Representative bureaucracy: linguistic/ethnic aspects in Canadian public policy

Abstract. This paper explores the historical background, logical contours and policy implications of recent attempts by the Government of Canada to achieve the ‘effectively balanced participation’ of francophones in the federal public service. Historically, various crucial events concerning French Canadian participation in the federal bureaucracy are recounted with an eye to understanding both the roots of present policies and the distinctive inherited elements which shape them. Logically, the generic concept ‘representative bureaucracy’ is employed as a prism for shedding light on its Canadian variant, ‘balanced participation’: the logic of representative bureaucracy and the arguments for and against it are explicated, with concern for how these pertain to the Canadian case. Finally, the foregoing historical and logical elements are brought to bear on the question of sociological proportionality in the federal public service, especially as it might involve the use of quotas. It is maintained that sociological heterogeneity in the federal bureaucracy is a positive value, and that recruitment and promotion procedures should strive to attract people with manifold backgrounds, perspectives and talents. The use of legislated quotas, however, is viewed as an inefficacious and potentially destructive means for addressing this task. With respect to the issue of francophone participation specifically, the adoption of legislated quotas would be superficial and anachronistic.     

Sovereignty in the South China sea

Abstract

In January 1974, when fighting broke out between Saigon forces and Chinese in the oil-promising South China Sea, the American establishment news media tended to assume that the Chinese, being communists, must have been the aggressors. Those reporters who were quickly able to attune themselves to the official State Department line, however, refrained from making any judgment regarding the merits of the controversy. And well they might have, for the assertions of America's client regime regarding the various archipelagoes are at best dubious. Official U.S. Government maps designate the islets by their Chinese (not Vietnamese) names, and neither Hanoi nor the Provisional Revolutionary Government has stated any claims in the region.     

Understanding gender-specific intimate partner homicide: A theoretical and domestic service-oriented approach

Research on intimate partner homicide has increased in recent years, partially due to growing efforts to disaggregate homicides into meaningful categories but also because of a growing interest in policy responses toward domestic violence. Much of this research tends to focus on two perspectives—exposure reduction and the backlash/retaliation hypotheses—when explaining the link between intimate partner homicide and domestic violence resources. Support has been found for both approaches even though they offer contradictory predictions. This frustrating finding is further complicated by methodological issues, such as the inability to address the rare nature of these events, offer a wide range of domestic violence services and resources and control for structural characteristics of urban areas where violence is found. This issue is addressed by offering a systematic examination of male- and female-victim intimate partner homicide in 2000. The current study investigates both exposure reduction and backlash arguments, in addition to economic deprivation and a number of structural factors relevant to homicide rates. Results suggest that while these perspectives are relevant to intimate partner homicides, there are statistically significant differences across the gender-specific models once the corrected statistical test for coefficient equality is estimated.     

The European Union as a global climate leader: confronting aspiration with evidence

In rhetoric and action the European Union has attempted to be a global leader in forging solutions to confront the problem of climate change. Using unique survey data collected at five consecutive UN climate summits from 2008–2012, this article provides evidence on the extent to which the EU is actually recognized as a leader in the UNFCCC climate negotiations, investigates how perceptions of EU leadership have evolved overtime, and helps make sense of the role that the EU has played in recent negotiation outcomes. The survey’s findings show that recognition of the EU as a leader dropped sharply in 2009 at the COP 15 summit in Copenhagen, but has climbed again in subsequent years. The results reveal a fragmented leadership landscape in which the EU must share or compete for leadership with other actors, such as the USA and China, who hold drastically different institutional design preferences and leadership visions than those promoted by the EU. The article’s findings provide insight into the dynamics that both foster and frustrate the EU’s aspiration to lead the effort to reach a deal on a binding post-2020 climate change agreement in Paris at COP 21.     

Managing the contract: A transaction cost analysis of externalisation

This paper examines the externalisation of the London Borough of Ealing's Technical Services Group between 1994 and 1999, the first local government Technical Services function to be externalised as a whole. The case is discussed in the light of transaction cost theory from economics. The study illustrates the difficulties that arise under local authority competitive tendering where the parties enter into an incomplete contract and rely on mutual goodwill to adjust the contract terms later. The study confirms that transaction costs can be pervasive in local government contracting.     

Irrationality, evidence-based medicine and the standard of care

The determination of the legal standard of care in Australia for medical diagnosis and treatment has gone through three apparent phases in modern times: the Bolam era, the post-Rogers v Whitaker era, and the current Civil Liability Acts era. It is conventionally accepted that the two shifts linking these phases were a jettisoning of the Bolam principle in Rogers and a return to a modified Bolam principle in the Civil Liability legislation, with the post-Rogers interregnum being a time of a court-imposed standard. This story is somewhat inaccurate. The Bolam test relied more on practice accepted at the time as proper by a responsible body of medical opinion rather than the practice of a "responsible body of medical men". The ability of post-Rogers courts to override medical evidence was more a rhetorical power than an actual one. And the irrationality condition, which reserves the right to override medical opinion under the Civil Liability Acts, is more dependent on sound evidence than the terminology might suggest. It is not so much that the legal standard of care has changed in dramatic ways as that the content of competent professional opinion has evolved as medical research and practice have developed. There is greater continuity than is usually granted, throughout the three phases, of the standard's reliance on current best evidence and opinion. This is more easily seen with the advent of evidence-based medicine.     

Trends in victimization in schools and elsewhere, 1974–1981

Trends in the rate of victimizations of juveniles in three settings-schools, homes, and streets/parks-are examined monthly during the period 1974–1981. The relationship between in-school victimization rates and those occurring outside of school are analyzed with multivariate ARMA models informed by previous research on school victimization (Gottfredson and Gottfredson, 1985) and an importation perspective on the source of crime and victimization in institutions such as schools. Results indicate that the overall in-school victimization rate remained relatively stable during this period but that victimization rates of juveniles in other settings had significant effects on in-school victimizations. This suggests that underlying causes of victimization in general are important determinants of victimization in schools. These results are limited, however, as we examine these sources of victimization only indirectly via relationships among the different victimization rates in dynamic models and by the aggregate nature of the monthly data from the National Crime Survey.