Course Outline

Introduction to Public Policy and Administrative Governance

• Define and contrast political governance and administrative governance
• Define public policy and discuss the purpose and focus of policy studies
• Distinguish between public administration and private administration as fields of practice
• Comment on the relationship between public administration and policy studies as fields of study
• Outline the core organizational forms of the public bureaucracy and discuss the roles of key players and institutions in the political and permanent executive

Public Bureaucracy in Theory and Practice

• Offer a definition of public bureaucracy and discuss competing perspectives on the character of public bureaucracy
• Identify and describe the basic organizational forms of public bureaucracy
• Contrast the essential characteristics of a Weberian ideal type bureaucracy and the type of public bureaucracy advocated by proponents of the New Public Management (NPM) and post-bureaucratic organizational models

Policy Formation: The Institutions and Processes of Political Governance

• Outline and discuss the machinery of government and the various stages of the policy process
• Explain the impact of core constitutional institutions on policy-making
• Discuss the role of the various political and bureaucratic institutions in the policy process
• Describe, in some detail, the process of policy decision-making by Cabinet
• Comment on the power of “the centre” in the policy process

Administrative Governance: The Challenge of Policy Implementation

• Contrast the various policy instruments that are available for policy implementation
• Discuss the factors shaping the possibility of successful policy implementation
• Explain and discuss the core ideas underpinning the current enthusiasm for alternative service delivery (ASD)
• List and comment on the service delivery mechanisms associated with ASD

The Role and Influence of Non-state Actors in Policy-making and Administrative Governances

• Explain the concepts associated with policy community and policy network analysis
• Distinguish between elite accommodation and democratic public consultation
• Contrast competing theoretical perspectives on the power and influence of non-state actors in the policy process and discuss the challenges that face designers of democratic public consultations
• Discuss approach to regulating and monitoring professional government lobbyists
• Offer an explanation of the privileged position of private-sector business interests in the policy process
• Discuss the historical trajectories of group and movement influence in politics

Ethics in Administrative Governance: The Challenge of Ensuring Democratic Accountability in Public Administration

• Analyze and discuss the nature of democratic accountability in a parliamentary democracy
• Evaluate the potential impact of the NPM on democratic accountability
• Outline the principles of and potential approaches to ensuring ethics in administrative governance
• Contrast the viewpoints of competing theories of public bureaucracy on the issue of public-sector accountability

Social Diversity and the Question of “Difference” in Policy-making and Administrative Governance

• Comment on the significance of social diversity for how we approach public policy-making and administration
• Explain why advocates of identity politics argue that self-representation (and “authenticity of voice”) is so important to democratic policy-making
• Understand the rationale for and functioning of “employment equity” in the federal public service
• Discuss the relationship between social diversity and the “differential impact” of public policy

Paradigms of Governance: Policy-making and Administrative Governance from the Administrative Welfare State to the Neo-liberal State

• Describe what is meant by the notion “paradigm of governance” and contrast the three governing paradigms that have had periods of hegemony over the course of history
• Discuss the character of the administrative culture and state form associated with the postwar welfare state
• Outline the core features of neo-liberal governance and explain the place of the NPM in this paradigm of governance
• Comment in some detail on the recent transition from an administrative welfare state form to a neo-liberal state form
• Provide an analysis and normative evaluation of the NPM