In accordance with recommendations of the Glassco Royal Commission on Government Organisation the central agencies were restructured and their relations with departments reconstructed to shift as much as possible the location of responsibility for financial and personnel management to the departments. The Treasury Board, a statutory committee of Ministers, separated from the Department of Finance which handles economic and revenue policy, became the Government's management agency responsible for budgeting as well as financial and personnel administration. It was also cast in the role of "employer" for purposes of collective bargaining, which was introduced into the Service at the same time and thereby aligned labour relations in the Service with the system which had prevailed in the private sector since the Second World War. Responsibility for recruitment and promotion of staff according to "merit" was vested in the Public Service Commission, an independent agency reporting directly to Parliament, which also has some advisory functions in respect of training. These legislatively-based changes were accompanied, especially after Mr. Trudeau became Prime Minister in 1968, by construction of an elaborate Cabinet committee system and more policy coordination at the administrative level by an expanded Privy Council Office. Structural change was reinforced by changes in methods of operation. Over the next few years new techniques in budgeting, which was placed on a program basis, policy evaluation and performance measurement were introduced. Under the guiding hand of the Planning Branch in the Treasury Board Secretariat, increasing emphasis was given to planning and research in central agencies and departments.     

THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND PUBLIC POLICY: IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING

Increasingly, the nations of the world are becoming more interdependent among themselves. This is true not only in an economic sense, but in a political sense as well. The field of public administration has become internationalized, presenting a new challenge to both teachers and students of the discipline. The article argues that special attention should be given to teaching students how to manage policy interdependency. Furthermore, the interdisciplinary approach is advocated as a method of broadening students' perspectives in public administration. In concluding the article, the author offers several recommendations for improving public administration programs.     

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION EDUCATION AND TRAINING IN THE THIRD WORLD: PROBLEMS AND OPPORTUNITIES

Nations of the Third World are not developing as quickly as their potential suggests they should. This article posits that one of the major reasons for this lack of development is a scarcity of trained public managers. Teaching citizens of developing countries public administration presents a special challenge. The authors point out that the emphasis in training these individuals should be placed on practical learning. In addition, curriculum should not be based solely on the American model, but should recognize the cultural and economic dissimilarities that exist. The authors close the article by suggesting some possible training approaches for developing nations.     

THE DISCIPLINE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND THE STUDY OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT

No doubt my colleagues in this venture will attest to the wide range of contributions which Robert Parker and Dick Spann have made to the field of public administration. I have benefited greatly from these contributions, as well as from discussions with both, in particular from those with Dick Spann during my period in the Department of Government and Public Administration at the University of Sydney. However, the breadth of their coverage has not been without some cost to the field, and in this paper I want to examine their influence on the area which I know best, that of local government.     

THE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION OF INTERNATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY

Abstract: Increasingly, the terms occupying centre stage on the policy agenda in many countries are global in reach. Thus they stretch the operational efficiency and suitability of the fabric of the sovereign state to its limits, and beyond. In particular the issue of global environmental change is demonstrating the need to break new ground in terms of institutions and instruments which provide vehicles for the creation and implementation of public policy "beyond the state". This paper explores the evolution of this situation during this century, and considers the institutional responses to the need for broader and broader geographical expressions of sovereignty.     

THE RELEVANCE OF COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT TO SOCIAL WELFARE AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

Abstract: Citizen involvement is regarded as a desirable component of public policy making, particularly policy in the social welfare field. This paper examines different conceptions of social welfare and different conceptions of citizen participation. Participation is a term with many shades of meaning, and policy makers should distinguish between sociotherapy, market research and citizen power, all of which come under the rubric "citizen participation". Different conceptions of participation are appropriate in different policy circumstances and these circumstances are examined with reference to two recent Australian participatory programs in the welfare field. The paper concludes with an examination of the applicability of participation, leadership and expertise to public administration, and argues that these three values exist in a dialectical relationship and that social justice and the effectiveness of programs will be limited if too much reliance is placed on any one of these values.