How Ottawa Spends, 1993-1994: A More Democratic Canada ?

Paul G. Thomas is a political science professor at University of
Manitoba and co-author of Canadian Public Administration: Problematical
Perspectives.

Since 1981–82, the School of Public Administration at Carleton
University in Ottawa has published an annual volume of articles intended
to provide informed analysis of budgetary and other policies of the
national government. Originally intended to highlight the policy
priorities reflected in the shifting patterns of federal budgetary
expenditures, the volumes have become over the years much wider in their
coverage of policy topics, and successive editors have striven to
organize the contributors around integrating themes. The consistent
result has been an annual collection of high-quality articles of immense
value to students of Canadian public policy and public administration.

This year’s volume, edited very capably by Susan Phillips, is no
exception. As one of the leading authorities on changing concepts of
representation and public participation, she has focused the volume on
the demands for less elitist, more open, and more democratic approaches
to governing. In her opening chapter, she concludes that the Mulroney
government was tentative and sporadic in its attempts at democratic
reform. The other contributors to the volume are recognized authorities
in the fields of public policy and public administration. They discuss
such varied topics as electoral reform and party financing; public
participation in constitutional reform; the entrenchment of economic and
social rights in the Constitution; the role of public-interest lobby
groups; aboriginal self-government; and policy changes in various
economic and social fields. As in previous volumes, there is an appendix
of facts and figures for the truly devoted student of government
finances.

Teachers and students in the field of Canadian politics will want to
look at this volume, and while few individuals will read it from cover
to cover, many will profit from selecting those articles that interest
them.