The impact of the Charter of Rights on public administration

Abstract: It is generally accepted that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and in particular its section 15 “equality rights,” will significantly affect Canadian public policy and administration. We argue that the principal change wrought by the Charter will be that judges, applying judicial methods of reasoning, will have the final say on many policy problems formerly managed exclusively by administrative institutions, applying administrative methods of reasoning. The article compares these “institutional logics” through close examination of two documents, both addressing the issue of sex discrimination in maternity benefits under the Unemployment Insurance Act (UI). The first document, obtained through the Access to Information Act, is a 1978 briefing memorandum to the Canadian Employment and Immigration Commission advising on the likely outcomes of the impending Supreme Court decision on the Bliss case. The female plaintiff in Bliss alleged that UI maternity benefits violated the Canadian Bill of Rights equality provisions. The second document is an influential law review article on the Bliss case by Professor Marc Gold. Addressing the same policy problem, the documents come to very different conclusions. By using these documents as examples of administrative and judicial reasoning, we demonstrate how different assumptions about the nature of “discrimination,” sources of authority, the weight of financial considerations, the relevant facts and institutional mandates will tend to lead to conflicts between the courts and administrators. Sommaire: Il est un fait généralement reconnu que la Charte des droits et libertés, en particulier I'article 15 intitulé“Droits à I‘égalité”, aura un effet considérable sur la politique et I'administration publique au Canada. Selon les auteurs, le principal changement introduit par la Charte sera que les juges, suivant un rai-sonnement judiciaire, auront le dernier mot sur de nombreuses questions politiques auparavant réglées exclusivement par des institutions administratives, suivant une logique administrative. L'article compare ces “bgiques institutionnelles” en examinant de près deux documents sur la discrimination sexuelle dans les prestations de maternité prévues par la Loi sur I'assurance-chômage. Le premier document, obtenu en vertu de la Loi sur l'accès à I'information, est une note d'information datant de 1978, destinée à la Commission de I'Emploi et de l'Immigration du Canada, et exposant dans quel sens la Cour supréme allait probablement rendre son jugement dans l'affaire Bliss. Dans cette affaire, la plaignante alléguait que les prestations de maternité versées par l'assurance-chômage n‘étaient pas conformes aux dispositions de la Déclaration canadienne des droits concernant l’égalité. Le second document est une importante analyse critique du jugement rendu dans l'affaire Bliiss, faite par le professeur Marc Gold. Les deux documents, qui traitent du même problème de politique, parviennent à des conclusions très différentes. Utilisant ces documents comme exemples de logiques administrative et judiciaire, les auteurs montrent comment des situations conflictuelles entre tribunaux et adrninistrateurs pourraient résulter des diverses hypothèses sur la nature de la “discrimination ”, les sources d'autorité, l'irnportance des considérations d'ordre financier, les faits pertinents et les mandats institutionnels.     

Corruption and the crisis of the post-communist state

Corruption, or at least its reporting, appears to be increasing everywhere. But there is still too little comparative analysis of its nature and role in post-communist systems. This is understandable, given their newness. But it is now possible and desirable to compare corruption in such systems with corruption elsewhere. This article makes some initial comparative observations, and argues that the significance of post-communist corruption reaches far beyond the post-communist countries themselves. These states are compared briefly with other kinds of transitional states, and found to be different in a number of important ways. Finally, the author asks whether or not the apparent growth of corruption is leading to a seventh version of the crisis of the state. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Reviews

Seweryn Bialer, The Soviet Paradox: External Expansion, Internal Decline. London: I. B. Tauris, November, 1986, xx + 396 pp. £16.50.

Frank Füredi, The Soviet Union Demystified: A Materialist Analysis. London: Junius Publications, 1986, 271 pp. £12.50 h/b, £5.95 p/b.

R. Furtak, The Political Systems of the Socialist States: an Introduction to Marxist‐Leninist Regimes, Wheatsheaf Books Ltd., Brighton, 1986, xi + 308 pp. £32–50.

Peter Jones and Sian Kevill (Compilers) China and the Soviet Union 1949–84, Keesing's International Studies; Longman, London: 1986, 202 pp. £20.00.

Roy Medvedev, China and the Superpowers, Basil Blackwell, Oxford; 1986, 234 pp. £17.50.

Gail Schlachter (ed.) Sino‐Soviet Conflict: A Historical Bibliography, ABC‐Clio Distribution Services, Clio Press, Oxford; 1985, xii + 190 pp. £30.50.

Károly Attila Soós, Terv, Kampany, Penz. Szabalyozas es Konjunkturaciklusok Magyarorszagon es Jugoszlaviaban, Közgazdasagi es Jogi Könyvkiado‐Kossuth Könyvkiado, Budapest, 1986, 533 pp. 142 Ft.

William V. Wallace and Roger A. Clarke, Comecon, Trade and the West, Frances Pinter (Publishers), London, 1986, xi + 176 pp. £18.50.

Alec Nove, Socialism, economics and development, Allen & Unwin, London, 1986, 243 pp. £25.00 US $29.95.

Klaus Fritsche, Blockfreiheit aus sowjetischer Sicht, Deutsches Übersee‐Institut, Munich, Cologne, London, Weltforum Verlag, 1986, 299 pp.

Winrich Kühne, Sowjetische Afrikapolitik in der ‘Ara Gorbatschow’. Eine Analyse ihrer grundlegenden Probleme Mitte der 80er Jahre, ausgehend von den Entwicklungen in Mozambique, Angola und Äthiopien. Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, Ebenhausen, 1986, 146 pp.     

Conflict in Trade Policy: The Role of the Congress and the Provinces in Negotiating and Implementing the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement

The provincial role in trade policy has until recently beenlimited, but the increasing impact of international trade negotiationson domestic policy issues has come into direct conflict withprovincial jurisdiction. At the same time, Congress has handedsome of its constitutional authority over trade matters to theexecutive branch through the granting of "fast track" negotiatingauthority. The paper argues that, as a result of these developments,the functional roles that Congress and the provinces playedin the negotiation of the FTA were not significantly differentin the two countries. However, in the implementation of thetrade agreement, roles again became clearly defined by constitutionaljurisdiction.     

Good guys, bad guys: transnational corporations, rational choice theory and power crime

While its scope and scale can be exaggerated, the power transnational corporations (TNCs) exert in the contemporary world is considerable. This is often at the expense of states, or at least is exercised in a way that can undermine states. Some interactions between corporations and states or their officers constitute prime examples of power crime. A blatant form is where corporations either offer or else agree to pay bribes to state officials in order to secure a major contract. This capacity to corrupt state officials via large scale bribes gives corporations significant potential power. This article begins by citing allegations of active corruption of state officials by TNCs, as well as counter-examples (i.e. where TNCs have taken a stand against rent-seeking officials). It then argues that active corruption by corporations constitutes a major dimension of power crime, and seeks to explain apparently contradictory behaviours by TNCs, relating these to rational choice theories and neo-liberalism. It is argued that recent changes in corporate governance and behaviour have made rational-choice models and simplistic neo-liberalism either questionable or redundant. Bu at the same time, globalisation and its stable mate neo-liberalism encourage improper behaviour–various forms of power crime-by corporations.     

Protecting the living: Managerialism and professional turf wars in risk regulatory death investigations

This paper demonstrates how general trends in the management of public institutions, and a specific turf war between the doctors and lawyers in Ontario, Canada, have combined to shape an important risk regulatory decisionmaking process: the coroner's inquest. Drawing on ethnographic evidence, I show how the priorities of managerialism, and the collateral effects of physician coroners battling with lawyers, have reduced the number of public inquests convened in Ontario by 80 per cent over a 20‐year period. Where many public safety decisions affecting the province's legal, policy, and physical environments were once made at public inquests, they appear now more likely to be made in private. The paper examines the implications of reduced public participation in the analysis of, and response to, death.     

Parental warmth amplifies the negative effect of parental hostility on dating violence

Past research has documented the positive association between parental hostility and offspring involvement in intimate partner violence. Researchers, practitioners, and parents typically adopt the standpoint that parental warmth may counter these negative lessons. However, Straus and colleagues argue that parents foster IPV to the extent that they teach their child that verbal and physical aggression are a normal and legitimate component of loving relationships. A strict interpretation of social learning theory would suggest that these lessons are more, not less, likely to occur when parental hostility is interspersed with displays of affection. The present study tests this idea using data from 2,088 undergraduate students from a large university in the Southeast. Consistent with Straus' arguments, findings suggest that, rather than attenuating the negative effects of hostility, supportive interactions seem to amplify the probability that offspring will emulate aggressive behaviors in their own romantic relationships. The same is true for the effects of harsh parenting for women. It seems that the best way parents can avoid contributing to their child's chances of being in a violent dating relationship is to eschew family interaction involving verbal and physical aggression.     

The power of small-scale solar: gender,energy poverty,and entrepreneurship in Tanzania

Energy poverty is a major challenge in the developing world, with an estimated 1.2 billion people lacking household electricity. Although energy poverty affects both men and women, the burden of household energy supply disproportionately affects women in low-income countries in the developing world. This article examines the impact of a women-oriented solar lighting social enterprise, Solar Sister, in Tanzania for both solar entrepreneurs and customers, demonstrating that solar lanterns positively impact household savings, health, education and women’s economic productivity and empowerment. Our study argues that Solar Sister’s approach is successful because of its explicit gender lens. Providing energy access to women translates to a pro-woman, pro-child, and pro-family development intervention.