Reviews/Comptes rendus
Rethinking Nationalism
edited by Jocelyne Couture, Kai Nielsen and Michel
Seymour. Calgary: University of Calgary Press,
1998. Pp. viii 703. $48.95.
In this collection of essays, there are, in addition to
the contributions of the three editors, 18 essays averaging about 28 pages each. Nine of the writers
are situated in the United States and seven in
Canada. There are three Europeans. Fourteen are
philosophers and seven are social scientists. The
editors, hereafter the trio, have both an introductory essay and an afterword comprising in all more
than a fifth of the whole.
By and large it is an intramural debate among
various kinds of liberals about the moral and political claims of nationalism. But divisions arise for
there are various brands of liberalism, such as the
liberalism of Isaiah Berlin, European liberalism, and
Rawlsian liberalism. One finds that followers of
Rawlsian liberalism have considerable difficulty
dealing with nationalism and, with some exceptions,
search for an alternative to it in some form of
cosmopolitanism, the ecological region, or some as
yet undefined transcendence. There is a good deal
of attention paid to Will Kymlicka’s views on nationalism, inserting national identities into the
Rawlsian framework, but most of the attention is
critical with the notable exception of the trio. There
is an essay by David Miller, though none by
Kymlicka.
So the anti-national portions of the book consider
nationalism as incompatible with liberal political
philosophy, opposed to universality. It is characterized variously as morally arbitrary, imaginary, irrational, barbaric, an illusion, hateful, and warlike. In
this kind of polemic even the normal pursuit of the
national interest is castigated, as if one elected presidents to represent the citizens of the world.
Despite its awareness of the pathology of certain
forms of national aspiration, the European liberal
129
viewpoint, at least as seen here, is resigned to living with the tensions implicit between rationalist and
romantic conceptions of nationalism, as indeed was
Isaiah Berlin. Most striking is the European reliance
on historical accounts in contrast to just abstract
political philosophy, the latter now enjoying doctrinal status.
And then there is the trio. In most cases, editors
introducing a collection of essays will attempt to
give a succinct description of each contribution and
then attempt to weave them together in some fashion. There may be a bit of criticism, though not usually. Here we have a volume in which the editors
not only have the first word, but also the last, and
criticism is prevalent in both. Their presence is overwhelming and, no doubt because of acquaintance
with other editorial jobs, disconcerting. Some of
those taken to task might invoke a right of response.
Now the important distinction employed by the trio
is that between liberal and ethnic nationalism. While
in principle, perhaps, the distinction is viable, several of the cases mentioned are mixed at best. I refer to Quebec and Flemish nationalism. Neither the
former nor the latter are just ethnic forms, however,
the trio too easily brushes aside the sort of pure laine
rhetoric utilized by the separatists. And the description of Belgium shows a slanted and sanitized version of Flemish nationalism. The Walloons are never
mentioned.
The Scandinavian countries are taken as models
not only of social democracy — the self-description
is liberal socialism — but also of liberal nationalism. The afterword shows an anti-American strain
— “a danger to and bully of the world” (p. 592) —
and finds no difficulty in combining liberal nationalism and cosmopolitanism, where others stress the
disjunction between them. Quebec has a right to
independence; certain native peoples will have to
accept autonomy as an answer to national aspirations. Some might want to see in the national origins of the editors a clue to the special pleading
involved in the afterword.
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130 Reviews/Comptes rendus
To conclude, one asks what are the consequences
of adopting the nationalism of David Miller and Will
Kymlicka, or that of the trio. What form of self-determination should the Aboriginal peoples have? Is
it consistent, pace the trio, to grant Quebec independence and deny it to the Cree? Furthermore, in
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE POLITIQUES,
international relations much more needs to be explored about the feasibility of humanitarian interventions, dealt with in only one of the submissions.
R ALPH N ELSON , Department of Political Science,
University of Windsor
VOL . XXVI , NO . 1 2000
Reviews/Comptes rendus
Fiscal Targets and Economic Growth
edited by Thomas J. Courchene and Thomas A.
Wilson. Kingston: John Deutsch Institute for the
Study of Economic Policy, Queen’s University,
1998. Pp. vii, 404. $24.95.
The federal government’s fiscal position deteriorated
severely in the first half of the 1990s due to high
interest rates and the subsequent economic stagnation. The government reacted to this cyclical rise in
the deficit by raising taxes and cutting program
spending, resulting in a massive improvement in the
structural balance. According to OECD figures
(OECD Economic Outlook June 1999, Annex Table
31), the structural balance for all levels of government in Canada experienced a turnaround of seven
points from a deficit of 5.3 percent of potential GDP
in 1993 to a surplus of 1.6 percent in 1998, the
largest structural surplus in the G7 that year. With
the decline of interest rates and the pick-up in
economic activity in the second half of the decade,
this restrictive fiscal stance has led to surpluses, with
the uses of the fiscal dividend becoming a key
economic and political issue, as seen in the 1997
federal election.
To shed light on issues related to the mediumterm fiscal strategy of the federal government, Finance Canada asked Queen’s University’s John
Deutsch Institute and the Institute for Policy Analysis of the University of Toronto to organize a conference on fiscal targets and economic growth. The
papers in this volume, edited by Tom Courchene and
Tom Wilson, represent the proceedings of the conference held in September 1997.
The 400-page volume contains 20 papers and
comments and it is impossible in a short review to
even attempt to do justice to the richness of the contributions. The volume is organized into seven main
sections. In the first section on the economic environment for future fiscal policy, Frank Denton and
Byron Spencer examine demographic and labour
131
market trends and Rick Harris discusses productivity trends. In the second section, three economic
forecasters (DRI/McGraw Hill, the Institute for
Policy Analysis, and the Conference Board of
Canada) provide long-term economic forecasts and
Andrew Goldstein compares projections, pointing
out that the productivity growth assumption accounts
for much of the difference between output forecasts.
In the third section on fiscal policy over the business cycle, Ron Kneebone and Ken McKenzie examine the declining role of federal fiscal policy in
stabilizing economic activity, and Paul Boothe and
Brad Reid discuss fiscal prudence and federal budgeting in the medium term. In the fourth section,
William Scarth and Harriet Jackson develop a model
to identify an optimal debt-GDP ratio from the point
of view of generational equity. In the fifth section,
John Whalley discusses the key question of how best
to invest the fiscal dividend from the framework of
the endogeneous growth literature. Section six looks
at the European experience with fiscal initiatives and
section seven contains a panel discussion on medium-term fiscal plans. In the final section, John
Helliwell provides an excellent conference summary
and synthesis.
Two issues that in my view are not adequately
explored are the political economy of the fiscal dividend debate (no political scientists were asked to
contribute to the volume) and the effects of the large
spending cuts on Canadian society and the implications of these cuts for the use of the fiscal dividend.
The papers and comments in general are nontechnical in nature and of high quality and policy
relevance. The volume represents a valuable contribution to the literature on fiscal policy in Canada
and to the debate on the fiscal dividend and is highly
recommended to both researchers and practitioners
in the field.
A NDREW SHARPE , Centre for the Study of Living
Standards, Ottawa
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE POLITIQUES,
VOL . XXVI, NO. 1 2000
132 Reviews/Comptes rendus
Connecting Policy to Practice in the Human
Services
by Brian Wharf and Brad McKenzie. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1998. Pp. xi, 164. $19.95.
In an era of widespread public disillusionment with
government and policy processes, a short readable
Canadian text exploring ways that human service users and workers might have more input into policy is a
welcome addition to the literature. This is especially
the case for those of us trying valiantly to teach future
policy analysts and human service workers how practice and policy are connected in human service organizations and at different levels of government. For the
wider public policy audience, Wharf and McKenzie
make a credible and clear argument for an alternative
policy process that is more inclusive of users and those
who implement policy on the front lines.
The authors build their argument in two parts,
the first half of the book detailing current policymaking models and the different stages in policy
development, including a very helpful discussion of
implementation when policy and practice are most
intimately connected. Each of these chapters is well
focused, grounded in a range of literature and drawing on examples from research and the authors’ experiences in two provinces (Manitoba and British
Columbia) and several areas of work, especially
child welfare and work with First Nations’ people.
The second half more clearly develops the details of the authors’ model of a more inclusive paradigm using two case studies by Stephen Owen and
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE POLITIQUES,
Deborah Rutman. This half was less cogently written and the case studies might have been more carefully integrated into the flow of the book. While they
are clearly intended to illustrate a more inclusive
type of model of policy making, each has its own
weaknesses to that end, and they need further discussion by Wharf and McKenzie. In particular, the
ultimate outcome of the second case study, development of adult guardianship legislation that has
never been proclaimed, unfortunately serves to raise
questions about the feasibility of the model.
The book concludes with a chapter on community governance and the authors’ final comments.
These last two chapters highlighting the theoretical
debate might have been further developed, particularly the costs and risks of such a model, including
the many hours of voluntary activity required, the
inequities and inherent conflicts between users and
professionals, and the risks of backlash when community input is not ultimately recognized, all points
Rutman’s case demonstrates.
Overall, however, Wharf and McKenzie offer us
a very useful and readable book of potential interest to a wide range of people from undergraduate
students in sociology, social work, and political studies to practitioners, social activists, and academics
searching for a more effective and inclusive model
of policy making in this country.
EVELYN FERGUSON, Faculty of Social Work, University of Manitoba
VOL . XXVI , NO . 1 2000
Reviews/Comptes rendus
Aid and Ebb Tide: A History of CIDA and
Canadian Development Assistance
by David R. Morrison. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier
Press, 1998. Pp. 602. $65.00.
This is a wonderfully detailed yet depressing history of blighted promise, bureaucratic confusion,
myopic political expediency, bloated rhetoric, and
shrunken aspiration. It is a fine case study of public
policy ups and downs, (or ebb and flow, to use the
author’s metaphor).
The study concerns Canada’s official development assistance program (ODA) and the government
agency created in 1968 to manage it. Beginning with
the halting and uncertain internationalism of the
1950s, Morrison, a professor of political studies at
Trent University, traces the advances and retreats
of ODA through the hopeful sixties to the cynical
nineties — two steps back for every one forward.
His conclusion, though presented in an even-handed
and non-judgemental fashion, is that the planning
and management of Canadian ODA has constituted,
on balance, a public policy failure. The immense
detail he provides in the telling and its careful and
calm presentation make this a first-rate analysis not
only of an important Canadian public policy framework but also of one of Canada’s most treasured
international commitments. The tension between the
“public,” primarily a well-informed and fairly vocal minority supporting a strong ODA commitment,
and the cautious and hesitant government apparatus, is clearly on display in this account, another
valuable contribution of this book to an understanding of the public role in policy making. It is this
constituency, those Canadians who have supported
ODA vigorously for nearly 50 years, who will read
this history most pointedly as one of failure — failure of purpose, of will, of political vision, of leadership in the aid bureaucracy. Ironically, the book’s
publication date, 1998, coincides with CIDA’s thirtieth anniversary and with the year in which Canada’s ODA recorded its lowest level on a per capita
basis in 30 years. Such a sour coincidence for both
author and readers!
133
There are, of course, bright spots in the ODA
story as Morrison recounts it — some sound leadership at CIDA, a few far-sighted and courageous
politicians, persistent ODA support from nongovernmental organizations and the Canadian public, and continuous pressure from many quarters for
Canadian ODA to focus on poverty in the South
rather than on political or commercial objectives.
But so often, as Morrison tells it, these positive pressures were neutralized by the unpredictability of
CIDA and its political masters, a confused mandate,
constant reorganization, shaky public relations, political interference, relentless budget cuts, and a neverending series of task forces, parliamentary committees,
internal reviews, discussion papers, working documents, policy reviews, and leaked memos. The wonder is that CIDA professionals and others in the aid
community have been able, in this morale-sapping
environment, to achieve as much as they have.
The dimension of ODA not addressed by
Morrison is that of the development impact of the
great many development cooperation projects and
programs that have managed to be successful in the
face of this bureaucratic bewilderment and political
meddling. That history has yet to be written. In the
meantime, this volume, in addition to chronicling
Canada’s ODA ebb and flow (mostly ebb), serves
admirably to demystify much of the CIDA lore that
floats around Canada, and it informs us about a great
deal of public/foreign/aid policy that has never before been quite so throughly examined. All this illumination is set in the context of Canada’s foreign
policy, and to some degree, the global setting in
which Canadian ODA has been applied up to 1998.
Morrison weaves a coherent story through a maze
of global and domestic events, changing personalities, and the rise and fall of Ottawa governments
and attendant policy reversals. He does so calmly
and unemotionally; this is, after all a history, not an
exposé. The documentation is definitive; almost
every significant reference in the field is identified.
Virtually no jargon intrudes (except for the occasional “scenario,” “adhocery,” and “game plan”).
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE POLITIQUES,
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The author provides a helpful list of acronyms (112,
in fact), a chronology of Canadian aid since 1949,
lists of ministers and senior CIDA officials, and 102
pages of endnotes and references. This is an admirable piece of work and it will, I suspect, stand for
some time as the major reference on Canadian ODA
policy. Everyone interested in ODA and Canada’s
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE POLITIQUES,
international roles and responsibilities, whether in
government, academe or the NGO community, in
Canada or abroad, really must take a close look at
Aid and Ebb Tide.
JAMES SHUTE, Professor and Director, Centre for International Programs, University of Guelph
VOL . XXVI , NO . 1 2000
Reviews/Comptes rendus
Service in the Field: The World of Front-Line
Public Servants
by Barbara Wake Carroll and David Siegel. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University
Press, 1999. Pp. xii, 251. $24.95.
An in-depth exploration of the world of daily work,
organizational culture, and the lived impact of years
of restructuring on front-line public servants has
been woefully absent from the academic discourse
of Canadian public administration and public policy.
This is a significant omission since front-line field
staff serve as the linkage between head office policy
direction and service delivery. These are the people
in the organizational structure who exercise not only
administrative but policy discretion — that is, the
ability to modify programs in servicing clients. Service in the Field by Barbara Wake Carroll and David
Siegel offers us a most welcome corrective to this
state of affairs, providing a comprehensive field level
perspective on the motivations, working reality, and
world view of front-line staff at the federal and provincial levels of government in Canada.
The book’s central objectives are, first, to chronicle what civil servants do, while giving “voice to
what is often an anonymous body of individuals,”
and second, to correct the widely held “negative
impression of field level officials as ... over-paid,
under-worked automatons” (p. 9). In meeting these
goals the authors do not disappoint us. While this is
admittedly an exploratory area of inquiry, the book
provides us with a rich set of insights into the “lived
experience” of workers on the front line of service
delivery.
The authors utilize a qualitative methodological
approach. They conducted personal, open-ended
interviews centred around central themes. Since it
was not possible to generate a random sample the
research design was careful to draw systematically
upon a large (220 individuals), and geographically
and occupationally diverse grouping of front-line
workers. Definitive representative conclusions are
135
not able to be drawn from such a study but it does
offer us a textured understanding of the experiences
of the most important people in government — those
who directly provide public services to Canadians.
Carroll and Siegel’s liberal use of the voices of frontline workers serves to authenticate the perspective
from the trenches. The study documents the diversity of work experience and some of the flawed assumptions of the “reinventing government” school
of thought.
In the chapter, “Administrative Reform: How It
Plays in the Field,” an evaluation of the reinventing
government revolution on the front line is undertaken. The “reforms” were premised upon a series
of ideologically inspired assumptions concerning
civil servants, at which the authors take dead aim.
Carroll and Siegel debunk the myths of civil servants as (i) incapable of effectively using discretion in carrying out their work; (ii) uninterested in
providing quality service to their clients; (iii) adverse to change, and operating in a rigid and inflexible fashion; and (iv) alike in terms of their values
and motivations. The idea that there is “one best
way” (a set of broad-based universally applicable
reforms) put forward by administrative reformers is
demonstrated to be unworkable at the field level.
On a more critical note, although the authors do
document the negative effects stemming from, and
scepticism concerning, public sector “reform” there
is a surprising silence with respect to the practice
and culture of front-line resistance to neo-liberal
downsizing and resistance. Fortunately there are a
few other scholarly works which help to fill the gap
here. At the provincial level David Rapaport’s No
Justice, No Peace: The 1996 OPSEU Strike against
the Harris Government in Ontario (McGill-Queen’s,
1999) and federally, Greg McElligott’s “Clients and
Consciousness: Drawing Resistance from Confusion
on the Front Lines of the State,” Labour/Le Travail
(Fall 1997), are prime examples of such works. The
resistance component of the story of front-line workers, however, is yet largely to be written.
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE POLITIQUES,
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136 Reviews/Comptes rendus
A number of other conclusions in Service in the
Field are also worthy of note. Carroll and Siegel found
that front-line workers possess a considerable amount
of policy discretion in carrying out their work, and that
it is not exercised indiscriminately but, instead, “discretely and thoughtfully” (p. 78). Even after a prolonged period of downsizing and civil service bashing,
front-line workers remain dedicated, committed to clients, and seek to do the best job possible under extremely trying circumstances (p. 200) — a point
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE POLITIQUES,
subsequently confirmed by the 1999 Federal Public
Service Employee Survey findings. Despite all the
rhetoric about “decentralization” and “empowerment,”
the gulf between the field and head office remains expansive (p. 203). In summary, this is a very important
and readable account of a neglected area of study in
Canadian politics and is worthy of a wide readership.
JOHN SHIELDS, Department of Politics and School of
Public Administration, Ryerson Polytechnic University
VOL . XXVI , NO . 1 2000
Reviews/Comptes rendus
Shirking the State: Globalization and Public
Administration “Reform”
by John Shields and B. Mitchell Evans. Halifax:
Fernwood Publishing, 1998. Pp. 143. $17.95.
During the past two decades governments have redefined their roles and how they deliver programs.
These changes have been introduced with far too
little public debate and careful analysis of their
democratic and ideological implications. The guiding assumption has been that all the changes are both
necessary and beneficial. Under labels like
“reinventing government” and “new public management,” Canadian governments have embraced a common core of reform ideas. Dressing up changes in
positive rhetoric, governments have conducted few
systematic evaluations of whether their reforms have
actually worked.
This short (143 pages) and provocative book offers a critical political-economy perspective on the
processes of globalization, economic restructuring,
fiscal stress, and the ideological shift to the right
which have driven the change process in the public
sector. Intended mainly for academics and students
in the field of public administration, the book could
also be read profitably by public servants who want
a wider, theoretical perspective on the context in
which they work. The concepts and language of the
book are drawn from the political left but the authors cite works from various perspectives.
The book consists of six main chapters, along
with a shorter introduction and conclusion. The main
theme of the book is that governments are reducing
their roles and stripping their citizens of benefits
on ideological more than pragmatic grounds. According to the authors, there is a “crisis of govern-
137
ance.” The crisis involves, in part, a lack of trust
and confidence in government. It also involves the
“retreat” and “hollowing out” of the nation-state.
Placing their faith in market forces, governments are
left with “a greatly reduced policy tool kit.” In strong
disagreement with these trends, the authors argue
that adjustment to economic, technological, and
social change requires a more active role by governments, especially in the social and health policy
fields. They also find disturbing the extension of
state control over the so-called third sector because
it will lead to the disempowerment of the people
who work in and benefit from community-based
organizations. The celebration of the third sector by
governments is seen as a way to off-load their traditional responsibilities. Finally, it is argued that
managerialism or new public management is both
an ideology and a methodology, and has become a
“transmission belt” for neo-liberal ideas to infiltrate
government under the guise of neutrality.
One does not have to endorse all these ideas to
see the value of opening up a wider debate. Many
questions are raised. Where does the state begin and
end? Is the state actually weakening itself or is it
simply shifting its reliance upon various policy
tools? If the processes underway are not inexorable,
what are the alternatives? On the last point, the authors call for a shift of power away from bureaucracy,
for more democracy within government and the public sector, and for emphasis on service quality, not just
costs. This is the first Canadian treatment of the public service reform movement from a political economy
perspective and it is a stimulating read.
PAUL G. THOMAS, Department of Political Studies,
St. John’s College, University of Manitoba
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE POLITIQUES,
VOL . XXVI, NO. 1 2000
138 Reviews/Comptes rendus
Women’s Caring: Feminist Perspectives on
Social Welfare
edited by Carol T. Baines, Patricia M. Evans and
Sheila N. Neysmith. Toronto: Oxford University
Press, 1998, 2nd ed. Pp. 257.
Women’s Caring is a wide-ranging collection of 11
essays from workers and researchers in social work.
The focus of all the contributors is women’s role in
caring and the toll it takes on the care-giver. Also
addressed is what it means for a society that depends
on the volunteer sector to carry out the myriad of
tasks that are involved in providing care for those
among us who need it. The essays are divided into
three groupings: the first are those that examine the
issue of caring from a gender, race, and class perspective; the second focuses on what the editors refer to as the “realities of care,” that is, how specific
women are taught to care and the repercussions of
this teaching; and the third section examines in a
more specific way policy directions. Policy issues,
however, underlie most of the essays. Indeed, opposition to government cutbacks in the care field is
the driving force behind much of the analysis.
Women who provide care are forced to contend with
an economic system (monopoly capitalism) which
does not value what they do. As many contributors
suggest, the nature of the economic system needs
to be addressed. Whether it is this perception that
leads to the pessimistic tone of the collection is unclear but it is there — a sense of people under siege.
A more optimistic tone emerges when contributors
critique specific government policies and expose the
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE POLITIQUES,
unspoken assumptions that inform them. At that
point the book takes on significance for
policymakers and future action. Also, when authors
address the care-givers themselves, the strength of
these women in the face of extraordinary pressures
comes to the fore. Attempts have been made in this
second edition to include minority women and
women of colour. Unfortunately, in this context too
often white women are regarded as a homogeneous
group in which significant differences are overlooked. Nonetheless, the essays do make the reader
aware of the tremendous variety and complexity of
the caring tasks and how they impact on specific
groups of women differently including those for
whom the care is provided. One of the strengths of
the book as a whole is that most of the essays introduce the reader to international literature in the field.
In several essays, however, that literature is applied
to the Canadian context with little discussion on how
the specifics of the Canadian situation may differ
and refine the findings of scholars elsewhere. Given
the centrality of government policy in the book and
the desire of many of the contributors for increased
government responsibility, the political context of
nation-state seems to be missing as does any regional
sensibility. Both are incredibly important aspects of
social welfare in the Canadian federation. Perhaps
the third edition can address some of these issues and
build on the foundation provided by the first two.
WENDY MITCHINSON, Department of History, University of Waterloo
VOL . XXVI , NO . 1 2000
Reviews/Comptes rendus
Turnstile Immigration: Multiculturalism,
Social Order and Social Justice in Canada
by Lorne Foster. Toronto: Thompson Educational
Publishing, 1998. Pp. 7,190.
Lorne Foster’s book is premised on drawing insights
from his social science training, work experience
as an immigration officer, and experience as a visible minority whose ancestors were “escaped African slaves who found their way to Canada” (p. 10).
On the goal that Foster sets for himself, namely to
contribute to public dialogue and debate over immigration in Canada, this book can be judged as
successful. Written in an informal style with plenty
of anecdotes and thoughtful observations, Turnstile
Immigration could be usefully adopted in undergraduate courses, or suggested as accessible reading to interested non-academics. For some social
scientists, the Durkheimian/Parsonian structuralfunctional theoretical framework underpinning Foster’s more scholarly discussion might seem dated
and problematic for its emphasis on order and stability, but nonetheless there is much to command
the attention of public policy specialists too.
Foster’s ideal immigration system would embody
a “dynamic balance” (p. 21) between social order and
social justice. However, Foster contends that Canada’s
current immigration system is problematic for frontline
immigration officers and would be immigrants alike.
In particular, Ottawa’s senior bureaucratic officials are
presented as the most powerful forces behind the immigration system. Their treatment of immigration as a
technical and administrative issue leads to “turnstile
immigration,” whereby very select individuals gain
entry one by one. To the chagrin of front-line immigration officers, turnstile immigration has made it increasingly difficult for law-abiding immigrants to enter
Canada, and increasingly difficult to remove lawbreaking, non-citizen residents.
The most lively and novel insight into the immigration process undoubtedly comes from Foster’s
139
participant observation of the micro-level of the
front line, when he was the only African-Canadian
senior immigration officer in the Toronto-area in the
1980s. Foster discusses his experiences attempting
to balance a sense of professional distance with his
concern that he not be perceived as an “imitation
honky” (p. 29) by visible minorities seeking Canadian citizenship. Foster distinguishes between two
types of front-line immigration officers, who nonetheless both share a frequent feeling that they personally embody the Canadian border.
The central argument of Foster’s book is in order
for “sanity” to be restored to Canada’s immigration
system there must be a realignment of principles
“conducive to both the implementation and the expression of democratic values” (p. 23). To this end,
he advocates greater public education about immigration, new mechanisms for public input, new questions to frame debate, and calls on social scientists
to safeguard their independence from the goals of
bureaucratic elites when analyzing contemporary
immigration policy.
Overall, this book contributes a number of questions to the dialogue amongst public policy specialists. These include whether senior bureaucrats play
the dominant role in shaping policy that Foster contends (what about the interests of business, for example?); whether greater public input might actually
lead to more restrictive policy (Foster seems to assume it will not); and if government-sponsored
scholarship compromises immigration analysis as
Foster suggests, what are the alternatives? Finally,
Foster’s illuminating exploration of the micro-level
suggests the need for further consideration of which
theoretical frameworks best link the micro and macro
levels of a policy area like immigration, which uniquely
has both domestic and international ramifications.
Y ASMEEN A BU -L ABAN , Department of Political
Science, University of Alberta
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE POLITIQUES,
VOL . XXVI, NO. 1 2000
140 Reviews/Comptes rendus
Equalization: Its Contributions to Canada’s
Economic and Fiscal Progress
edited by Robin W. Boadway and Paul A.R. Hobson.
John Deutsch Institute, Queen’s University Policy
Forum Series No. 36: Toronto: University of Toronto
Press, 1998. Pp. x, 255. $24.95.
the ongoing negotiations on the next equalization
package in 1999. Those interested in fiscal policy,
federal-provincial relations, and federal states
should find this book a “gold mine,” with many ideas
for improving the existing system, details of the
program, and comparisons to other regimes.
A terse summary in the form of a Haiku:
Will this book lead to enlightened policies in the
area in 1999? Probably not. The zealots remain in
charge with an objective of reducing the role of government in size and function, with little regard for
reducing regional disparities, providing adequate
public funds for social programs, or evolving a cooperative federal-provincial approach. The “new”
equalization program will be little changed, with
more difficulties created for the “have-not” provinces and little concern for improving their incentives to foster economic development.
Equalization:
The Federal glue that binds
Canada as one.
The summary by the editors [with the reviewer’s
annotations in brackets]:
The volume begins with an overview by Robin
Boadway [Ontario] of the principles which ought
to guide the design of an equalization program.
This is followed by a detailed description of the
practice of equalization in Canada by Doug Clark
[former Finance Canada hand]. The three remaining papers, by Paul Hobson [Nova Scotia], David
Milne [PEI], and Sam Wilson [Alberta], look at
the question of the level of redistribution resulting from equalization, the political environment
within which the current review is occurring, and
the practice of equalization in other federal systems, respectively. Commentaries are provided
by Tom Courchene [defining feature of Canadian
federalism, bad incentives, need to consider open
economy], François Vaillancourt [consider province-to-province transfers, better incentives,
likely pressures from aging, immigration, and
NAFTA] and Wade Locke [HST creates a problem, include resource rents not revenues] (p. 3).
While arguing the finer points of equalization it
is important to remember that we are moving away
from a common personal income tax regime (with
Alberta and Ontario planning their “own” systems).
Differential indirect tax regimes (some provinces
with HST, others not) are emerging. The overall
system increasingly ignores differential “needs”
with the elimination of CAP, off-loading of care of
Aboriginal peoples onto the provinces and local
governments, and a reduction of various personal
transfer systems that might have mitigated the shortfalls (changes to EI). The real issue is whether
Equalization and CHST can keep the federal state
functioning or whether the increasing frictions between the regions and the federal government lead
to the demise of Canada. Perhaps a future John
Deutsch forum will help us find a happier ending.
MIKE MCCRACKEN , Chairman and CEO, Informetrica
This book brings together the papers presented
at a forum in 1997, designed to provide ideas for
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE POLITIQUES,
VOL . XXVI , NO . 1 2000
Reviews/Comptes rendus
Community Besieged: The Anglophone
Minority and the Politics of Quebec
by Garth Stevenson. Montreal and Kingston:
McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1999. Pp. x 363.
I have never felt it necessary hitherto to identify
myself before writing a review. But this seems necessary here given that a McGill professor is considering a monograph that so deeply affects every
aspect of his life. So, for what it is worth, the reviewer was born in England but now has dual citizenship; and an interest in nationalism makes life
in Montreal a daily excitement. All of this led to
this book being consumed avidly, indeed virtually
at a sitting.
The treatment accorded to the subject is distinctively that of a political scientist. The theme that
runs through the book is that of the slow breakdown
of “consociational” political accord between the two
communities in Quebec, that is, of the system of
power-sharing between political elites first analyzed
by Arend Lijphart. Albeit an interesting chapter casts
much light on the relation of the anglophone community to the federal government. Concentration is
on political events, most notably on elections and
those who dominated them. The tone throughout is
moderate and cautious. For one thing, the creation
of a bureaucratic state apparatus within Quebec is
seen as more or less inevitable, with all that meant
for the ending of consociational politics. For another,
the author has little time for some of the whines
expressed by the anglophone community — noting
141
for instance that low representation in public service employment reflects lack of desire for such jobs
quite as much as it does outright discrimination. In
general, the anglophone community is seen as being weakened by the easiness of an attractive option of exit, to Toronto or the United States. There
is no likelihood of much support from the federal
government for Quebec anglophones, especially
should secession occur, and the author in effect recommends that the community make the most of such
chances as it has within Quebec.
The book is high-powered, truly judicious and
extremely scholarly, and it is bound to take its place
as the key treatment of its subject. Nonetheless, this
reader wished for a little more. For one thing, reference to wider literatures, notably that concerning
nationalism, might have changed the standard of
judgement employed. Objectively, the position of
the anglophone community is indeed, as the author
stresses, far from bad, but subjective fears matter,
and this does more to explain the weakening of the
community than he allows. For another, the book
badly lacks a comparative perspective. The author
does analyze the situation of protestants beached in
Eire, but this tells us little given the absence of a
linguistic divide. No exact parallel in fact exists, but
much light could still have been cast by systematic
consideration of the situation in Catalonia.
J OHN A. H ALL , Department of Sociology, McGill
University
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE POLITIQUES,
VOL . XXVI, NO. 1 2000