James Iain Gow

Diffusion of Administrative Innovations in Canadian Public Administrations

This article presents the results of 15 case studies on administrative innovation by the federal and provincial governments of Canada. The results show that the provinces, particularly Ontario, have recently challenged the federal governments traditional role as mentor in administrative affairs. More important is the process by which diffusion and innovation occur: It is a multitrack sociopolitical process in which ideas play an independent role. Although the majority of cases have their origins in some form of politics, the latter does not drive out problem solving.

Le difficile contrôle des activités et comportements de la police: le cas de la Sûreté du Québec

Police, as agents of the state, affect its legitimacy by their acts and the way they carry them out. They enjoy considerable powers and autonomy, in comparison with most public employees. Oddly, public administration studies almost ignore them. During the 1990s, the Surete du Quebec experienced a number of problems of control and responsibility, not because of corruption but because of excess zeal, irresponsibility and sometimes incompetence. Several inquiries and studies, culminating with the massive Poitras Commission report of 1998, revealed a variety of problems, but many points in common. These studies show that while the SQ has known familiar problems rooted in police culture and the power of the police union, a whole range of measures could be pursued by the Department of Public Security and by the SQ to make it more open, more effective and more responsible. Several reforms now taking place could change the orgnizational culture of the Surete.

L'administration publique dans le discours politique au Québec, de Lord Durham à nos jours

This article studies the varied fortunes of public administration in Quebec political discourse. After being the object of both discussion and reforms from 1840 to 1870, the administration was largely neglected for the next 90 years, except in the context of political scandals. Then, after two decades of great attention, the administration fell under attack in the 1980s. After looking at the enduring themes of this discourse, the article concludes that, in addition to the conditions prevailing in all the provinces, in Quebec the apolitical nature of traditional ideology prevented the development of a local theory of the state.

Les Québécois, la guerre et la paix, 1945–60

The purpose of this study is to describe and to interpret the opinions of the French-speaking residents of Quebec on the questions of war and peace during the years 1945–60. The principal sources used in the study are the editorials of the French-language press, the results of the Gallup poll, and the speeches of Quebec members of Parliament at Ottawa. In the press, few traces of outright isolationism were found, but there were sharp divisions on the questions of relations with the countries of the communist bloc and with those of the non-aligned “third world.” The general public seems to have accepted in principle the main external commitments of Canada during this period, but to have remained against participation of a military sort in practice. If foreign policy was not the specialty of Quebec members of Parliament, there were always individuals or groups to make known points of view current in Quebec, especially when these were at variance with government policy. The year 1960 appears in hindsight to have been a turning point for French-Canadian opinion because of the appearance of a new government in Quebec but also because of the foreign policy of President de Gaulle and the appearance, that year, of a large new bloc of French-speaking states, independent and members of the United Nations.

L'état, le citoyen et l'industrie: le cas de la MIUF *

From 1977 to 1982, the Canadian government funded the installation of urea formaldehyde foam insulation (UFFI) in Canadian homes, then banned the product and subsequently paid homeowners who wished to have it removed. Then, in 1991, the case brought by the “victims” against the makers was found in Quebec Superior Court to be not proven. This article argues that the best way to understand this sequence of events is through a combination of decision theory, neo-institutionalism and postpluralism or neocorporatism.

L'administration québécoise de 1867 à 1900: un Etat en formation

The growth of the activities of the state of Quebec from 1867 to 1900 is examined in light of expectations drawn from theoretical and empirical studies pertaining to other states. Contrary to these expectations, the state in Quebec during these years gave a low priority to the police function and was very slow to organize revenue collection on a sound basis. Instead, high priority went to railway construction, to the administration of justice (other than the police) and to education. This pattern of intervention is said to be due to the difficult economic situation which prevailed from 1873 to 1896, to the uncertainties of the new federal system and to the constraints issuing from the laisser-faire ideology and the power of the Church. Given the major objective of economic development and these constraints, the choice of strategies open to governments was limited. Also examined in this article is the administrative system created to carry out these activities. The governments of these years did little to change the system which they inherited from the United Canadas. Although it was not complex, this system did call on a wide variety of professional talent in the civil service. The civil servants were relatively well off in terms of salary and hours of work but, in political terms, they had little power. Here, as in the case of expanding state activities, progress was far from being continuous.