A Subtle Balance
Expertise, Evidence, and Democracy in Public Policy and Governance, 1970-2010
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
A Subtle Balance
Expertise, Evidence, and Democracy in Public Policy and Governance, 1970-2010
About this book
A Subtle Balance critically reflects on major trends and enduring challenges over the last four decades of public policy and governance. During this time, a tension has existed between two aims for public decisions: that they be based on the best available evidence and analysis, and that they be fully democratic.
This period has seen a continuing drive for more direct citizen engagement in decision-making and governments trying to address major policy issues through novel consultative and collaborative processes. In essays that offer detailed and novel insights into the recent history of specific issues in social policy, environmental policy, and processes of policy advice and decision-making, contributors elaborate on how these trends have played out in diverse areas of practice, what their consequences have been, and how specific institutional reforms could reset the requisite balance between expertise, evidence, and democracy in Canadian public policy.
Inspired by the wide-ranging contributions to scholarship and practice of A.R. (Rod) Dobell, A Subtle Balance draws on the influences of distinguished scholars and sophisticated practitioners of public policy to assess recent changes in governance.
Contributors include Martin Bunton, Barry Carin, Ian Clark, Rachel Culley, Rod Dobell, Lia Ernst, Jill Horwitz, John Langford, Justin Longo, Michael Prince, Harry Swain, Charles Ungerleider, Josee van Eijndhoven, Michael Wolfson, and David Zussman.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Half title
- Title
- Copyright
- Contents
- Tables and Figures
- Acknowledgments
- 1 A Subtle Balance: Editor’s Introduction
- 2 Public Policy Analysis in Canada: A Forty-Year Overview
- 3 Affairs of the Smart: Will Researchers and Decision-Makers “Hook Up”?
- 4 Expertise and Evidence in Public Policy: In Defence of (a Little) Technocracy
- 5 Program Evaluation and Aboriginal Affairs: A History and a Thought Experiment
- 6 The Canada Pension Plan and Policy Reform: Shifting Spaces for Democratic Deliberation
- 7 Tales of Quantitative Analysis and Public Policy
- 8 Environmental Issues: Fifty Years of Change and Current Challenges
- 9 Climate Engineering: New Challenges for Scientific Assessment and Global Governance
- 10 Seeing Like a Sound? Resource Management and Property Rights in Clayoquot Sound
- 11 Profits v. Purpose: Hybrid Companies and the Charitable Dollar
- 12 The Future of Computer-Supported Policy Analysis: Collaboration, Openness, Collective Intelligence, and Competition
- 13 It’s Not My Problem: Personal Moral Responsibility for Policy Advice
- 14 What is an Honest Policy Analyst to Do?
- 15 Speaking Elusive Truth to Shifting Power: Reflections on Evolving Styles, Changing Views, and New Problems
- 16 A Subtle Balance: Reflection and Synthesis
- References
- Contributors
- Index