Politics,leadership, and experience in designing Ontario's cabinet

Abstract: Why are cabinet decision‐making systems designed the way they are? Traditional approaches to this question stress the importance of representational imperatives (i.e., region, language and gender), the need for managerial capacity and collegiality in complex organizations, or a particular government's fiscal or policy program. While these approaches have merit, they fail to pay sufficient attention to the fact that cabinet decision‐making systems are in the first instance very intimate reflections and extensions of the political instincts, personal aptitudes, and governing experience of first ministers. The author sets out to understand recent reforms to Ontario cabinet decision‐making in precisely this way ‐ how did Premier Michael Harris' sense of his government's mandate, his personal approach to decision‐making, and the practical lessons learned over the course of his government's first mandate influence the design of Ontario's cabinet decision‐making system between 1995 and 1999? This article begins with a short history of Ontario's cabinet decision‐making system, focusing on the period from 1968 to 1995. It then provides details of reforms introduced between 1995 and 1999 and concludes with some thoughts on how Premier Harris' political instincts, personal aptitudes, and governing experience influenced these reforms. Sommaire: Pourquoi les systèmes de prise de décisions du Cabinet sont‐ils conçus comme ils le sont? Les réponses traditionnelles à cette question soulignent l'impor‐tance des impératifs de représentation (c.‐à‐d. la région, la langue et le sexe), le besoin de compétence en matière de gestion et la collégialité dans les organismes complexes, ou bien un programme politique ou budgétaire particulier du gouvernement. Ces approches sont valables, mais elles ne tiennent pas suffisamment compte du fait que les systemes de prise de décisions du Cabinet sont, avant tout, le fruit de reflexions très approfondies et d'instincts politiques, d'aptitudes personnelles, et de l'expérience gouvernementale des premiers ministres. L'auteur de cet article essaie de comprendre, précisément dans ce sens, les récentes réformes en matière de prise de décisions au Cabinet de 1'Ontario: comment est‐ce que l'idée qu'a Michael Harris du mandat de son gouvernement, son approche personnelle face à la prise de décisions, et les leçons pratiques tirées de son premier mandat (1995–1999) ont‐elles influencé la conception du système de prise de décisions du Cabinet de l'Ontario? L'auteur commence par brosser un bref historique du système de prise de décisions du Cabinet de l'Ontario, en se penchant tout particulièrement sur la période allant de 1968 A 1995. Ensuite, il présente en détail les réformes introduites de 1995 à 1999 et conclut par quelques réflexions sur la manière dont les instincts politiques du Premier ministre Harris, ses aptitudes personnelles et son expérience du gouvernement ont influencé ces réformes.     

Discussion of 'The Rise of China in Chinese Eyes'

In a response to Yan Xuetong's paper, 'The Rise of China in Chinese Eyes', Ted Osius (writing in August 1999) discusses Dr Yan's perspective on Chinese history and the question of whether China's rise will be peaceful. Mr Osius argues that, while we cannot know for certain what China's future holds, the Clinton‐Gore Administration has been clear in its goal of integrating China into the leadership ranks of the world community.     

Technology transfer to the hardwood industry: Testing new strategies

The National Agricultural Library and the Extension Service, US Department of Agriculture, are collaborating on a technology-transfer strategy with the hardwood industry. The strategy is based on the premises that 1) industry associations can serve as vehicles for identifying industry-wide needs, 2) non-traditional research bases are fertile sources of alternative technologies, 3) technology agents can uncover existing technologies and evaluate the feasibility of commercializing them, and 4) state-of-the-art reports and promotion of new cost-saving technologies provide industry with new products and new processes. He has been a program director for Public Technology, Inc. and the executive director of the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer. Dr. Maher is the current president of the Technology Transfer Society's Washington, DC, Chapter.     

Involuntary outpatient treatment as "desintitutionalized coercion": the net-widening concerns

In American jurisprudence, two justifications have traditionally been put forth to support the government's social control of persons with mental illness: police power and parens patriae. As public mental hospitals became less available as loci in which to exercise these functions, governments sought alternative means to achieve the same ends. One prominent but quite controversial means is involuntary outpatient treatment (IOT). While the concerns about IOT have been myriad, one often alluded to but never documented is that of "net-widening." That is, once IOT became available, it would be applied to an ever greater number of individuals, progressively expanding the margins of the designated population to whom it is applied, despite the formal standard for its application remaining constant. We tested the net-widening belief in a naturalistic experiment in Massachusetts. We found that net-widening did not occur, despite an environment strongly conducive to that expansion. At this time, whatever the arguments against IOT might be, net-widening should not be one of them.     

A Rorschach investigation of incarcerated female offenders with antisocial personality disorder

Although male psychopathy has been linked to histrionic, narcissistic, and antisocial personality disorders (ASPD), less is known about female psychopathy. The Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) and the Rorschach were used to explore the personality functioning of 45 incarcerated female offenders with ASPD delineated by their psychopathy level. Psychopaths (PCL-R > or = 30) and nonpsychopaths (PCL-R < 24) were compared on Rorschach measures of self-perception, interpersonal relatedness, and reality testing. Compared to female offenders with ASPD who were nonpsychopathic, female offenders with ASPD who were psychopathic exhibited marked disturbances in self-perception, interpersonal relatedness, and reality testing. Our findings highlight the heterogeneity of the ASPD diagnosis in women, support the utility of the psychopathy construct with female offenders, and implicate important differences between men and women with ASPD. These gender differences have relevance to the evaluation (PCL-R scoring) and treatment of female offenders. Our findings are discussed within the context of the female psychopath's hypothesized hysterical character style.     

Petitioning,addressing and the historical imagination: the case of Great Yarmouth,England 1658–1784

ABSTRACT

This article examines the role of loyal addresses, petition-like texts that emerged during the Cromwellian Protectorate in England, as repositories of public memory. It contends that loyal addresses were a particularly mnemonic form of political communication: not only did addresses themselves incorporate historical narratives but their reproduction in contemporary newsbooks facilitated their later collection in compendia and histories of addressing. These volumes in turn gave an overall ‘sense’ or character to public opinion nationally and allowed its shifts to be charted over time. The article uses the case study of an address to Richard Cromwell issued in 1658 from the corporation of Great Yarmouth to demonstrate how this text was redeployed to wage a political campaign against leading magistrates in the town in the 1670s. The address gained renewed political significance in the late eighteenth century, as the interplay of local political and historical interests made its depiction of the influence of religious factions in the borough once again relevant. This local memory in turn fed upon a wider national use of the Cromwellian addresses as an example of political faithlessness and duplicity. Combined, these local and national discussions demonstrated the importance of addresses in defining public opinion and political identity over time.     

The state of talent management in Canada's public sector

For more than a decade, senior officials from across Canada's public sector have identified the capacity to “recruit and retain highly‐trained, qualified staff” as central to public service renewal and success in the 21^st century. And yet, despite the consensus behind this priority, students of Canadian public administration know little about the strategies and programs that are in place to attract, recruit, retain and transition key public servants in this country. This article tries to address this gap by describing talent management, one approach to getting “the right people in the right place at the right time” currently in use in British Columbia, Canada, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Saskatchewan. The article concludes with some observations about the present and future of talent management in Canada's public sector.