The changing role of the Privy Council Office†

Abstract. Since the establishment of the office of Secretary to the Cabinet thirty years ago, there have been a number of changes in the way the cabinet operates, one being in the cabinet committee system which has passed through three distinct phases and is now in a fourth. Nine standing committees exist, with significant changes in procedure, permitting ministers to participate more fully in discussion and to share responsibility better. The Cabinet Committee on Priorities and Planning, established in 1968, deals with broad objectives, main questions of policy with long-term implications and with priorities for broad financial allocation. With the complexity of government and the scale of die elements of complexity increasing, the demands on ministerial time have become overwhelming. The Operations, Plans and Federal-Provincial Affairs Divisions of the Privy Council Office, with a small and discreet staff constantly changing to avoid the formation of a ruling elite, assist the prime minister, cabinet and cabinet committees in the total process of decision-making and in assuring a coherence of policy. Attempts are made to provide the central executive with full information and optimum freedom in taking the decisions for which parliament and the people of Canada have given them responsibility. Sommaire. Depuis la création du poste de secrétaire du Cabinet, il y a une trentaine d'années, il s'est produit un certain nombre de changements dans le fonctionnement même du cabinet. Citons, entre autres, le système des comités du cabinet qui est passé par trois phases distinctes et se trouve maintenant dans une quatrième phase. Il existe neuf comités permanents dont la procédure a subi d'importantes modifications pour permettre aux ministres de prendre une part plus active aux discussions, et de mieux partager les responsabilités. Le comité du cabinet chargé de l'établissement des priorités et de la planification, établi en 1968, s'occupe des objectifs généraux, des lignes de conduit A long terme et des priorités pour l'allocation générale des fonds. A cause de la complexité du gouvernement et de l'ampleur croissante de ses responsabilités, l'emploi du temps des ministres est devenu incroyablement chargé. Les sections des Opérations, des Plans et celle des Affaires fédérales-provinciales du Conseil privé, avec un personnel peu nombreux et discret, constamment renouvelé pour éviter la formation d'une élite trop influente, aident le premier ministre, le cabinet et les comités du cabinet à prendre les decisions qui s'imposent et à assurer la cohérence de la politique du gouvernementale. Elles s'efforcent de fournir à l'exécutif central toute information utile et de lui assurer le maximum de liberté pour prendre les décisions dmt l'ont chargé le parlement et le peuple canadien.     

An Appraisal of Decomposition Cases Received at the Johannesburg Forensic Pathology Service Medico‐legal Mortuary During 2010–2011

Decomposed bodies pose many questions for researchers regarding environmental effects, cause of death, and patterns. This study aimed to observe the factors associated with decomposed bodies autopsied at the Johannesburg Forensic Pathology Service Medico‐legal Mortuary. A total of 4876 autopsies were conducted from 2010 to 2011, of which 109 were decomposed. Black individuals made up the largest proportion (67%) followed by White (26%). Males comprised 86.2%, while 12.8% were female. The mean age was 42.78 years. Most cases were in the early stages of decomposition (49.5%), with 32.1% bloated, 11.9% in active decay, 2.8% in advanced decay, and 3.7% were skeletal. Insect activity was identified in 25.7% of decomposition cases. Cause of death was determined in 48.6% of cases. Of all the cases, 64% were found indoors and 23% outdoors, while 23% had insufficient information regarding the location. Of considerable interest was the number of cases from hospitals and clinics.     

The Complexity of Social Outcomes from Cooperative,Competitive, and Individualistic Reward Systems

Previous research on cooperative and competitive reward systems has investigated the relation between extreme cooperative and competitive conditions, along with an intermediate noninterdependent neutral condition, to numerous outcome variables. This study added two additional conditions to these three usual conditions, between the neutral midpoint and the cooperative or competitive extremes, to see if these intermediate conditions might be distinctive in the outcomes they produced. The study used 240 participants, divided into groups of three that played a board game under these five different reward conditions. Participants' attitudes toward self, others, and task were then assessed and analyzed along with objective measures of performance, measures of self-esteem, state and trait anxiety, and results coded from an autobiographical report in game-defined roles. Results indicated that the intermediate cooperative condition was distinctively different from the extreme cooperative condition in predicted ways, and that the intermediate competitive condition was distinctively different from the extreme competitive condition, but in unpredicted ways. The research also demonstrated that an individualistic condition, which had previously been thought to produce neither a cooperative nor competitive social orientation, in fact produced both, raising questions as to whether reward interdependence, as researchers have defined it, is really the cause of cooperation and competition.     

Can Democratic Governments Save? Experiences of Countries with Budget Surpluses

It has long been held that it is difficult for advanced democracies to achieve and sustain continued fiscal restraint. The benefits of such restraint are diffuse, and as a result restraint will generally lose out to spending increases and/or tax cuts that are supported by organized political agents. However, our study of other nations that have achieved budget surpluses makes the case that it is possible for an advanced democracy to achieve consensus on the need for continued fiscal restraint during a period of surplus. To some extent, the design of budget processes in these nations has played a critical role in encouraging fiscal discipline. But even more importantly, these nations demonstrate that ideas matter and that the ability to sustain fiscal discipline is related to the ability of decision makers to reframe the budget debate in terms of broader national goals. However, it is unclear how long this new consensus will last, and many competing policy ideas wait in the wings to spring forth when economic and political circumstances shift.     

The Sprawl Debate: Let Markets Plan

Sprawl issues ought not be a federal issue because land-usecontrol is local. Americans have been moving to both suburbanand private communities for many years, an expression of theconstitutional right to travel. They seek more direct controlover their personal property rights. Both trends are at oddswith the desire of planners to impose more controls via land-useand growth controls. Planners base their arguments on the needto control urban sprawl. Examining their arguments one-by-oneshows that they are empirically weak. The controls are ineffectiveand will do little to slow these shifts in residential location.The logic of the planners' position would be to control developmenteverywhere via state and even federal legislation, but thisis undesirable, unattainable, and probably unconstitutional.Sprawl will remain an issue over which state and local jurisdictionswill either continue to fight or find an uneasy accommodation.     

Potential for the Remediation of Methamphetamine Contamination Using Ozone,

The deposition of methamphetamine within indoor environments due to illegal activities can pose a health risk for occupants. Current cleaning techniques are costly and inefficient, calling for the development of alternative remediation methods. In addition, the fate of methamphetamine in indoor environments is largely unknown, negatively impacting our knowledge on the health risks associated with contaminated dwellings. Under the conditions of this study, 97% of surface deposited methamphetamine on a paper substrate was consumed after 12 min of exposure to ozone, thus demonstrating potential for its use as a remediation agent. The reaction had an effective second‐order rate constant with an upper limit of 2.15 ± 1 × 10^?18 cm³/molecule/s, and the main product observed was phenyl‐2‐propanone (P2P) at 8.3% yield, as determined using GC/MS. Several products observed in this study have also been reported as by‐products of methamphetamine synthesis, including P2P—a known methamphetamine precursor, which indicates that their detection at a potential clandestine site is not necessarily evidence of manufacture.