European Integration and Citizens' Rights: A Comparative Perspective

The prospects for European Union citizenship are sometimes discountedby reference to homogeneity in the United States compared todiversity in the European Union. This article suggests thatthere may be more similarities between the two systems thanis sometimes supposed by many observers. Even though there areimportant differences, both systems have had to address similarquestions about how to combine the benefits of integration andthe protection of rights. In discussing the common and divergentfeatures, the author argues that comparison also reveals thepossibility that it is diversity, not homogeneity, that is necessaryto the protection of citizenship's rights.     

The new focus on the policy capacity of the federal government

Abstract: Senior officials in the federal public service are giving new attention to the need to strengthen policy capacity and this article draws heavily on the work of a task force of federal officials. Four themes run through the article: there is a strong, but neglected, managerial dimension to policy work; the greatest weakness in the current system is dealing with longer-term and strategic issues, especially of a horizontal nature; policy managers need to pay more attention to how to work with and support the external policy community; leadership at the most senior levels of the public service is critical for strengthening policy capacity. Policy management within departments is examined in terms of seven broad policy functions and organizational arrangements. Policy management across government is examined in terms of the role of central agencies and the special problems of horizontal coordination, including the conditions promoting coordination and the machinery of interdepartmental relations. The importance of the personnel dimension of policy work is underlined, with consideration of policy generalists, policy managers and policy specialists. Finally, relations with the policy research community and the provinces are examined. Sommaire: Les dirigeants de la Fonction publique fédérale s'intéressent davantage maintenant à la nécessité de renforcer la capacité d'élaboration des politiques, et le présent article s'appuie largement sur les travaux d'un groupe de travail composé de fonctionnaires. L'article illustre quatre thèmes: le travail d'élaboration de politiques comporte un aspect de gestion très marqué, mais négligé; la plus grande faiblesse du système actuel réside dans sa façon d'aborder les questions stratégiques et à long terme, surtout celles de nature horizontale; il faut que les administrateurs de politiques cherchent davantage à collaborer avec les organes délibérants extérieurs et à leur fournir leur appui; il incombe aux plus hauts dirigeants de la Fonction publique d'avoir le leadership si Ton veut renforcer la capacité d'élaboration de politiques. On examine la gestion des politiques dans les ministères par rapport à sept grandes fonctions des politiques et aux arrangements organisationnels. On étudie la gestion des politiques dans tout le gouvernement en fonction du rôle des organismes centraux et des problèmes particuliers de la coordination horizontale, notamment les conditions favorables à la coordination et le mécanisme des relations interministérielles. On souligne l'importance de l'aspect personnel dans le travail d'élaboration et on mentionne les généralistes, les administrateurs et les spécialistes des politiques. On aborde pour finir les relations avec le milieu de la recherche sur les politiques et avec les provinces.     

Just Social Policy on Life Issues: Ethical Considerations

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." These words from the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence, proclaimed a conviction and announced a challenge for our newly formed nation. Today, they either stir the American heart with pride or generate nostalgia for a time when any truth was self-evident and the right to life was deemed inalienable.     

Economics and distributive ethics

This essay, adapted from his Inaugural Lecture as the Simon Professor at Lafayette, was dedicated to the memory of Aaron Wildavsky.     

The fragile politics of addiction

Suppose the optimizing consumer only has local information, then what? Obviously, there will be a random element of consumption. The link between the frequency distribution of consumption by person and preference surface is worked out. Under convex preferences there will be a unimodal distribution and conversely. A local optimizing theory of addictive behavior is developed from nonconvex preferences. The resulting bimodal distribution of consumption implies a nonrobust outcome for median voter politics. Such a local optimizing model of addiction is compared with globally optimizing models of addiction.     

Adoptees' portrayal of the development of family structure

Young adult adoptees and nonadoptees provided retrospective accounts of family relationships from infancy to young adulthood. Adoptive families were portrayed as more cohesive and adaptable than nonadoptive families. Adoptive fathers were recalled as being closer to their children then were nonadoptive fathers in the years preceding adolescence. Within the same time frame, adoptive mothers were drawn in a less hierarchical relation to their children than were other parents. Also, while adoptive males saw themselves as presently unconnected to their adoptive parents, adopted females perceived themselves as more connected to their parents in the present than any other period of time. Openness of communication and acknowledgment of difference in adoptive family formation varied with graphic retrospective accounts. Results were considered in terms of discontinuities between reported observations of adoptive families and adoptees' personal reflections on family developmental history.Received PhD in clinical psychology from the State University of New York at Stony Book. Research interests: adoptive family relations, social attributions of children and their parents.Received M.A. from the University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1. Research interests: development of identity, adoption.Received Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Toronto. Research interests: attribution, jealousy, parents' theories of child psychology.