The changing role of the Prime Minister's Office†

Abstract. It is impossible to understand how the Prime Minister's Office has evolved without a clear appreciation of the prime minister's ‘office’ - his powers, responsibilities and influence. By the ‘office’ of prime minister, I am referring not only to his role as shaped by constitutional custom and usage, but also to his contemporary leadership role in its widest context. The ‘raison d'être’ of the Prime Minister's Office is to serve the prime minister in the discharging of all his responsibilities - as leader of the Canadian people, as head of the government and of the administration, as chief spokesman within the House of Commons, and as leader of a particular political party. His Office reflects, in large measure, his priorities, thinking, personality and style. Today, more than ever before, however, die Prime Minister's Office reflects the increasing burden and changing emphasis of his many responsibilities. Herein lies the principal theme and thrust of this paper. Only by defining what the contemporary prime minister does can we appreciate the task of the Office that helps him to do it. This paper is, therefore, divided into two major parts: the first one is entitled the office of prime minister and attempts to describe in a summary way the powers, functions and contemporary role of die prime minister; the second one is entitled the Prime Minister's Office and analyses how the Prime Minister's staff provides him with the assistance he requires in the discharging of his many responsibilities. I conclude with some brief personal thoughts about possible future developments of the office of the prime minister and the Prime Minister's Office. Sommaire. Il est impossible de camprendre l'évolution du Cabinet du Premier Ministre si l'on n'a pas une idée Claire de la charge de premier ministre, c'est-à-dire de ses attributions, de ses pouvoirs et de son influence. Par charge, j'entends non seulement le rôle de premier ministre tel que l'ont façonné les us et coutumes constitutionnels, mais aussi, au sens le plus large, ce rôle de meneur d'hommes qui est devenu le sien dans notre monde contemporain. La raison d'être du Cabinet du Premier Ministre est de l'aider à assumer toutes ses responsabilités de chef du peuple canadien, de chef du gouvernement et de la fonction publique, de premier porte-parole à l'interieur de la Chambre des Communes, et de chef d'un parti politique. Dans une large mesure, son Cabinet est à l'image de sa personnalité, de son style, de sa pensée et de ses objectifs. Cependant, aujourd'hui plus que jamais, ce qui marque surtout son Cabinet, c'est le fardeau croissant de ses nombreuses responsabilités, aux solicitations toujours mouvantes. C'est là le thème majeur que j'entends développer. Ce n'est qu'en précisant ce que fait le premier ministre actuel que nous pourrons apprécier à sa juste valeur la tâche du Cabinet qui le seconde. Le présent exposé est, par conséquent, divisé en deux parties: la première, sous le titre de “La charge de premier ministre”, décrit brièment les attributions, les pouvoirs et le rôle actuel du premier ministre; la seconde, intitulée “Le Cabinet du Premier Ministre”, analyse la manière dont l'équipe du premier ministre lui apporte l'aide dont il a besoin pour assumer ses multiples responsabilités Je conclurai par quelques vues personnelles sur l'évolution possible de la charge de premier ministre et du Cabinet du Premier Ministre.     

A randomized trial testing deviant modeling,peer gender,and theft: replication and extension

Journal of Experimental Criminology - Replicate previous experimental findings on the causal effect of deviant peer modeling and assess whether the gender of peer models is an important determinant...     

The Impact of Incarceration in State Prison on the Employment Prospects of Women

This paper uses a unique data set constructed from two sets of administrative records to examine the relationship between incarceration and employment rates for former female state prisoners from Illinois. Our analysis indicates that although prison is associated with declining employment rates during the quarters leading up to women’s incarcerations, it does not appear to harm their employment prospects later on. In the short-term, we estimate that women’s post-prison employment rates are about 4 percentage points above expected levels. However, these employment gains do not persist and gradually fall back to pre-prison levels. These results indicate that time out of the work force is not a cost associated with incarcerating women.