Marsha A Chandler

The politics of Canadian public policy

Research on public policy in Canada has focuses on four fundamental problems: the question of what determines variations in patterns of public policy; the importance of the policy field itself for understanding state activity; the choice and consequences of alternative means to a policy goal; and the question of what happens after a decision is taken and acted upon. Each of the essays commissioned for this book addresses one or more of these themes of policy determinants, policy type, policy, instruments, and impact. Together they support the editors? contention that there are several routes to an understanding of the policy process in Canada and, indeed, several policy processed. In addition to covering diverse policy fields, this volume affords the reader an opportunity to sample a number of approaches to the study of public policy, including new work on the political economy of Canada and in the research area known as public choice. Research on public policy in Canada has focuses on four fundamental problems: the question of what determines variations in patterns of public policy; the importance of the policy field itself for understanding state activity; the choice and consequences of alternative means to a policy goal; and the question of what happens after a decision is taken and acted upon. Each of the essays commissioned for this book addresses one or more of these themes of policy determinants, policy type, policy, instruments, and impact. Together they support the editors? contention that there are several routes to an understanding of the policy process in Canada and, indeed, several policy processed. In addition to covering diverse policy fields, this volume affords the reader an opportunity to sample a number of approaches to the study of public policy, including new work on the political economy of Canada and in the research area known as public choice.

Policy Analysis and the Search for Theory

Political scientists have studied American public policy in three distinct ways. First, there are single-case studies, the earlier ones seeking to show &dquo;how the system works,&dquo; and some more recent pieces attempting (generally in the last chapter) to provide grounds for comparison with other policies. ~ Second, we have aggregate studies. These usually involve cross-state comparisons testing the relationships between a seemingly endless array of political, demographic, or economic variables on the one hand, and policy outcomes (generally measured by levels of expenditure) on the other hand.2 Third, we have essays which attempt to synthesize what we know, or should learn, by providing a classificatory schema, model, or theory. 3

The Problem of Indicator Formation in Comparative Research

ness. Each of the four resulting cells represents a category of information. These categories serve as purely analytic devices, useful in handling the problem of the linkage between the abstract and the empirical. In the course of describing each of the categories, we may also see the problems created when comparative research relies primarily on only one of these information cells. The Nature-Concepts category stands for the abstract theoretical model. Most simply the information in that cell is the outline of how we expect things to work. This type of information includes the laws of behavior which are the basis for the perception of the environment. The information in this cell constitutes the most abstract and interrelated data. The State-Concepts cell contains the isolated contents of the model. Unfortunately, studies that focus on the isolated variables in this cell,