Public consultation and engagement on housing development and neighbourhood change can be so cont... more Public consultation and engagement on housing development and neighbourhood change can be so controversial and at times alarmist such that NIMBY (“Not in my back yard”) and even the more extreme BANANA (“Build absolutely nothing anywhere near anyone”) attitudes often prevail. Public engagement as currently conceived and practiced by most governments is faced with high expectations but low satisfaction among many involved. This article reports the findings from a group-based role-playing experiment in Canada involving local residents discussing and evaluating a hypothetical proposal for a new housing development for currently homeless individuals. The results find that those who were randomly assigned a role to play with attitudes different from their own were more likely to report higher satisfaction with the group discussion and recommendation than those who were not assigned a role different from their own identity and attitudes. The study finds no relationship between role-playing and the self-reported sense of one’s influence on the process or how much they learned about the issues. The findings point to new frontiers of public engagement that involve playful role-playing or other “games” as a means to create space for mutual understanding and tolerance for decisions among citizens in these fraught debates.
In 1988, James Iain Gow surveyed public servants across Canada on how they access and utilize res... more In 1988, James Iain Gow surveyed public servants across Canada on how they access and utilize research from various sources and how that is linked to policy innovation. He documented this research in his book Learning from Others (1994). Thirty years later, we replicate selected parts of the original survey conducted by Gow, but also add an experimental dimension that tests how subjects respond to public service innovations from around the world. We randomly alter key features of those innovations to examine if public servants reveal patterns in the way they process these innovations and make judgements about their suitability or promise.
We examine the various whistleblowing regimes in Canada, which across 13 provinces and territorie... more We examine the various whistleblowing regimes in Canada, which across 13 provinces and territories and a single federal government, exhibit theoretically interesting variation on procedures, incentives, and protections that are well-positioned for comparative analysis. Drawing on a panel of Canadian public servants, we conducted a survey with both descriptive and experimental dimensions to identify and measure knowledge and confidence in the context of diverse whistleblowing regimes, and how that relates to perceptions of the legitimacy of unauthorized public disclosures. We find that confidence is high among public servants despite variation in the structure of whistleblowing regimes, is enhanced when respondents know the number of reported wrongdoings and their results, and that greater knowledge of whistleblowing protections delegitimizes unauthorized public disclosures (e.g. leaking to the media) of alleged wrongdoing.
The “systemic turn” has been one of the most important developments in deliberative democracy in ... more The “systemic turn” has been one of the most important developments in deliberative democracy in the past decade. Through a deliberative systems approach, scholars and practitioners are challenged to think about ways in which various venues and institutions interact together to produce a healthy democratic subsystem. One major challenge to this approach, however, is its methodological weakness. How exactly are various venues and institutions connected? How do they interact with each other? What conceptual tools are available in making sense of the deliberative system?
This article proposes the use of “venue coupling” and “actor circulation” to operationalize some of the key concepts of the deliberative system. Through the case of the Local Health Integration Networks in Ontario, Canada, this article maps the governance system, its institutional and interpersonal components, and their interconnections (or lack thereof). By drawing together key concepts in deliberative democracy and network governance, this article sketches out a framework that can be used to analyze governance contexts in which deliberative practices are fused with traditional political institutions like legislative bodies and bureaucracies.
We present the results of a randomized controlled survey experiment involving 1508 Canadians usin... more We present the results of a randomized controlled survey experiment involving 1508 Canadians using hypothetical vignettes of homelessness experiences, allowing us to examine the extent to which Canadians who live in large urban centres hold different attitudes towards homeless populations and may differ systematically in terms of supporting expanding homelessness investments. The findings point to differences not only among major urban centres, but also along urban-suburban-rural dimensions, which help us understand the place-based drivers of political will and policy responses across the Canadian urban and regional context.
Citizen attitudes toward welfare state investments are often explained by their ideological value... more Citizen attitudes toward welfare state investments are often explained by their ideological values and their perceptions of deservingness of welfare recipients, yet recent experimental research has led to the theorization that clear deservingness cues can overwhelm otherwise strong ideological beliefs. We tested these claims with respect to homelessness in Canada using a vignette survey experiment and found evidence that citizens with very different political beliefs can support similar government investments, indeed from a shared sense of deservingness as suggested by recent experimental studies, but that support is anchored by rather different reasons.
Key Practitioner Message: • Citizen support for homelessness investments is jointly mediated by ideology and a sense of the " deservingness " of the beneficiary; • Emphasizing the broader cost savings to taxpayers from " Housing First " does not make conservative-leaning citizens more supportive of investments; • Emphasizing the personal attributes of persons experiencing homelessness rather than abstract statistics may unite progressives and conservatives on " deservingness " .
How do key policy professionals inside government view various sources of policy research? Are th... more How do key policy professionals inside government view various sources of policy research? Are there systematic differences in the perceptions of the quality and credibility of research derived from different sources? This is a replication study and expansion of Doberstein (2016), which presented a randomized controlled survey experiment using policy analysts to systematically test the source effects of policy research. The experimental findings in Doberstein (2016) lent evidence to the hypothesis that academic research is perceived to be substantially more credible to government policy analysts than think tank or advocacy organization research, regardless of its content, and that sources perceived as more ideological were much less credible. This study replicates the experiment in three additional Canadian provincial governments to verify if the relationship in the original study persists in a larger sample and in conjunction with further randomization procedures. This study corroborates the findings from the original study, confirming that external policy advice systems are subject to powerful heuristics that bureaucrats use to sift through evidence and advice.
There has been a surge in the experimental research in public administration in the last five year... more There has been a surge in the experimental research in public administration in the last five years (Bouwman and Grimmelikhuijsen 2016). Results from experiments conducted internationally, for example, have pushed back on long-standing assumptions in the field, such as budget-maximizing bureaucratic behaviour (Moynihan 2013), and articulated key causal effects of transformational leadership on performance in public organizations (Belle 2014). Both examples demonstrate the practical value and interest of experimental research to practitioners and scholars alike.Yet the Canadian public administration research community has been slower to follow, though there are hints of an emerging interest in experimentation.
More than ever before, analysts in government have access to policy-relevant research and advocac... more More than ever before, analysts in government have access to policy-relevant research and advocacy, which they consume and apply in their role in the policy process. Academics have historically occupied a privileged position of authority and legitimacy, but some argue this is changing with the rapid growth of think tanks and research-based advocacy organizations. This article documents the findings from a randomized controlled survey experiment using policy analysts from the British Columbia provincial government in Canada to systematically test the source effects of policy research in two subject areas: minimum wage and income-splitting tax policy. Subjects were asked to read research summaries of these topics and then assess the credibility of each article, but for half of the survey respondents the affiliation/ authorship of the content was randomly reassigned. The experimental findings lend evidence to the hypothesis that academic research is perceived to be substantially more credible than think tank or advocacy organization research, regardless of its content. That increasingly externalized policy advice systems are not a pluralistic arena of policy research and advice, but instead subject to powerful heuristics that bureaucrats use to sift through policy-relevant information and advice, demands added nuance to both location and content-based policy advisory system models.
Do positive messages regarding the benefits of increased housing density influence resident state... more Do positive messages regarding the benefits of increased housing density influence resident stated housing development preferences? We employ an experimental research design to test the efficacy of positive messages regarding increased housing density to reduce observed NIMBYism (NotInMyBackYard). Using a survey-based experiment, we compared four messages: a notification of the public benefits; the private benefits; a social comparison drawing on expert knowledge of housing preferences; and a control stating recent trends in the municipality. Our sample of 202 residents of a mid-sized Canadian city indicates that messages regarding the public benefits of increased density reduced NIMBYism by four times the control message. We find some evidence in favor of the efficacy of the social comparison treatment as well. We discuss these findings with reference to the literature on smart city growth, and the policy implications that emerge.
Collaborative governance institutions consisting of government and civil society actors often eme... more Collaborative governance institutions consisting of government and civil society actors often emerge to solve complex policy problems. Yet decades of research on collaborative governance has found that realizing the ‘collaborative advantage’ is often very difficult given the multitude of actors, organizations and interests to be managed. This article deploys a participant observation approach that also harnesses data from a natural experiment in collaborative governance for homelessness policy in Vancouver, Canada, to reveal the distinct collaborative advantage produced in terms of policy, using empirical decision data and counterfactual analysis. The data reveal that nearly 50% of the policy decisions made in the collaborative institution would not be made in the alternative scenario of unilateral bureaucratic control. The collaborative advantage realized in this governance institution that is premised on horizontality, deliberation and diversity is the result of a series of small interventions and the strategic deployment of rules devised by the bureaucratic metagovernor in charge of steering the governance collaboration.
Homelessness is not a historical accident. We know that it is the disastrous outcome of policy de... more Homelessness is not a historical accident. We know that it is the disastrous outcome of policy decisions made over time and at several levels of government. Yet conventional theories in political science and public administration fail to explain why some approaches have worked while others have failed.
Drawing on network governance theory, extended participant observation, and more than sixty interviews with key policy figures, Carey Doberstein investigates how government and civil-society actors in three major Canadian cities have organized themselves to solve public problems. In Vancouver and Calgary, where governance networks include affordable-housing providers, mental health and addiction professionals, Aboriginal community members, representatives of drop-in centres, and others with lived experience, homelessness is on the decline. In Toronto, where government-level decision-making was closed to civil-society actors during the period of investigation, homelessness levels remained stagnant.
Doberstein concludes that having a progressive city council is not enough. Civil-society organizations and actors must have genuine access to the channels of government power in order to work with policy makers to develop innovative and comprehensive solutions. He reveals how program and system coordination and policy innovation are more likely to be generated from within such network governance structures -- not imposed from above.
Canadian Journal of Political Science, 47 (2), pp 259-280, 2014
"This article examines the interaction of different modes and levels of legitimacy within network... more "This article examines the interaction of different modes and levels of legitimacy within network governance institutions over time. Drawing on new theoretical directions in European governance studies and empirical findings from Canada, we contend that whereas input legitimacy can be exchanged, or traded-off, with output legitimacy to reinforce the overall legitimacy of a network governance institution, 'throughput legitimacy' functions as a necessary condition that sustains legitimacy over time. Through a comparison of homelessness governance networks in Toronto and Calgary, we find that throughput legitimacy carries an amplification effect that results either virtuous or vicious cycles. That is, we argue and demonstrate that low 'throughput legitimacy' in network governance institutions can effectively bring down the whole house of cards.
Cet article vise l’interaction de différents modes et niveaux de légitimité comme partie des institutions administratves à travers le temps. En tirant d’exemple des nouvelles tendances dans des études europééns sur l’administrations et des conclusions empiriques venant du Canada, nous affirmons qu’étant donné la légitimité d’entrée puisse être échangée contre la légitimité de rendement afin de renforcer la légitimité globale d’une administration de réseau, la structure interne de l’administration fonctionne en étant une exigence absolue qui sert à maintenir la légitimité au long terme. Au moyen d’une comparaison des « sans-abris » et leurs réseaux d’administration à Toronto et Calgary, nous trouvons qu’une structure interne valable contient un effet d’amplification dont le résultat s’exprime en deux types de cycles ; virtueux or viscieux. C’est-à-dire, nous constatons et espérons démontrer qu’une basse légitimité dans l’administration des niveaux différents des institutions gouvernementales peut définitivement servir à démolir toute l’affaire.
"
Canadian Public Administration, 56(4), 584-609., Dec 2013
This article introduces the concept of ‘metagovernance’ into Canadian public administration liter... more This article introduces the concept of ‘metagovernance’ into Canadian public administration literature to capture the relationship and tension between the willingness of the state to engage with civil society in substantive policy planning and decision-making via governance networks, while maintaining some degree of control over their activity to be consistent with traditional notions of democratic accountability. The article proceeds by comparing fifteen cases of network governance at the local level from all regions in Canada and various policy domains, identifies patterns in the management of governance networks by the state, and concludes with reflections on the implications for network governance and accountability.
Despite not having explicit authority to legislate on such matters local in nature, in 2000 the f... more Despite not having explicit authority to legislate on such matters local in nature, in 2000 the federal government launched the National Homelessness Initiative (NHI). I argue that this federal program, in many critical aspects, mirrors a governance model developed in the European Union called the Open Method of Coordination (OMC), a model developed in an institutional context whereby the European Commission has no formal authority to coerce member states into coordinating social policy, but nonetheless uses ‘soft’ or voluntary mechanisms to work toward this goal. Vancouver and Toronto are examined more closely to demonstrate how the flexibility of the OMC-style model manifests itself in practice, and the implications for governance, accountability and effectiveness. I conclude that while the issue of homelessness is principally plagued by insufficient and unstable funding, further application of principles in the OMC model—uniquely applied to the Canadian context—hold promise for improving governance, coordination, and effectiveness of the public policy response to homelessness, and thus calls for more attention from Canadian federalism scholars.
Urban development agreements (UDAs) in Canada represented an innovative governance approach that ... more Urban development agreements (UDAs) in Canada represented an innovative governance approach that involved all three levels of government and civil society organizations jointly deliberating and setting policy to address enduring and seemingly intractable issues like homelessness and economic development. By 2010, however, all UDAs in Canada have been terminated. This article applies a new institutionalism framework to analyse and explain the creation and termination of UDAs in Canada. First, I argue that the creation and termination of these institutions are most productively explained by applying both historical institutional and discursive institutional analytical frameworks. Second, I examine the specific UDAs in Vancouver and Winnipeg to illustrate the historical, institutional and ideational context under which they emerged. Finally, I consider the institutional termination literature to frame a discursive institutional analysis of the ‘death’ of UDAs in Canada, concluding that there was an ideational or discursive turn stemming not simply from political turnover, but cognitive (how to do it) and normative (what is appropriate) ideas.
and utilize research from various sources and how that is linked to
policy innovation. He documen... more and utilize research from various sources and how that is linked to policy innovation. He documented this research in his book Learning from Others (1994). Thirty years later, we replicate selected parts of the original survey conducted by Gow, but also add an experimental dimension that tests how subjects respond to public service innovations from around the world. We randomly alter key features of those innovations to examine if public servants reveal patterns in the way they process these innovations and make judgements about their suitability or promise.
Public consultation and engagement on housing development and neighbourhood change can be so cont... more Public consultation and engagement on housing development and neighbourhood change can be so controversial and at times alarmist such that NIMBY (“Not in my back yard”) and even the more extreme BANANA (“Build absolutely nothing anywhere near anyone”) attitudes often prevail. Public engagement as currently conceived and practiced by most governments is faced with high expectations but low satisfaction among many involved. This article reports the findings from a group-based role-playing experiment in Canada involving local residents discussing and evaluating a hypothetical proposal for a new housing development for currently homeless individuals. The results find that those who were randomly assigned a role to play with attitudes different from their own were more likely to report higher satisfaction with the group discussion and recommendation than those who were not assigned a role different from their own identity and attitudes. The study finds no relationship between role-playing and the self-reported sense of one’s influence on the process or how much they learned about the issues. The findings point to new frontiers of public engagement that involve playful role-playing or other “games” as a means to create space for mutual understanding and tolerance for decisions among citizens in these fraught debates.
In 1988, James Iain Gow surveyed public servants across Canada on how they access and utilize res... more In 1988, James Iain Gow surveyed public servants across Canada on how they access and utilize research from various sources and how that is linked to policy innovation. He documented this research in his book Learning from Others (1994). Thirty years later, we replicate selected parts of the original survey conducted by Gow, but also add an experimental dimension that tests how subjects respond to public service innovations from around the world. We randomly alter key features of those innovations to examine if public servants reveal patterns in the way they process these innovations and make judgements about their suitability or promise.
We examine the various whistleblowing regimes in Canada, which across 13 provinces and territorie... more We examine the various whistleblowing regimes in Canada, which across 13 provinces and territories and a single federal government, exhibit theoretically interesting variation on procedures, incentives, and protections that are well-positioned for comparative analysis. Drawing on a panel of Canadian public servants, we conducted a survey with both descriptive and experimental dimensions to identify and measure knowledge and confidence in the context of diverse whistleblowing regimes, and how that relates to perceptions of the legitimacy of unauthorized public disclosures. We find that confidence is high among public servants despite variation in the structure of whistleblowing regimes, is enhanced when respondents know the number of reported wrongdoings and their results, and that greater knowledge of whistleblowing protections delegitimizes unauthorized public disclosures (e.g. leaking to the media) of alleged wrongdoing.
The “systemic turn” has been one of the most important developments in deliberative democracy in ... more The “systemic turn” has been one of the most important developments in deliberative democracy in the past decade. Through a deliberative systems approach, scholars and practitioners are challenged to think about ways in which various venues and institutions interact together to produce a healthy democratic subsystem. One major challenge to this approach, however, is its methodological weakness. How exactly are various venues and institutions connected? How do they interact with each other? What conceptual tools are available in making sense of the deliberative system?
This article proposes the use of “venue coupling” and “actor circulation” to operationalize some of the key concepts of the deliberative system. Through the case of the Local Health Integration Networks in Ontario, Canada, this article maps the governance system, its institutional and interpersonal components, and their interconnections (or lack thereof). By drawing together key concepts in deliberative democracy and network governance, this article sketches out a framework that can be used to analyze governance contexts in which deliberative practices are fused with traditional political institutions like legislative bodies and bureaucracies.
We present the results of a randomized controlled survey experiment involving 1508 Canadians usin... more We present the results of a randomized controlled survey experiment involving 1508 Canadians using hypothetical vignettes of homelessness experiences, allowing us to examine the extent to which Canadians who live in large urban centres hold different attitudes towards homeless populations and may differ systematically in terms of supporting expanding homelessness investments. The findings point to differences not only among major urban centres, but also along urban-suburban-rural dimensions, which help us understand the place-based drivers of political will and policy responses across the Canadian urban and regional context.
Citizen attitudes toward welfare state investments are often explained by their ideological value... more Citizen attitudes toward welfare state investments are often explained by their ideological values and their perceptions of deservingness of welfare recipients, yet recent experimental research has led to the theorization that clear deservingness cues can overwhelm otherwise strong ideological beliefs. We tested these claims with respect to homelessness in Canada using a vignette survey experiment and found evidence that citizens with very different political beliefs can support similar government investments, indeed from a shared sense of deservingness as suggested by recent experimental studies, but that support is anchored by rather different reasons.
Key Practitioner Message: • Citizen support for homelessness investments is jointly mediated by ideology and a sense of the " deservingness " of the beneficiary; • Emphasizing the broader cost savings to taxpayers from " Housing First " does not make conservative-leaning citizens more supportive of investments; • Emphasizing the personal attributes of persons experiencing homelessness rather than abstract statistics may unite progressives and conservatives on " deservingness " .
How do key policy professionals inside government view various sources of policy research? Are th... more How do key policy professionals inside government view various sources of policy research? Are there systematic differences in the perceptions of the quality and credibility of research derived from different sources? This is a replication study and expansion of Doberstein (2016), which presented a randomized controlled survey experiment using policy analysts to systematically test the source effects of policy research. The experimental findings in Doberstein (2016) lent evidence to the hypothesis that academic research is perceived to be substantially more credible to government policy analysts than think tank or advocacy organization research, regardless of its content, and that sources perceived as more ideological were much less credible. This study replicates the experiment in three additional Canadian provincial governments to verify if the relationship in the original study persists in a larger sample and in conjunction with further randomization procedures. This study corroborates the findings from the original study, confirming that external policy advice systems are subject to powerful heuristics that bureaucrats use to sift through evidence and advice.
There has been a surge in the experimental research in public administration in the last five year... more There has been a surge in the experimental research in public administration in the last five years (Bouwman and Grimmelikhuijsen 2016). Results from experiments conducted internationally, for example, have pushed back on long-standing assumptions in the field, such as budget-maximizing bureaucratic behaviour (Moynihan 2013), and articulated key causal effects of transformational leadership on performance in public organizations (Belle 2014). Both examples demonstrate the practical value and interest of experimental research to practitioners and scholars alike.Yet the Canadian public administration research community has been slower to follow, though there are hints of an emerging interest in experimentation.
More than ever before, analysts in government have access to policy-relevant research and advocac... more More than ever before, analysts in government have access to policy-relevant research and advocacy, which they consume and apply in their role in the policy process. Academics have historically occupied a privileged position of authority and legitimacy, but some argue this is changing with the rapid growth of think tanks and research-based advocacy organizations. This article documents the findings from a randomized controlled survey experiment using policy analysts from the British Columbia provincial government in Canada to systematically test the source effects of policy research in two subject areas: minimum wage and income-splitting tax policy. Subjects were asked to read research summaries of these topics and then assess the credibility of each article, but for half of the survey respondents the affiliation/ authorship of the content was randomly reassigned. The experimental findings lend evidence to the hypothesis that academic research is perceived to be substantially more credible than think tank or advocacy organization research, regardless of its content. That increasingly externalized policy advice systems are not a pluralistic arena of policy research and advice, but instead subject to powerful heuristics that bureaucrats use to sift through policy-relevant information and advice, demands added nuance to both location and content-based policy advisory system models.
Do positive messages regarding the benefits of increased housing density influence resident state... more Do positive messages regarding the benefits of increased housing density influence resident stated housing development preferences? We employ an experimental research design to test the efficacy of positive messages regarding increased housing density to reduce observed NIMBYism (NotInMyBackYard). Using a survey-based experiment, we compared four messages: a notification of the public benefits; the private benefits; a social comparison drawing on expert knowledge of housing preferences; and a control stating recent trends in the municipality. Our sample of 202 residents of a mid-sized Canadian city indicates that messages regarding the public benefits of increased density reduced NIMBYism by four times the control message. We find some evidence in favor of the efficacy of the social comparison treatment as well. We discuss these findings with reference to the literature on smart city growth, and the policy implications that emerge.
Collaborative governance institutions consisting of government and civil society actors often eme... more Collaborative governance institutions consisting of government and civil society actors often emerge to solve complex policy problems. Yet decades of research on collaborative governance has found that realizing the ‘collaborative advantage’ is often very difficult given the multitude of actors, organizations and interests to be managed. This article deploys a participant observation approach that also harnesses data from a natural experiment in collaborative governance for homelessness policy in Vancouver, Canada, to reveal the distinct collaborative advantage produced in terms of policy, using empirical decision data and counterfactual analysis. The data reveal that nearly 50% of the policy decisions made in the collaborative institution would not be made in the alternative scenario of unilateral bureaucratic control. The collaborative advantage realized in this governance institution that is premised on horizontality, deliberation and diversity is the result of a series of small interventions and the strategic deployment of rules devised by the bureaucratic metagovernor in charge of steering the governance collaboration.
Homelessness is not a historical accident. We know that it is the disastrous outcome of policy de... more Homelessness is not a historical accident. We know that it is the disastrous outcome of policy decisions made over time and at several levels of government. Yet conventional theories in political science and public administration fail to explain why some approaches have worked while others have failed.
Drawing on network governance theory, extended participant observation, and more than sixty interviews with key policy figures, Carey Doberstein investigates how government and civil-society actors in three major Canadian cities have organized themselves to solve public problems. In Vancouver and Calgary, where governance networks include affordable-housing providers, mental health and addiction professionals, Aboriginal community members, representatives of drop-in centres, and others with lived experience, homelessness is on the decline. In Toronto, where government-level decision-making was closed to civil-society actors during the period of investigation, homelessness levels remained stagnant.
Doberstein concludes that having a progressive city council is not enough. Civil-society organizations and actors must have genuine access to the channels of government power in order to work with policy makers to develop innovative and comprehensive solutions. He reveals how program and system coordination and policy innovation are more likely to be generated from within such network governance structures -- not imposed from above.
Canadian Journal of Political Science, 47 (2), pp 259-280, 2014
"This article examines the interaction of different modes and levels of legitimacy within network... more "This article examines the interaction of different modes and levels of legitimacy within network governance institutions over time. Drawing on new theoretical directions in European governance studies and empirical findings from Canada, we contend that whereas input legitimacy can be exchanged, or traded-off, with output legitimacy to reinforce the overall legitimacy of a network governance institution, 'throughput legitimacy' functions as a necessary condition that sustains legitimacy over time. Through a comparison of homelessness governance networks in Toronto and Calgary, we find that throughput legitimacy carries an amplification effect that results either virtuous or vicious cycles. That is, we argue and demonstrate that low 'throughput legitimacy' in network governance institutions can effectively bring down the whole house of cards.
Cet article vise l’interaction de différents modes et niveaux de légitimité comme partie des institutions administratves à travers le temps. En tirant d’exemple des nouvelles tendances dans des études europééns sur l’administrations et des conclusions empiriques venant du Canada, nous affirmons qu’étant donné la légitimité d’entrée puisse être échangée contre la légitimité de rendement afin de renforcer la légitimité globale d’une administration de réseau, la structure interne de l’administration fonctionne en étant une exigence absolue qui sert à maintenir la légitimité au long terme. Au moyen d’une comparaison des « sans-abris » et leurs réseaux d’administration à Toronto et Calgary, nous trouvons qu’une structure interne valable contient un effet d’amplification dont le résultat s’exprime en deux types de cycles ; virtueux or viscieux. C’est-à-dire, nous constatons et espérons démontrer qu’une basse légitimité dans l’administration des niveaux différents des institutions gouvernementales peut définitivement servir à démolir toute l’affaire.
"
Canadian Public Administration, 56(4), 584-609., Dec 2013
This article introduces the concept of ‘metagovernance’ into Canadian public administration liter... more This article introduces the concept of ‘metagovernance’ into Canadian public administration literature to capture the relationship and tension between the willingness of the state to engage with civil society in substantive policy planning and decision-making via governance networks, while maintaining some degree of control over their activity to be consistent with traditional notions of democratic accountability. The article proceeds by comparing fifteen cases of network governance at the local level from all regions in Canada and various policy domains, identifies patterns in the management of governance networks by the state, and concludes with reflections on the implications for network governance and accountability.
Despite not having explicit authority to legislate on such matters local in nature, in 2000 the f... more Despite not having explicit authority to legislate on such matters local in nature, in 2000 the federal government launched the National Homelessness Initiative (NHI). I argue that this federal program, in many critical aspects, mirrors a governance model developed in the European Union called the Open Method of Coordination (OMC), a model developed in an institutional context whereby the European Commission has no formal authority to coerce member states into coordinating social policy, but nonetheless uses ‘soft’ or voluntary mechanisms to work toward this goal. Vancouver and Toronto are examined more closely to demonstrate how the flexibility of the OMC-style model manifests itself in practice, and the implications for governance, accountability and effectiveness. I conclude that while the issue of homelessness is principally plagued by insufficient and unstable funding, further application of principles in the OMC model—uniquely applied to the Canadian context—hold promise for improving governance, coordination, and effectiveness of the public policy response to homelessness, and thus calls for more attention from Canadian federalism scholars.
Urban development agreements (UDAs) in Canada represented an innovative governance approach that ... more Urban development agreements (UDAs) in Canada represented an innovative governance approach that involved all three levels of government and civil society organizations jointly deliberating and setting policy to address enduring and seemingly intractable issues like homelessness and economic development. By 2010, however, all UDAs in Canada have been terminated. This article applies a new institutionalism framework to analyse and explain the creation and termination of UDAs in Canada. First, I argue that the creation and termination of these institutions are most productively explained by applying both historical institutional and discursive institutional analytical frameworks. Second, I examine the specific UDAs in Vancouver and Winnipeg to illustrate the historical, institutional and ideational context under which they emerged. Finally, I consider the institutional termination literature to frame a discursive institutional analysis of the ‘death’ of UDAs in Canada, concluding that there was an ideational or discursive turn stemming not simply from political turnover, but cognitive (how to do it) and normative (what is appropriate) ideas.
and utilize research from various sources and how that is linked to
policy innovation. He documen... more and utilize research from various sources and how that is linked to policy innovation. He documented this research in his book Learning from Others (1994). Thirty years later, we replicate selected parts of the original survey conducted by Gow, but also add an experimental dimension that tests how subjects respond to public service innovations from around the world. We randomly alter key features of those innovations to examine if public servants reveal patterns in the way they process these innovations and make judgements about their suitability or promise.
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about ways in which various venues and institutions interact together to produce a healthy democratic subsystem. One major challenge to this approach, however, is its methodological weakness. How exactly are various venues and institutions connected? How do they interact with each other? What conceptual tools are available in making sense of the deliberative system?
This article proposes the use of “venue coupling” and “actor circulation” to operationalize some of the key concepts of the deliberative system. Through the case of the Local Health Integration Networks in Ontario, Canada, this article maps the governance system, its institutional and interpersonal components, and their interconnections (or lack thereof). By drawing together key concepts in deliberative democracy and network governance, this article sketches out a framework that can be used to analyze governance contexts in which deliberative practices are fused with traditional political institutions like legislative bodies and bureaucracies.
Key Practitioner Message: • Citizen support for homelessness investments is jointly mediated by ideology and a sense of the " deservingness " of the beneficiary; • Emphasizing the broader cost savings to taxpayers from " Housing First " does not make conservative-leaning citizens more supportive of investments; • Emphasizing the personal attributes of persons experiencing homelessness rather than abstract statistics may unite progressives and conservatives on " deservingness " .
recent trends in the municipality. Our sample of 202 residents of a mid-sized Canadian city indicates that messages regarding the public benefits of increased density reduced NIMBYism by four times the control message. We find some evidence in favor of the efficacy of the social comparison treatment as well. We
discuss these findings with reference to the literature on smart city growth, and the policy implications that emerge.
Drawing on network governance theory, extended participant observation, and more than sixty interviews with key policy figures, Carey Doberstein investigates how government and civil-society actors in three major Canadian cities have organized themselves to solve public problems. In Vancouver and Calgary, where governance networks include affordable-housing providers, mental health and addiction professionals, Aboriginal community members, representatives of drop-in centres, and others with lived experience, homelessness is on the decline. In Toronto, where government-level decision-making was closed to civil-society actors during the period of investigation, homelessness levels remained stagnant.
Doberstein concludes that having a progressive city council is not enough. Civil-society organizations and actors must have genuine access to the channels of government power in order to work with policy makers to develop innovative and comprehensive solutions. He reveals how program and system coordination and policy innovation are more likely to be generated from within such network governance structures -- not imposed from above.
Cet article vise l’interaction de différents modes et niveaux de légitimité comme partie des institutions administratves à travers le temps. En tirant d’exemple des nouvelles tendances dans des études europééns sur l’administrations et des conclusions empiriques venant du Canada, nous affirmons qu’étant donné la légitimité d’entrée puisse être échangée contre la légitimité de rendement afin de renforcer la légitimité globale d’une administration de réseau, la structure interne de l’administration fonctionne en étant une exigence absolue qui sert à maintenir la légitimité au long terme. Au moyen d’une comparaison des « sans-abris » et leurs réseaux d’administration à Toronto et Calgary, nous trouvons qu’une structure interne valable contient un effet d’amplification dont le résultat s’exprime en deux types de cycles ; virtueux or viscieux. C’est-à-dire, nous constatons et espérons démontrer qu’une basse légitimité dans l’administration des niveaux différents des institutions gouvernementales peut définitivement servir à démolir toute l’affaire.
"
policy innovation. He documented this research in his book Learning from Others
(1994). Thirty years later, we replicate selected parts of the original survey conducted
by Gow, but also add an experimental dimension that tests how subjects
respond to public service innovations from around the world. We randomly alter
key features of those innovations to examine if public servants reveal patterns in the
way they process these innovations and make judgements about their suitability or
promise.
about ways in which various venues and institutions interact together to produce a healthy democratic subsystem. One major challenge to this approach, however, is its methodological weakness. How exactly are various venues and institutions connected? How do they interact with each other? What conceptual tools are available in making sense of the deliberative system?
This article proposes the use of “venue coupling” and “actor circulation” to operationalize some of the key concepts of the deliberative system. Through the case of the Local Health Integration Networks in Ontario, Canada, this article maps the governance system, its institutional and interpersonal components, and their interconnections (or lack thereof). By drawing together key concepts in deliberative democracy and network governance, this article sketches out a framework that can be used to analyze governance contexts in which deliberative practices are fused with traditional political institutions like legislative bodies and bureaucracies.
Key Practitioner Message: • Citizen support for homelessness investments is jointly mediated by ideology and a sense of the " deservingness " of the beneficiary; • Emphasizing the broader cost savings to taxpayers from " Housing First " does not make conservative-leaning citizens more supportive of investments; • Emphasizing the personal attributes of persons experiencing homelessness rather than abstract statistics may unite progressives and conservatives on " deservingness " .
recent trends in the municipality. Our sample of 202 residents of a mid-sized Canadian city indicates that messages regarding the public benefits of increased density reduced NIMBYism by four times the control message. We find some evidence in favor of the efficacy of the social comparison treatment as well. We
discuss these findings with reference to the literature on smart city growth, and the policy implications that emerge.
Drawing on network governance theory, extended participant observation, and more than sixty interviews with key policy figures, Carey Doberstein investigates how government and civil-society actors in three major Canadian cities have organized themselves to solve public problems. In Vancouver and Calgary, where governance networks include affordable-housing providers, mental health and addiction professionals, Aboriginal community members, representatives of drop-in centres, and others with lived experience, homelessness is on the decline. In Toronto, where government-level decision-making was closed to civil-society actors during the period of investigation, homelessness levels remained stagnant.
Doberstein concludes that having a progressive city council is not enough. Civil-society organizations and actors must have genuine access to the channels of government power in order to work with policy makers to develop innovative and comprehensive solutions. He reveals how program and system coordination and policy innovation are more likely to be generated from within such network governance structures -- not imposed from above.
Cet article vise l’interaction de différents modes et niveaux de légitimité comme partie des institutions administratves à travers le temps. En tirant d’exemple des nouvelles tendances dans des études europééns sur l’administrations et des conclusions empiriques venant du Canada, nous affirmons qu’étant donné la légitimité d’entrée puisse être échangée contre la légitimité de rendement afin de renforcer la légitimité globale d’une administration de réseau, la structure interne de l’administration fonctionne en étant une exigence absolue qui sert à maintenir la légitimité au long terme. Au moyen d’une comparaison des « sans-abris » et leurs réseaux d’administration à Toronto et Calgary, nous trouvons qu’une structure interne valable contient un effet d’amplification dont le résultat s’exprime en deux types de cycles ; virtueux or viscieux. C’est-à-dire, nous constatons et espérons démontrer qu’une basse légitimité dans l’administration des niveaux différents des institutions gouvernementales peut définitivement servir à démolir toute l’affaire.
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policy innovation. He documented this research in his book Learning from Others
(1994). Thirty years later, we replicate selected parts of the original survey conducted
by Gow, but also add an experimental dimension that tests how subjects
respond to public service innovations from around the world. We randomly alter
key features of those innovations to examine if public servants reveal patterns in the
way they process these innovations and make judgements about their suitability or
promise.