Reviews/Comptes rendus
BOOKS REVIEWED
W.L. Adamowicz, P.C. Boxall, M.K. Luckert,
W.E. Phillips and W.A. White (eds.) Forestry, Economics and the Environment reviewed by Patricia
Koss 404
Amelita Armit and Jacques Bourgault (eds.) Hard
Choices or No Choices: Assessing Program Review
reviewed by Richard W. Phidd 417
Reviews/Comptes rendus
397
John C. Courtney Do Conventions Matter? Choosing National Party Leaders in Canada reviewed by
Keith Archer 405
The Diebold Institute for Public Policy Studies,
Inc. Healthcare Infostructures: The Development of
Information-Based Infrastructures for the
Healthcare Industry reviewed by Caroline
Le Navenec 410
Bank of Canada The Transmission of Monetary
Policy in Canada reviewed by David E. Bond 418
Lawrence G. Flood (ed.) Unions and Public Policy:
The New Economy, Law and Democratic Politics reviewed by John Godard 406
W.A. Bogart Courts and Country: The Limits of
Litigation and the Social Political Life of Canada
reviewed by Edwin Webking 414
Bob Goudzwaard and Harry de Lange Beyond
Poverty and Affluence: Towards a Canadian
Economy of Care reviewed by Doreen Barrie 415
Stephen Brooks Canadian Democracy: An Introduction reviewed by John H. Redekop 411
James Iain Gow Learning from Others: Administrative Innovations among Canadian Governments
reviewed by Gary Munro 399
David Cameron Taking Stock: Canadian Studies in
the Nineties reviewed by William D. Coleman 416
Ben Carniol Case Critical: Challenging Social Services in Canada reviewed by Bernie Hammond 398
Louis N. Christofides, E. Kenneth Grant and
Robert Swidinsky (eds.) Aspects of Labour Market Behaviour: Essays in Honour of John
Vanderkamp reviewed by Wayne Simpson 400
Pauline Comeau and Aldo Santini The First
Canadians: A Profile of Canada’s Native People
Today reviewed by Greg Poelzer 401
David Corson (ed.) Discourse and Power in Educational Organizations reviewed by Nina Bascia 420
Ignatius J. Horstmann, G. Frank Mathewson and
Neil C. Quigley Ensuring Competition: Bank Distribution of Insurance Products reviewed by John
Benson 419
Ike Jeanes Forecast and Solution: Grappling with
the Nuclear, A Trilogy for Everyone reviewed by
Kristin Shrader-Frechette 412
François Lacasse Mythes, savoirs et décisions
politiques compte rendu par Sylvie Arend 409
Doug May and Alton Hollett with comments by
Brian Lee Crowley and Lars Osberg The Rock in
a Hard Place, Atlantic Canada and the UI Trap reviewed by Stephan F. Kaliski 402
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE P OLITIQUES,
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Jorge Niosi Flexible Innovation: Technological Alliances in Canadian Industry reviewed by G. Bruce
Doern 407
David W. Slater (with two chapters by R.B.
Bryce) War, Finance and Reconstruction: The Role
of Canada’s Department of Finance 1939-1946 reviewed by Mervin Daub 408
Leroy Stone Dimensions of Job-Family Tension reviewed by Barbara Hanson 405
Case Critical: Challenging Social Services in
Canada
by Ben Carniol. Toronto: Between the Lines, 1995.
Pp. 173. $17.95.
The author’s declared intention in this third edition
of his 1987 book about the “the realities” of those
who give and receive social services is to answer
three questions: “How do we resist unjust practices?” “What are the alternatives?” and “How do
we get there?” The author’s responses to these questions are derived from his 30-odd years of experience as a social worker in Cleveland, Montreal,
Calgary, and Toronto and on interviews conducted
through the 1980s and into the 1990s.
In seven chapters the book addresses the origins,
development, and professionalization of the helping attitude; social work education; the contemporary experience, deployment, and social organization of “front-line” social workers; the reported experience of the recipients of social work interventions; and concludes with a chapter on social work
and social change.
Except for the introduction of current statistics
throughout and for the final chapter, which is substantially rewritten, the book is essentially unchanged since its original publication. This is both
good and bad. To the good, the book provides a refreshing perspective on social work and on the naCANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE POLITIQUES,
ture of the society in which it works. It is conscious
of the classist, racist, sexist nature of the larger Canadian social structure and of the role that social
work has frequently played in papering over the
cracks in a fundamentally unjust system, thus inadvertently participating in the continued impoverishment of its “clientele.” This critique is not new, nor
has its application been restricted to social work;
other professions, especially the so-called helping
professions, have taken their hits. It has been my
experience, however, that such an awareness of the
contradictions involved in the helping professions has
had little appreciation among social workers, so many
of whom focus their attention on individuals, attempting to “adjust” them through personal counselling.
Such attention to individuals makes it easy to fail to
“see the forest for the trees.” This book does see the
“forest,” describes it in some detail and recognizes the
fundamentally undemocratic nature of a welfare state
that fails to address the root structural inequalities that
form the context for so much of what passes for the
“personal troubles” of individuals. It also points out
the limits of a social work practised in the absence of
such an awareness. The vehicle the book proposed in
1987, to encourage social work to confront the power
structure that perpetuates poverty, inequality, and the
disenfranchisement of its victims remains substantially
unchanged: the development of solidarity based on
coalitions among progressive social movements to
pressure “those who now dominate” for a more democratic transformation of power. All this is to the good.
To its detriment, however, the book remains limited in its vision. While it does see the “forest,” it
fails to appreciate fully the fact that in today’s world,
the “forest” itself needs to be seen as part of a much
broader “eco-system” whose comprehension is necessary in order to appreciate fully the depth of the
crisis of the welfare state, and the magnitude of the
threat to the Western democratic tradition that prevails. The recent history of the social work profession has been closely bound to that of the welfare
state; so too is its future. The changes in the latter
institution which began to become obvious in the
1970s in the form of privatization of state functions
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in health, education, and social services, “structural
adjustment,” and the gradual dismantling of social
reforms in country after country have now made
their impact felt universally. These changes are congruent with the growth of capitalism beyond the
boundaries of the nation state which gave it birth into
a global corporate structure that has usurped whatever
autonomy the nation state ever had. It is in fact remarkable how closely the changes follow the neoliberal
template of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund and other structures of global capital. No
mention is made of confronting this power structure.
If social work, or any other helping profession,
is to be practised consciously, it must be practised
in this awareness context. This does not mean that
coalition formation and solidarity within the nation
state are redundant concepts; it does mean, however,
that the ultimate goal of such work must be to reach
beyond the boundaries of the nation state to facilitate organizational links among victims of the global structure that will act as a counterweight to the
structures of global capital.
This work is only in its infancy in the form of
initiatives on the part of labour, inter-church coalitions, the women’s movement, native groups, and
others. But I am convinced that it is here — although
not only here — that effort must be applied.
The practice of social work and all forms of activism must be understood and practised in the context of these profound transformations of contemporary reality. This is an even taller order than the
one proposed by the author, but it is one that those
who think about and try to effect a more just world
ignore at their own peril and at the peril of those
they hope will benefit by their work.
This is a worthwhile book that every practising
and aspiring social worker and social activist should
read. I hope my comments inspire a fourth edition.
BERNIE HAMMOND, Department of Sociology, King’s
College, University of Western Ontario, London
399
Learning from Others: Administrative
Innovations among Canadian Governments
by James Iain Gow. Toronto: Institute of Public Administration of Canada, 1994. Pp. xviii, 218. $24.95.
This work is an ambitious and interesting contribution to the public administration literature on innovation. It examines the sources and diffusion of
innovation, and deals with 15 examples of innovation within the federal and provincial governments.
Four partly overlapping groups are surveyed to assess questions related to innovation: members of the
Institute of Public Administration of Canada; Professors at the Canadian Centre for Management Development and Ecole Nationale D’Administration
Publique; consultants in public administration; and
a panel of experts on public administration which
included both practitioners and academics. A
number of tables are used to summarize complex
data and an appendix contains short (3-5 pages) case
studies of each of the 15 cases.
Innovation entails both the creation of new ideas
and the diffusion and adaption of all ideas. The author discusses the problems related to assessing what
is an innovation. Simply passing a law is not enough.
Some jurisdictions may adopt and then drop an innovation and/or change it as they adopt it.
The four groups surveyed were in broad agreement that change was initiated by public servants
with the ability to combine human relations skills,
intellectual ability, and political skills. The groups
shared a common viewpoint that was “indifferent if
not hostile to theory and does not rely much on reading for its inspiration” (p. 62). Even the professors
surveyed were only slightly more bookish in their
orientation.
The 15 cases fall into categories such as methods and practices (e.g., zero-based budgeting), ideas
pertaining to institutions such as the ombudsman,
and ideas on policy such as affirmative action or
privatization. As expected, the federal government
and larger wealthier provinces were quicker to adopt
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE P OLITIQUES,
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400 Reviews/Comptes rendus
innovations. But administrative style had an impact:
while Quebec was not the first to adopt any innovation it is among the early adopters and it tends to
change what it has adopted. Similarly, relatively small
and poor New Brunswick has adopted some innovations such as public service language requirements.
Innovations generally are embraced in response
to demands within the civil service rather than because of their availability. The United States is by
far the most important foreign influence. Material
conditions such as economic constraints or the low
birthrate of Quebec women are predominant sources
of innovation. Reliance on internal sources of innovation is predominant. However, there are exceptions to this: Don Rowat was influential in promoting the ombudsman, Ged Baldwin sponsored freedom of information legislation, while the Fraser
Institute has promoted privatization.
Some of the innovations such as privatization and
language requirements are more political than administrative and their political context might have
been considered more fully. Overall, this is a valuable addition to the public administration literature
and it combines insight into innovation with material on the substance of particular innovations.
G ARY M UNRO , Department of Political Science,
Lakehead University
Aspects of Labour Market Behaviour:
Essays in Honour of John Vanderkamp
edited by Louis N. Christofides, E. Kenneth Grant
and Robert Swidinsky. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995. Pp. xv, 286. $55.00.
John Vanderkamp was a prominent Canadian economist of what many now term “the old school,” devoted to the application of economic theory and statistical methods to address such important policy
questions as unemployment and migration. Among
his many accomplishments, he was a founder of
Canadian Public Policy and served as its first editor. His untimely death in 1991 was a loss to his
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE POLITIQUES,
profession and to the policy community. This volume consists of nine papers — each followed by
comments from a discussant — from a commemorative conference held at the University of Guelph
in 1993. The papers provide a fitting tribute to John
Vanderkamp’s work, both in terms of his interests
and methodology, and they provide some indication
of the current state of policy-oriented research in
labour economics.
Michael Abbott, Charles Beach and Stephan
Kaliski use the first panel microdata from the Labour
Market Activity Surveys of 1986-87 to examine
wage growth among Canadian men who change jobs,
a topic widely researched in the United States where
panel data has been available for many years. One
interesting result is that only non-personal quits,
which are penalized under recent Unemployment
Insurance reforms, result in substantial wage gains.
They also conclude that union status and job characteristics such as firm size, industry, and occupation explain much of the wage growth of movers
rather than personal attributes, although the theoretical underpinnings of these results are not discussed nor are they well understood by economists.
Daniel Hammermesh argues that firm-level
microdata and “profoundly original methodologies”
must be developed to address such issues. He also
provides a précis of his 400-page book on what
economists know about labour demand and its application to policy for those who don’t have the time
or inclination for the details.
The next four papers focus on unemployment.
Stephen Nickell develops a Keynesian model that
explores the links between the unemployment rate
and labour force growth. He finds no evidence that
the unemployment rate is affected by labour force
growth and argues that measures to reduce the labour force, such as early retirement policies, are illadvised. Alan Carruth, Mark Hooker, and Andrew
Oswald use a similar approach to link movements
in the unemployment rate to movements in the price
of oil through real interest rates, although most of
the trend movement in the unemployment rate is
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unexplained. These two papers provide a neoKeynesian (European?) macroeconomic viewpoint
on unemployment and its remediation, although both
could benefit from more careful statistical analysis.
Wilton and Wirjanto develop an interesting
explanation of unemployment based on the timing
of human capital investment decisions by the unemployed. Their analysis suggests the idea of Unemployment Insurance funds as an envelope, which
beneficiaries could allocate to income support, an
education or training voucher, or an employment tax
credit as their circumstances dictated. Pierre Fortin
and Simon Prévost use panel data gathered from
southeast Montreal workers to argue that Unemployment Insurance does not reduce search intensity
among the long-term unemployed and that recent
UI restrictions are unlikely to stimulate search
activity.
David Card uses the exogenous variation in proximity to a public college in the U.S. National Longitudinal Survey of Young Men to correct for bias
in the estimated returns to education arising from
such unobservables as ability and opportunities. He
finds returns of 9 to 14 percent compared to 7 percent from traditional (OLS) estimates. The higher
returns are concentrated among individuals from
poorer households, suggesting that lack of opportunity, not lack of ability, affects college education
decisions. This paper provides perhaps the best
blend of theory, evidence and application to education policy in the tradition of John Vanderkamp and
should stimulate demand for comparable Canadian
microdata and research.
Morley Gunderson provides a survey of pay
equity policy and research. Canada and Ontario are
on the forefront of pay equity developments and will
act as a “laboratory for the analysis of pay equity
for some time to come.” He argues that the impact
of pay equity legislation on wages and payroll in
Ontario is smaller because of the narrow unit-byunit basis chosen for comparison. Less clear is the
reason for an even smaller impact on private sector
wages in Ontario.
401
Stephen Jones and Craig Riddell reprise earlier
research on labour market flows in Canada to examine the regional dimension. They provide a
number of stimulating facts — including larger
cyclical responses in Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta than in the smaller provinces, greater
reliance on labour force withdrawal in the Maritimes,
and more “waiting” for jobs (but not more discouragement) in Quebec and Atlantic Canada — without
providing an explanation for these results.
The themes and methodology of these conference
papers would be dear to John Vanderkamp. There is
a constant search for better ideas, motivated by important policy concerns, carefully explained, and
supported with better data. One omission, to my
mind, is any discussion of the spatial interaction of
workers and employers and the appropriate spatial
dimensions of labour markets. Does anyone really
think that provincial boundaries and county districts
represent a meaningful spatial disaggregation of the
labour market? At a minimum, we need metropolitan area data and a better understanding of labour
market behaviour within and between these areas.
WAYNE SIMPSON, Department of Economics, University of Manitoba
The First Canadians: A Profile of Canada’s
Native People Today
by Pauline Comeau and Aldo Santini. Toronto:
James Lorimer & Company, 1995. Pp. xii, 219.
$19.95.
Aboriginal issues continue to occupy a prominent
place on the Canadian public policy agenda. Despite
this high profile, there is still considerable misunderstanding regarding the aspirations of First Nations peoples in Canada. In The First Canadians,
Pauline Comeau and Aldo Santini have provided a
very good starting point for those seeking a better
grasp of the key problems and challenges confronting native people in Canada today. Those readers
who are already well-grounded in First Nations
issues will not find much new in terms of substance
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE P OLITIQUES,
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or argument in The First Canadians. But that is not
the intention. As Comeau and Santini write, “we attempt to provide an overview ... for those who are
just beginning their studies [of Aboriginal issues]
and for those who seek a basic understanding of how
the relationship between the Canadian federation
and its native people has evolved” (p. viii). The authors succeed in their attempt.
The book is comprehensive and clearly written,
covering everything from the 1969 White Paper to
education to native political organizations. Each
chapter begins by placing a particular policy issue
in historical perspective, outlines the consequences
of government policy for Aboriginal people, and
then concludes by examining policy alternatives and
promising initiatives. Several of the chapters are
worthy of note. Chapters 3 (Urban Indians) and 6
(Health Care) are particularly well done. They provide comprehensive statistics on population and population growth, education, income, illnesses, causes of
death, mortality rates, and so forth. Chapter 4 (Economic Development) challenges stereotypes regarding the potential economic viability of many Aboriginal communities and the entrepreneurship of Aboriginal people. Commendably, Comeau and Santini examine the sensitive issue of child welfare, the success
and the failures, in a forthright manner. Against the
view that self-government is a panacea, the authors
cogently challenge the notion that “through the transformation towards self-government, severely dysfunctional communities [will] heal themselves” (p. 157).
Other topics, however, are not as strong. A
number of assertions are unpersuasive and not supported. For example, the authors assert the existing
and treaty rights recognized in Section 35 of the
Constitution Act, 1982: “include the inherent right
to self-government” (p. 77). Their assertion is unsubstantiated and while gaining greater acceptance,
especially by the Chrétien government, remains a
contentious Canadian public policy issue. The
Guerin, Sparrow, and Sioui cases may make it easier
to achieve self-government through the courts, but
in and of themselves they are not evidence that an
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE POLITIQUES,
inherent right to self-government exists. Moreover,
later in the book the authors themselves point out
“the lack of recognition in the Constitution of the
inherent right to self-government” (p. 178). As well,
the authors’ explanation of the overwhelming rejection by Indian communities of the Charlottetown
Accord is unsubstantiated: “The Indian community
rejected the agreements because it still forced native people to accept conditions of self-government
imposed by Ottawa and the provinces” (p. 85). The
authors forget to note that the national Indian leadership, especially the AFN, not only negotiated the
“conditions of self-government” with the federal and
provincial governments, but also actively sought
support for these conditions.
Finally, while Comeau and Santini make no effort to disguise where their sympathies lie, the authors do strive to be objective in their presentation
of controversial issues and events. This is no easy
task. Comeau and Santini’s account of the events
surrounding the 1969 White Paper, for instance, (including Chrétien’s reassessment of his involvement)
is particularly well-balanced.
The First Canadians makes a useful contribution
to our understanding of the problems and aspirations of Aboriginal peoples. It is written at a level
accessible to members of the general public who are
concerned about Aboriginal issues in Canada, but it
would also serve as a very good text for introductorylevel university and college courses that address
First Nations issues.
GREG POELZER, Political Science Programme, University of Northern British Columbia
The Rock in a Hard Place, Atlantic Canada and
the UI Trap
by Doug May and Alton Hollett with comments by
Brian Lee Crowley and Lars Osberg. Toronto: C.D.
Howe Institute, 1995. Pp. xv, 244. $14.95.
Like some earlier Newfoundland researchers, May
and Hollett see Unemployment Insurance (UI) as
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part of the province’s problems, not the solution.1
They argue that, at least in Atlantic Canada and especially in rural Newfoundland, UI serves not as insurance against occasional or cyclical unemployment but as an annual income supplement.
Seen as just such a transfer, the authors find UI
defective: it pays more to better-off families than to
poorer ones; it unfairly favours recipients in some
locations over those in others and the self-employed
in fishing over those in other industries; and it encourages community work-sharing arrangements
and government make-work projects designed specifically to barely qualify participants to receive benefits. Worst of all, it encourages young people, especially men, to quit school early, get seasonal employment locally, qualify for UI and perpetuate the
process. Moreover, the cost of the transfer falls only
upon paid workers, not all taxpayers.
May’s proposed solution to these difficulties is
to gradually replace UI, and most other transfers,
by a negative income tax or “universal refundable
tax credit” (URTC) paid by the federal government
out of general revenues. The URTC would be based
on family, not individual, income. It would guarantee a minimum income, say $13,500 for a family of
four, and be taxed back at 50 percent beyond that
level. A variety of counselling, training, and monitoring services should be provided to recipients.
Although the study contains a wealth of data on
the Atlantic Region and the several provinces comprising it, largely based on the Statistics Canada
Social Policy Simulation Model, it was beyond the
scope of the work to simulate the impact of the proposed scheme on employment or estimate its cost. This
is a critical issue, since negative income tax schemes
have often been proposed before and dismissed as either being too costly or having too many disincentives.
The two sets of comments do a reviewer’s critical work for him and more. Osberg stresses that in
rural Newfoundland, especially in the fishing villages, incentives are not the problem—a genuine
403
shortage of work is. Replacing UI by URTC may
replace job sharing by a complete isolation of some
members of the community from the job market. The
solution to the erosion of such communities’ economic bases is outmigration. This can be helped by
improving prospects elsewhere, not by income maintenance.
At a deeper level, Osberg questions the study’s
statement of the problem as well as its solution: first,
he faults the authors for overgeneralizing from “anecdotes of rural Newfoundland” (p. 223) to the Atlantic Region as a whole. Rural Newfoundland is
but a small part of the region, most of whose inhabitants live in urban centres that have very different
labour-market characteristics. Second, Osberg argues that UI has not recently discouraged Atlantic
youths from obtaining an education. The contrary
impression is based upon stock statistics which
largely reflect a past when natural resources and
work based on their exploitation were more plentiful and remunerative. Recent flow statistics—high
school retention rates and the fraction of younger
persons who have attended university— paint a
much brighter picture.
The other critic, Crowley, argues cogently that
federal-provincial arrangements and fisheries regulation are important aspects of Newfoundland’s
problems. Space will not allow the discussion that
these issues deserve. He also suggests lower wages
in Newfoundland as a substitute for outmigration.
One might doubt that lower wages would bring industry to the province’s fishing or mining communities, but they might reduce the distance that inhabitants need to move to get work.
NOTE
1
For a classic statement, see Newfoundland and Labrador, Royal Commission on Employment and Unemployment (1986), Building on Our Strengths, St. John’s:
Queen’s Printer (House Commission).
S TEPHAN F. K ALISKI , Department of Economics,
Queen’s University, Kingston
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE P OLITIQUES,
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404 Reviews/Comptes rendus
Forestry, Economics and the Environment
edited by W.L. Adamowicz, P.C. Boxall, M.K. Luckert,
W.E. Phillips and W.A. White. Wallingford, UK: CAB
International, 1996. Pp. xv, 275. $US65.00.
This book is a collection of 15 papers. In the introductory chapter Emery Castle examines the relationship between economic and philosophical notions
of sustainability. The remaining papers are divided
into three main sections: (i) Tropical Forests: Environment, Economics, and Trade; (ii) Non-timber
Valuation: Theory and Application; and (iii) Ecosystem Management.
Castle’s introductory essay requires a response
from the fields of resource and environmental economics on three main fronts. First, he encourages
the adoption of flexible policies in acknowledgment
of the extreme uncertainty pertaining to the economics of sustainability. Second, the discipline of economics is criticized for rejecting the importance of
pluralism: the use of multiple viewpoints in
analyzing complex social problems. Third, he identifies a faulty tenure system as one of the major
causes of “instability and resource abuse” in primary industries. Castle also contends that, since
sustainability policy will be decided in the political
arena, it is important to determine the preferences
of the participants.
I believe the strength of the book should be evaluated on the basis of its response to the above issues.
Unfortunately, the valuable insights provided by
Castle do not guide the direction of several of the
papers that follow. The strongest paper in the first
section of the text is that of Pearce who attempts to
show that “orthodox economics” can save the tropical forests. He provides a clear theoretical exposition of the failure of the economic system to generate optimal levels of biodiversity and proceeds to
identify the economic failures that give rise to inefficient conservation: local market failure, government intervention failure, and global appropriation
failure. He emphasizes that the challenge to the economics profession is to “demonstrate and capture”
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE POLITIQUES,
global non-use values, and proceeds to identify
mechanisms for value capture through the creation
of global environmental markets. The remaining
papers in this section are case studies that, while
interesting and informative, do not address the issues raised by Castle.
The most valuable contributions in the second
section of the book are those of Blamey, Peterson
et al. and Berrens. Blamey provides an excellent
theoretical discussion of citizen and consumer preferences as they relate to the contingent valuation
method (CVM). He emphasizes the need for further
research into how individuals construct their CV
responses. Peterson et al. respond to Castle’s call
for a more pluralistic approach by employing a “psychometric method of paired comparisons” to estimate “willingness to accept compensation” for nonmarket goods and services and to test for “moral
responsibility effects.” Berrens provides an informative comparison of the CVM and the safe minimum
standard (SMS) approaches to measuring non-use
values for environmental assets. He suggests the
SMS is best viewed as a “burden of proof switching
device” that grants priority to protecting environmental assets such as biodiversity, while remaining
sensitive to extreme costs.
Of the papers in the third section of the book
Lippke’s is the most informative. He offers concrete
suggestions for modifying the incentives of land
managers to meet non-timber supply goals. These
include revisions of the timber taxation system, environmental swaps, and the use of competitive auctions in allocating contracts. Nautiyal concludes the
book by evaluating the role of the economist in social policy. He contends that the disciplines of ecology and economics are impossible to integrate because of their incompatible views of human beings
and because the use of reductionism in economics
does not allow insights into the workings of life as
a whole.
There are two ways in which this book could be
improved. One is the inclusion of an analysis
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regarding how forestry policy decisions are made.
Of particular interest is the way in which non-market
preferences are communicated (e.g., organized lobbies) and the responsiveness of different levels of
government to these preferences. A second valuable
addition to the text would be a paper that provides a
description of the existing property rights structures,
an analysis of how these structures affect production and consumption incentives as well as
government policy decisions, and a cost-benefit
analysis of alternative tenure systems.
PATRICIA KOSS, Department of Economics, Simon
Fraser University
Dimensions of Job-Family Tension
by Leroy Stone. Ottawa: Minister of Industry, Science
and Technology for Statistics Canada, 1994. Pp. 113.
This is a report on the 1991 Work Arrangements
Survey and the 1992 General Social Survey. The two
findings which I found most interesting were: the
relatively low levels of parent care responsibilities
(approximately 1 percent) and that while still less
than women’s, men’s family work was not negligible. My methodological concern was whether the
latter finding could be a detection artifact in that
men are now more likely to report family work than
in the past. My concern was echoed in a later chapter which suggested supplementing the information
with focus groups.
On a substantive level, I kept thinking that these
findings needed to be put in the context of relevant
workplace upheavals and political agendas which
seek to undermine various aspects of Canada’s social safety net. As “downsizing” or more currently
“right-sizing” have become management rubrics, I
am left wondering which groups are more vulnerable. Who fears workplace disruption more? How
has this context for work since the late 1980s entered into job-family tension?
Sheila B. Kamerman, affiliated with a US institution, raises an important issue by asking what
405
problem Canada is trying to solve. This resounded
in other sections of the book which pointed out how
so many industrialized nations in Europe and Nordic countries are making child-rearing less punishing financially. I think this report will be useful to
people who wish to criticize policies at the provincial and federal level. Policies which have led to
unravelling various aspects of Canada’s social safety
net could be analyzed in terms of their effect on
marginalized groups in our country.
B ARBARA H ANSON , Sociology Department, York
University
Do Conventions Matter? Choosing National
Party Leaders in Canada
by John C. Courtney. Montreal and Kingston: McGillQueen’s University Press, 1995. Pp. xviii, 477. $22.95.
This book is, in the best sense of the term, a magnum
opus. Written by one of the deans of Canadian political science, combining a lifetime’s interest in political
leadership with an intense period of research and reflection of a major institution “at a crossroads,” Do
Conventions Matter? is both a timely and lasting analysis of party conventions. The book is bound to become
the standard reference for those interested in party
conventions and the selection of party leaders. It also
contains much wisdom for those within parties contemplating changes to the process of leadership selection. And for political scientists and policy, it stands
as a model in the successful marriage of analytical rigour, careful historical narrative and policy prescription.
Courtney argues that there have been two generations of leadership conventions in Canada. The
first began in 1919 when the Liberal Party first used
the convention to choose William Lyon Mackenzie
King as leader to replace the deceased Wilfrid
Laurier. The Conservatives followed suit in 1927
with the selection of R.B. Bennett. This first generation was marked by relatively low-key conventions, with few candidates, few ballots to decide the
winner and relatively little money. The second generation, referred to as the “more” generation, extends
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from 1967 to 1993. It describes conventions during
the television age as having more candidates, more
ballots, and more money. The winning candidates
during the second period often had less extensive
ties with the parliamentary caucus.
In the first two-thirds of the book Courtney uses
this duality to structure an examination of various
features of party leadership and party conventions.
The analysis touches on topics such as mechanisms
of leadership review, the high cost of leadership
campaigning, the changing role of the media in leadership selection, demographic characteristics of convention delegates and the importance of networks
and coalitions in leadership campaigns. Each of
these topics raises a number of policy questions both
for parties and for the Canadian polity as a whole.
For example, under what conditions should a party
leader be subject to a performance review? Should
this occur at every party convention (the NDP and
Reform parties), only after the party loses an election (the Conservative Party), or following an election when a leadership review is called by delegates
to a convention or party members attending constituency meetings to choose convention delegates (the
Liberal Party). Similarly, what percentage of the vote
is necessary for a leadership review ballot to affirm
a leader? Although according to a party’s constitution a simple majority may be sufficient, in practice
it often requires a much stronger endorsement.
Courtney’s analysis succeeds both in raising questions such as these, in providing a historical backdrop for the several parties, and in reflecting on the
public policy issues, and the broader implications
for governance, that may arise.
In the last third of the book, Courtney turns to
the changes in the process of leadership selection
which are being introduced in Canada. The early
1990s has seen a dramatic rise in the use of universal balloting of all party members as opposed to a
convention of delegates in the selection of party
leaders at the provincial level. This experience, often justified as a movement toward greater democratization, has placed pressure on the federal parCANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE POLITIQUES,
ties to reconsider the method by which they choose
leaders. Courtney provides a contrast of the strengths
and weaknesses of the convention versus universal
ballot mechanisms from the perspectives of the experience of the parties and of theoretical foundations of representative democracy. Courtney concludes that conventions do matter, and in many ways
are preferable to universal balloting.
However, one need not agree with this conclusion to find this book worthwhile. The treatment is
both fair and balanced, and proponents of universal
balloting will find much support for their position
in this book. This book deserves a wide readership.
KEITH ARCHER, Department of Political Science, The
University of Calgary
Unions and Public Policy: The New Economy,
Law and Democratic Politics
edited by Lawrence G. Flood. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1995. Pp. x, 208. $59.95US.
This book does not offer much that is new, and it is
concerned almost entirely with the US labour movement. But it does an admirable job of covering various issues confronting labour unions, and, for an
edited volume, it holds together extremely well.
The book proceeds in three main sections. The
first contains two chapters on changes in the nature
of work, one of which (by Francoise Carré, Virginia
duRivage, and Chris Tilly) focuses upon the growth
in flexible employment arrangements, the other of
which (by Stan Luger) is concerned primarily with
employee involvement. Though the sceptic will not
find these chapters particularly satisfying, the authors do a reasonable job of conveying the conventional wisdom about changes in work and employment relations and their implications for unions.
The next section addresses issues of political
economy, including the implications of corporate
restructuring for unions (by John Russo), potential
“finance strategies” for unions (by Peter Pitegoff),
and the implications of international trade policy for
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employment and labour policy in the United States
(by Gerald Glyde). Of particular note is the chapter
on finance strategies, which identifies a number of
ways that labour and employees in general can gain
greater control over management, from the exercise
of control over pension funds, to employee ownership.
The final section is comprised of four chapters
on policy and democratic politics. They address,
respectively, how labour law might be reformed to
enhance union democracy (by Susan Jennik),
community-level attempts to combat plant closings
(by Bruce Nissen), strategies for public sector unions (by Lawrence Flood, William Scheuerman, and
Sidney Plotkin), and biases against unions in the
development and administration of labour law in the
US (by James Atleson). The latter two chapters are
of particular note. The one on the public sector focuses upon the need for unions to develop a new
“ideology” in view of public sector restructuring in
the US, while the one on labour law attempts to show
how biases have been introduced incrementally over
time, and reflect a failure by the labour movement
to display a sufficiently adversarial posture. According to the author, a more “troublesome” labour movement would be taken more seriously by policymakers,
as (he argues) has been the case in Canada.
This book would make an excellent choice for a
course on issues facing the labour movement. It covers most of the relevant material, and it does so in a
straightforward and at times provocative way. By
the end, readers should have a good sense of the
implications of contemporary developments for the
labour movement, and of various strategies that have
been advanced for how to deal with these developments. Moreover, though it is focused on the US,
much of the material in this book is directly relevant
to Canada, and there is reference to the Canadian
experience in a number of chapters.
This book does not, however, offer any broader
theoretical analysis or debate. Nor does it offer any
coherent, overarching vision for either the labour
movement or policymakers concerned with the
407
labour movement. For the most part, the authors accept contemporary developments and institutions as
given, and most of the alternatives they suggest are
likely to make a difference only at the margins.
There is nothing necessarily wrong with this. It reflects the traditional, institutionalist approach which
has historically dominated the study of labour in the
United States. But as one who prefers theoretical
analysis and overarching visions, I found the book
to be much like I find a typical Chinese take-out. Some
of the dishes were bland, others tasted a bit artificial,
and though a few were nicely spiced and had some
new ingredients, I was still hungry when finished.
JOHN GODARD, Faculty of Management, The University of Manitoba
Flexible Innovation: Technological Alliances in
Canadian Industry
by Jorge Niosi. Montreal and Kingston: McGillQueen’s University Press, 1995. Pp. xiii, 142. $22.95.
Anyone reading or writing books about innovation
in the late 1990s globalized economy knows that at
best we can only grasp or capture small parts of reality. We are also advised to check a lot of traditional academic disciplinary baggage at the door.
Jorge Niosi’s book is a common sense effort in both
these respects and hence is a good and useful book.
A very compact 130 page analysis, the book examines the emergence and role of strategic or technological alliances in Canadian business with an
empirical focus based on interview data, on four
sectors: electronics; advanced materials; biotechnology; and transportation equipment. The sector analysis is preceded by, and interpreted through, a conceptual framework on technological alliances and a
brief review of policies regarding such alliances in
four jurisdictions.
Because technological alliances among firms are
an intermediate form of organization, and fall
between markets and hierarchies, Niosi is right to
look for analytical guidance beyond received
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE P OLITIQUES,
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408 Reviews/Comptes rendus
neoclassical theory, industrial economics and transactions cost theory. He seeks to build a framework
based more on evolutionary theory which itself is
an amalgam of evolutionary economics, localized
learning, and organizational ecology. His discussion
of theory is brief but useful.
Alas, as could be expected in such a difficult subject, it is not easy to move from the framework to
the empirical application, let alone to draw policy
inferences from it. The empirical (interview) questions are only partly informed by the theory. Niosi
is right still to argue that the direction of his theorizing is the right one, but sectoral interview data
may not be the way to understand fully what is
happening.
The sectoral chapters are individually informative and because the sectors are themselves
synergistic, it is useful to have some analysis about
them. The policy chapters are perhaps the least convincing aspect of the book, in part because they are
simply too brief and check-list like.
But there is insight in this book and it is an important contribution for those seeking an informed
understanding of the problems of thinking about
technological alliances and innovation in Canada
and elsewhere.
G. BRUCE DOERN, School of Public Administration,
Carleton University
War, Finance and Reconstruction: The Role of
Canada’s Department of Finance 1939-1946
by David W. Slater (with two chapters by R.B.
Bryce). Ottawa: privately published with aid from
the Department of Finance (Government of Canada),
1995. Pp. xii, 299, illusns.
David Slater has written a valuable book, not necessarily so much for contemporary public policy
purposes but more so in the vein of having it available in an uncertain future, much as one sleeps better for having several gold pieces stuck in the back
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE POLITIQUES,
of a safety deposit box. For Slater tells the nuts and
bolts, institutional story of wartime and reconstruction economic and financial policy formulation, and
operational execution, largely, but not exclusively,
as viewed through the eyes of the Department of
Finance, Government of Canada. Seen perhaps less
dramatically the book is also fine economic history,
“part of a series on the history of the Department of
Finance” which includes Bob Bryce’s Maturing in
Hard Times (McGill-Queen’s Press), an earlier book
(1986) which deals with the period up to 1939. As
such, it complements the work of Granatstein and
others who have also written (in some cases extensively) in this area (and whose contribution is very
much acknowledged by Slater).
The book has 20 chapters (with an Epilogue, and
a series of photos of some of the major players of
the time), roughly equally divided between the
buildup and execution of wartime economic/financial policy (to 1943), and planning for/carrying out
reconstruction (up to early 1947). In it, Slater (with
the aid of Bryce who supplied a great deal of research help and two chapters directly, one on
“Prices, Wages and the Ceiling” [ch. 10], the other
on “From Policy to Legislation, 1944” [ch. 15]) tells
the story of how a group of individuals centred
around a small, understaffed Department of Finance
and a fledgling Bank of Canada found themselves
facing a wartime economic financial management
situation for which they were totally ill-prepared (a
situation, one might add, also typical of Canadian
industry, and one made worse by the poor state of
the economy coming out of the 1930s depression).
After a short chapter on who this “band of
merry men” were (for men they most assuredly only
were, as Slater notes), the book systematically examines the taxation (chs. 5 and 6), savings and borrowings (ch. 7), non-budget activities such as the
FX Control Board (ch. 8), manpower (chs. 9 and
12) and finally controls (chs. 10 and 11), policies
which they put in place to facilitate the conduct of
the war. It then passes on to consider reconstruction
in a series of chapters which are relevant economic
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history for the student of, for example, social programs in Canada, a topic of some contemporary
interest.
It is interesting to note that the book has been
privately published (it can be obtained through the
Department of Finance’s Information Services group
or directly from Slater at 199 Crocus Ave., Ottawa
K1H 6E7) and will suffer perhaps because of it, at
least in terms of general availability. It also suffers
somewhat from non-revision in light of several subsequent books “in and around” the subject (a fact
Slater readily acknowledges in his Foreward), and
perhaps tangentially from not mentioning some of
the other activities which have their genesis during
this period, for example, in respect of economic forecasting, an important aspect of this wartime work,
especially with respect to reconstruction (see, for
example, Daub 1987 and Bodkin, Klein and Marwah
1991 for some of this history). But, all in all, as
stated at the outset, it is a worthwhile, and necessary, read for anyone wanting to understand a
number of important areas of existing, and potential, public policy concern.
M E RV I N D AU B , School of Business, Queen’s
University
Mythes, savoirs et décisions politiques
de François Lacasse. Paris: Presses Universitaires
de France, 1995. Pp. 277. 188FF.
L’auteur, s’inspirant de son expérience de haut
fonctionnaire canadien et des travaux de Raymond
Boudon, introduit dans cet ouvrage la notion du
mythe comme élément modificateur du modèle
habituel de recherche des intérêts de l’analyse
économique des politiques (AEP), Il dévoile la
présence du mythe à chaque étape de la formulation
des politiques et termine en prescrivant des moyens
de le combattre.
Il démontre, en premier, que les mythes sont
présents dans l’élaboration des demandes des
groupes de pression, intéressés et désintéressés, et
409
limitent l’utilisation des savoirs pertinents.
L’adhésion aux mythes devient une solution de
facilité, créatrice de consensus et d’alliances. Elle
offre des avantages certains aux groupes
demandeurs, aux gestionnaires, aux analystes
politiques, aux institutions publiques comme
privées, et aux politiciens, aux dépens de la transparence et de la concurrence démocratique, d’un
traitement rapide et efficace des problèmes et d’un
ajustement approprié, sans délai, des savoirs aux
changements. Cette adhésion remplace ainsi le
complot sinistre de l’AEP.
En second, l’auteur donne des exemples
fascinants de confrontation entre mythes et savoirs
dans la fonction publique. Ici, rares sont les mythes
des groupes demandeurs contrés par les savoirs,
exception faite de ceux du premier round de la saga
des brevets pharmaceutiques. Dans ce cas, des
mythes plus aptes à forger des alliances jusqu’au
sommet de la hiérarchie les remplacent et gagnent
leur cause, ignorant les savoirs, du reste insuffisants
et limités. Les mythes peuvent être utilisés par les
politiciens au moment d’élections en ne s’appuyant
que sur des savoirs partiels (publicité du tabac). Ils
peuvent aussi être le fruit d’un dérapage de
raisonnement (droits individuels = droits des
régions) de la part d’institutions (le MEER et ses
successeurs) et de leur refus de considérer les effets
réels et généraux de leurs politiques (la création de
chômeurs découlant de la politique de création
d’emplois). Parfois, les porteurs de savoirs créent
même des mythes pour mieux vendre leur produit
aux politiciens (cas des retraites).
Les savoirs sont peu contrôlés car leurs
évaluations administratives, étroites et limitées,
sensibles à la planification et aux divisions
institutionnelles, s’attaquent rarement aux raisons
d’être des politiques, ou à leurs objectifs généraux,
et donc aux mythes, et ne proposent guère de
profondes solutions de rechange. Les mythes ont
trop d’alliés organisationnels opposés à les
débusquer, même de façon interne, vu la
vulnérabilité des unités de savoir, la perception de
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE P OLITIQUES,
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410 Reviews/Comptes rendus
leur devoir de répondre aux attentes des directions
opérationnelles et les critères de recrutement de leur
personnel.
Le modèle présenté se dit ainsi améliorer celui
de l’AEP tout en gardant son cadre général. La confrontation mythes-savoirs serait ainsi plus facile à
identifier que la maximisation des intérêts, et le
modèle aurait plus de pouvoir de prédiction. L’auteur
affirme que “dans une majorité des cas, le jeu
simultané de l’ensemble des contraintes et
motivations des acteurs face à la logique de la
gestion publique va déboucher sur une préservation
des mythes” (p. 254).
Malgrés ses innovations conceptuelles
importantes, particulièrement du point de vue critique, dans le processus de formulation des
politiques et malgré l’acuité analytique de ses études
de cas, l’ouvrage offre plusieurs points faibles.
L’auteur présente un raisonnement enchevêtré qui
nuit à sa logique, et ceci dans un style touffu, truffé
de sous-entendus, enrobé d’un jargon administratif
rarement accompagné de références explicatives et
parsemé de termes de sa propre création, clins d’oeil
pleins d’humour. Il s’adresse à un lectorat canadien
et européen, mais celui-ci, à mon avis, est limité à
certains initiés, hauts fonctionnaires et étudiants du
deuxième cycle en administration publique. Enfin,
ses prescriptions pour combattre le règne des mythes
frisent certainement l’utopie. L’auteur a des illusions
sur la capacité de la citoyenneté, ultime ratificatrice
des politiques, d’utiliser ses filtres détecteurs de
mythes. De plus, il ne semble pas encore avoir
découvert que rattacher les analystes politiques à
des instituts de recherche universitaire n’entraîne pas
automatiquement la disparition des mythes, le
modèle des sciences pures auquel il se réfère étant
difficilement applicable aux sciences sociales moins
exactes. D’une part, les institutions universitaires
étant elles-mêmes divisées, non pas en ministères,
mais en départements disciplinaires jaloux de leurs
territoires respectifs, les analystes risquent de confronter une fois de plus une fragmentation des
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE POLITIQUES,
savoirs qui encourage les mythes. D’autre part, les
sciences sociales vivent également sous les
contraintes de paradigmes empreints de mythes qui
s’avèrent d’autant plus difficiles à déloger qu’ils sont
imposés et perpétués par une petite hiérarchie bien
plus irresponsable par rapport au public que les
dirigeants politiques.
SYLVIE A REND, Département de science politique,
Collège Glendon-Université York
Healthcare Infostructures: The Development of
Information-Based Infrastructures for the
Healthcare Industry
by The Diebold Institute for Public Policy Studies, Inc.
Westport, CT: Praeger, 1995. Pp. xii, 143. $55.00.
This publication is the second volume resulting from
the infostructure project of the Diebold Institute of
Public Policy, which is an operating foundation that
has a research interchange with over 100 academic
research institutions in Europe, Japan and the United
States, and whose principle aim is to explore the
public-private interface to achieve maximum
societal benefit from technological change. The focus of this volume is on the roles that informationbased technology (IT) can play in (a) improving
(US) society’s overall health and well-being, and
(b) addressing the three major current and anticipated future problems of health-care provision in
the US: rising costs (e.g., 12 percent of the GNP in
1990), quality (e.g., an emphasis on medical care
versus health promotion/disease prevention), and
accessibility (e.g., one in nine US families lacks any
kind of health insurance coverage).
In Part I, following the presentation of the basic
flaws in the organization and structure of the US
medical care delivery process, including illustrative
examples of the non-cost-effectiveness and questionable quality of some of the services provided, seven
proposals are described for a “paradigm shift” in
the US health-care system including three significant structural changes in that system that might
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likely accompany such changes (pp. 6-8). This
reviewer found that most of these proposals
somewhat resembled the health-care restructuring
that is occurring in Alberta and other parts of Canada
(yet Canada is mentioned only three times in this
book).
In Part II, a description is given about the functioning and development of health-care infostructures; the potential of the latter for reducing
health-care costs; extending the reach of effective
health care (e.g., home care, remote rural areas);
increasing health promotion/disease prevention programs, and improving the quality of medical care;
the legal, economic, technological, political, human
and social barriers to implementing health-care
infostructures; and the need for public-private cooperation for addressing the barriers and financing
a health-care infostructure, as well as the possibilities for US-European collaboration.
Part III, which is over half the book, contains
policy analyses on medical information systems
written by researchers in the United States (Wetzter),
Europe (van Bemmel) and Japan (Yoshikawa and
Ishikawa). Two informative appendices are included:
(a) selected implementations of health-care
infostructures in the US, and (b) The Jackson Hale
Initiatives for a Twenty-first Century American
Healthcare System. The reference list, as well as the
detailed index, afford the reader knowledge of some
of the classic, as well as recent studies on this subject.
This book will be of considerable interest to researchers and practitioners who want to enhance
their knowledge about comparative health-care
policy research and clinical outcome research. It is
this reviewer’s hope, however, that their next volume will address some of the health-care
infostructures on which the current book is relatively
silent, such as consideration of the concept of holistic health-care, including government subsidies
to pay for complimentary treatment modalities (e.g.,
music, and other creative arts therapies) to help those
411
who are not going to get well, live as well as they
can; and the possibility of direct access to services
provided by registered nurses/advanced nurse practitioners as a means to improve health promotion
and disease prevention programs.
CAROLINE L E NAVENEC, Faculty of Nursing, University of Calgary
Canadian Democracy: An Introduction
by Stephen Brooks. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart,
1993. Pp. viii, 412.
This volume stands as one of the best introductory
texts currently available. Not all readers will agree
with its emphases, and there are shortcomings but,
on balance, the book constitutes an excellent introduction to the subject. It is clearly and interestingly
written, highly readable and avoids jargon. It assumes little prior knowledge and emphasizes essentials. The author expertly incorporates historical background and important literature. Many well-designed
graphs and charts as well as anecdotal illustrations
clarify matters and hold students’ interest.
In general, concepts are explained very well. In
a few instances, however, this reviewer found weaknesses. Three are found on page 19. Government
does not refer only to “those who have been elected
to power”; totalitarian states also have governments.
Nor is the legitimacy of the state based entirely on
the consent of the governed. Such an assertion needs
to be explained. And when striking unions ignore
back-to-work legislation they are not necessarily
challenging “the legitimacy of the state”; they may
simply disagree with government policy.
Further, to state that interest groups and pressure
groups are interchangeable labels overlooks a basic
difference. An interest group becomes a pressure
group or a political interest group when it seeks to
influence government policies or decisions. A wellorganized religious association or ethnic or sports
group which does not try to influence any authority
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE P OLITIQUES,
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412 Reviews/Comptes rendus
or agency in the political order is surely an interest
group but not, or not yet, a pressure group.
This text is well-organized and the material is
developed logically. Interestingly, however, five of
the twelve chapters — two on the societal context
and three dealing with contemporary issues — focus not on the usual introductory material but present
a more sociological analysis. They incorporate interdisciplinary emphases and could well be units in an
introductory course in Canadian Studies. Doubtless
many instructors and students will find these chapters very informative and interesting. They should
also go a long way in convincing students that the
study of politics has both immediate and life-long
relevance.
Some explanations and assertions need to be revisited. The discussion on page 69 fails to make a
clear distinction between confidence in a governmental system and confidence in the incumbent government. The comparison between Europe and North
American politics concerning limitations on
policymakers ignores the fact that in the CanadianAmerican relationship there are only two — very
unequal — partners and that Canada, at times, has
very little input (p. 92). Again, to cite as the key
example of electoral distortion the 1988 federal election in which the NDP received 20 percent of the
popular vote but only 14.6 percent of the seats hardly
makes the point (p. 220). Why not cite more startling data? For example, in several federal elections
the Liberal Party received about 25 percent of the
votes in some provinces but elected nobody.
It also seems odd, even misleading, to describe
Senate composition in terms of the atypical numbers
resulting from Prime Minister Mulroney’s packing
of the Senate with “GST Senators” (p. 191). It seems
inaccurate to emphasize that Manitoba and Newfoundland “failed to pass the Meech Lake Accord”
(p. 156). Actually, Newfoundland did pass it but later
rescinded its action. Brooks stresses that “Any action of the government of Canada is taken in the
Queen’s name” (p. 171). That’s not exactly true.
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE POLITIQUES,
When the government decides to call an election or
when it undertakes some other kinds of political
action it does not function as the monarch’s official
representative.
A few technical matters detract from the overall
high quality of this book. In some sections page after page of full line, relatively small print weakens
ease of reading. Also, in general the fine photographs
are too dark.
If the book has a bias it would be a slightly leftist one. An example makes the point. In listing the
numerous women’s organizations in Canada, (the
author lists 19), Real Women, an important group
not sharing the author’s bias, should also have been
listed. But by and large the distortions are not serious.
This timely text deserves widespread adoption
because it ably achieves its stated goal of conveying to the reader a sense of the fascinating world of
Canadian politics and encourages students to widen
their knowledge and understanding of Canadian
democracy. It’s a first-rate contribution to the list
of options.
JOHN H. REDEKOP, Department of Political Science,
Trinity Western University
Forecast and Solution: Grappling with the
Nuclear, A Trilogy for Everyone
by Ike Jeanes. Blacksburg, VA: Pocahontas Press,
1996. Pp. xiv, 770. $25.00.
Forecast and Solution offers new methods for forecasting and forestalling a first use of nuclear weapons. Divided into three sections, the first introduces
a simple algebraic formula for showing how long
nuclear peace would tend to continue at different
levels of proliferation and peacefulness. Jeanes
claims that the formula is able to predict the onset
of all conventional wars since 1820 at an accuracy
of plus or minus 5 percent. Section two introduces
what the author calls “Unified Theories,” an analysis of the components of peacefulness. Discussing
VOL . XXII, NO . 4 1996
Reviews/Comptes rendus
history, ethics, friendship, religion, sociology and
law, this section debunks deterrence theory and
shows that proliferation of nuclear weapons
devastatingly reduces the number of years of nuclear peace. Section three analyzes World War II and
its aftermath, emphasizing proposals of the League
of Nations that the author claims could have prevented World War II.
Written in a conversational style eminently accessible to laypeople, the volume contains a wealth
of factual information. For example, the author
points out that, since the US government first began developing nuclear weapons in 1940, the cost
of the US nuclear arsenal (up to 1995) has been
about $4 trillion, or three times more (in 1995 dollars) than the US spent on procurement for all of
World War II (p. 19). Skillfully debunking both the
myth of deterrence (see, for example, p. 117) and
the presupposition that nuclear actors behave in rational ways (and are never willful or the victims of
accident or error), the author does a good job of integrating insights from history, psychology, politics,
religion, and other areas. Another asset is the masterful overview of international military and political events. The discussion of the ethics of opposition to nuclear war is weak, however, and like some
other sections of the volume, relies on second-hand
information from the Encyclopedia Britannica.
Whatever the flaws in the book, Jeanes deserves
praise for knowing and attempting to answer the key
objections to his position (pp. 44, 66). Although its
length is likely to put off many readers, the volume
employs a good format which includes many helpful graphs (p. 53). Finally, the tone of the book is
admirable; it is hopeful, humble, courageous, and
determined. It is remarkable that one person could
have written so much so well.
Despite its strengths, the volume has some serious flaws. The worst is that, in his discussion of
nuclear strike probabilities, the author appears to
be a victim of physics envy when he develops his
formula for numerically predicting a nuclear first
413
strike within a given number of years (pp. 35ff). He
claims that “the topic of war can be treated in some
key regards as an objective science rather than as
an exclusively subjective or normative one ... You
plug in the values and you get the answer” (p. 35).
The author’s assumption that one can predict human behaviour, including nuclear behaviour, is problematic not only because it relies on naive and misguided faith in postulating mathematical descriptions of highly complex phenomena but also because
nuclear proponents likewise rely on different, but
equally subjective, probabilities.
Apart from the subjective probabilities, the author’s use of stipulative and tautological definition
in his formula also undercuts his position. In this
formula, he asserts that R, the “reluctance level” not
to use nuclear weapons, times some constant K, is
equal to Y (the years to first use of nuclear weapons) times TN (the number of entities possessing
nuclear weapons) (p. 35). Not only is the formula
too simple, in leaving out a number of other considerations (such as the rationality of the groups possessing weapons), but it is also trivially true and
obvious that reluctance is a function of the years to
first-use of nuclear weapons. Moreover, because it
is no easier to know R than it is to know Y, the formula itself is tautological and unhelpful.
Indeed the author’s whole probabilistic enterprise
is problematic for other reasons. For example, using
a variety of mathematical assumptions, he defends
his predictions by saying that, at the 50 percent level
of probability, the error in his calculated time to first
strike would not exceed 3.47 (p. 41). The 50 percent level of probability, however, tells almost nothing. The author misunderstands different types of
probabilities, since he defends his subjective
nuclear-related probabilities by saying that he is using formulas “analogous to quality control statistical methods used in manufacturing,” where one can
test the reliability of computer chips (pp. 36, 46).
The book ignores the fact that one can sample and
test computer chips in a way that one can never test
nuclear safety.
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE P OLITIQUES,
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414 Reviews/Comptes rendus
Despite the author’s problems with probabilities
and his attempt to mathematicize a policy problem
that does not yield to simple numerical analysis,
many insights in the book are valuable. For example, the author points out that, as time goes forward,
and as the number of nations with nuclear capabilities increases, so does the probability that such
weapons will be used (pp. 14, 40). It would be a
shame for such important information to be discredited because of questionable reasoning elsewhere in
the volume. This information alone makes the book
worthy of reading by everyone.
KRISTIN SHRADER-FRECHETTE, Department of Philosophy, University of South Florida
Courts and Country: The Limits of Litigation
and the Social Political Life of Canada
by W.A. Bogart. Toronto: Oxford University Press,
1994. Pp. xviii, 334. $24.95.
The title of Bogart’s book is somewhat misleading.
This is not to say that he does not deal with what
the title implies, but that he covers a whole lot more
including such things as regionalism, nationalism,
the administrative state, Canada-US differences,
federalism and much, much more.
The general thrust of the book is that the growing emphasis on litigation, which increases the role
of the courts in the scheme of things, comes at the
expense of the political process. The role of legislatures, the importance of the electoral and administrative process is lessened because groups spend
their limited resources on litigation. Bogart supports
his argument for this happening by drawing upon
Gerald Rosenberg’s book, The Hollow Hope, which
is a study of public interest groups and their experience with litigation in the United States. Bogart
concludes that US courts are almost never effective
when it comes to producing significant social reform. I am not sure that all would agree with that
because the US Supreme Court produced some important social reform under Earl Warren with the
desegregation and voting rights cases and the court
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE POLITIQUES,
was fairly active in supporting the New Deal legislation of F.D.R. after Roosevelt came out with his
“Court Packing” proposal.
Bogart notes that the Human Rights Commissions
and processes have been taken over by the litigation process with its focus on lawyers and courts so
that the process now is adversarial when originally
it was thought the emphasis would be on mediation,
conciliation, and arbitration.
There is a lengthy discussion of the impact of
the Charter of Rights and Freedoms upon the role
of the courts, and whether individual freedoms have
been expanded or narrowed. In his discussion of the
Charter, Bogart reviews quite a few of the studies
that have assessed the Charter since its adoption in
1982. The studies range from the impact on natives
to Section 15. In terms of the latter, Bogart concludes that Section 15 has not benefited the disadvantaged as originally hoped would be the case, but
has actually been used to attack programs and policies intended to assist them. He concludes his discussion of the Charter by noting that no one can state
how the Charter will turn out. There are too many
variables: What sort of issues will go before the
courts; What kind of judges will be appointed; and
What will various legislatures do about Section 33.
It’s not clear how Canadians will respond to the increased role that judges now have as a result of the
Charter. He sees the absence of experience as turning the process into an experiment and, as with all
experiments, it might succeed but it might also fail.
On the one hand, he notes that despite the US concern for due process and the role of litigation as a
tool for reform in the criminal system, the United
States is the most crime-ridden society in the world.
One could argue, on the other hand, that it is not the
failure of litigation nor the concern for due process
that has contributed to this status, but the absence
of any real gun control legislation.
It would be a poor review if it was not noted that
on page 194, Bogart states that Canada’s population was 35 million in 1985. This is obviously
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Reviews/Comptes rendus
incorrect and the statistical data that follows is,
therefore, also incorrect. It is surprising that this
could slip by an editor. Despite this problem, the
book is an important contribution to the discussion
of how courts and litigation impact upon the process and society in Canada.
EDWIN WEBKING, Department of Political Science,
The University of Lethbridge
Beyond Poverty and Affluence: Towards a
Canadian Economy of Care
by Bob Goudzwaard and Harry de Lange. Toronto:
University of Toronto Press, 1995. Pp. xiii, 173.
$15.95.
This is a very sobering book. The authors take aim
squarely at the reigning economic paradigm, classical and neoclassical economics, which has governments in its thrall in many industrialized countries. The book was first published in Dutch in 1986,
then in German (1990), English (1991) and the
present version for a Canadian audience.
Goudzwaard and de Lange argue that the economic
system is incapable of solving, and is in fact exacerbating, the most serious problems facing us today: poverty, environmental degradation and unemployment. Part I explains why economic renewal is
necessary; Part II deals with finding a solution and
the last part lays out a 12-step program for recovery.
The authors remind us that care is an authentic
element of the oldest definition of economy which
comes from the Greek word oikonomia. However,
economics today recognizes only one kind of object for study — objects of use. Goudzwaard and de
Lange’s critique of the market-driven system is a
familiar one; more and more voices are heard on
the topic, most notably from “new social movements” such as feminists, environmentalists, peace
activists, and church groups. They have all expressed
concern about how we assign worth and value in
society. Only paid transactions are registered by the
market, and therefore, numerous vital but unpaid
activities are ignored. This state of affairs is a con-
415
sequence of the training of economists which encourages them to quantify, to strive to be objective
and “value-free.” In economic calculations labour
is just another factor in the production process to
be manipulated or replaced by machines if possible.
The authors acknowledge the vitality of the
premises underpinning a market economy, premises
which have “been transfused into the bloodstream
of our Western culture” (p. 48), and present themselves as untouchable truths.
It is the strength of these beliefs that will make it
an uphill battle to implement the 12-step program
Goudzwaard and de Lange propose. The thrust of
their recommendations is putting the needs of people and the environment back into the economic
equation. However, people will have to play their
part by scaling back on their consumption of products. The difficulty flows from the fact that individualism and self-interest are ingredients that are
deeply embedded in the current economic system.
They thus present significant barriers to the development of a concern for the poor and for the planet.
More importantly, the equation of freedom in the
marketplace with freedom itself, means that people
in Third World countries can be seduced into believing that you cannot have one without the other.
The free market has undoubtedly delivered prosperity to more people than ever before in human history. Ordinary people in industrialized democracies
enjoy a lifestyle undreamed of by their ancestors.
The troubling question for many well-meaning individuals is whether it is right to deprive the less
fortunate in the Third World of the trappings of
modern life that we take for granted.
In order to succeed, we have to redefine what is
good and desirable, making a virtue of frugality and
disdaining conspicuous consumption. After all, our
beliefs and values are not immutable and it is quite
possible for them to change, given the right stimulus. However, as mentioned above, this will likely
be a difficult task: replacing what is in our bloodstream will be resisted vigorously by powerful forces
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE P OLITIQUES,
VOL. XXII, NO. 4 1996
416 Reviews/Comptes rendus
which benefit from the status quo. Nevertheless, the
prospect of success lies in the mounting evidence
that the planet is rapidly being used up, that more
people are being discarded from the workplace and
that the food chain itself may be at risk. The conditions appear to be ripe for a paradigm shift.
This book, which demonstrates the interrelatedness of our problems and focuses on alternative ways
of viewing the world, may contribute to generating
public discourse to bring about that shift.
D OREEN BARRIE , Department of Political Science,
The University of Calgary
Taking Stock: Canadian Studies in the Nineties
by David Cameron. Montreal: Association for
Canadian Studies, 1996. Pp. xviii, 238. $20.00
David Cameron was commissioned by the Department of the Secretary of State, now the Department
of Canadian Heritage, to review the situation of
Canadian Studies in Canadian institutions of higher
learning. He begins with a brief discussion of some
of the key forces affecting the definition of Canadian identity in the 1990s: the arrival of immigrant
groups from a wider set of countries, the increased
economic integration of North America, and the
forces of internationalization. He then recounts some
origins of the Canadian Studies enterprise, focusing first on the Massey-Lévesque Commission, rising Canadian nationalism of the late 1960s, and finally the Commission on Canadian Studies headed
by T.H.B. Symons. From this commission came a
definition of Canadian Studies that holds today:
“teaching or research in any field that, as one of its
major purposes, promotes knowledge about Canada
by dealing with some aspect of the country’s culture, social conditions, physical setting, or place in
the world. Within these terms, Canadian Studies
would include both work conducted along traditional
disciplinary lines and work organized around a single theme or subject but drawing upon the knowledge and techniques of several disciplines” (p. 24).
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE POLITIQUES,
Drawing on this definition, Cameron then systematically reviews a range of institutions that contribute to Canadian Studies: Canadian content in
selected university disciplines and the relative
strength of Canadianists among university faculty,
university Canadian Studies programs, Canadian
Studies programs in community colleges, the organizational infrastructure for Canadian Studies, the
activities of governments, particularly the federal
government, archives, non-print technologies, and
print resources.
From this systematic review, Cameron draws a
number of conclusions and makes some recommendations. On the positive side, he finds that Canadian Studies programs have developed into strong
academic units in several Canadian universities. The
core support institutions — Association for Canadian Studies, International Council for Canadian
Studies, Journal of Canadian Studies — tend to be
functioning effectively. The ICCS, in particular, has
grown significantly in the 1980s. Using new technologies, Canada has taken a lead in archival preservation of historical documents. And the past two
decades have seen the appearance of several new
interdisciplinary fields that have varying degrees of
Canadian content: native studies, women’s studies,
and environmental studies.
On the negative side, Cameron finds that community colleges have let slip significantly their commitment to Canadian Studies. Although he does not
investigate it systematically, he also worries that
Canadian Studies has slipped in the elementary and
secondary schools. Quite correctly, Cameron is concerned about the vulnerability of Canadian Studies
in the universities during this period of retrenchment. With the concept of globalization in the air,
university hiring committees might see Canadianists
as too narrow and, Cameron fears, turn to nonCanadians more frequently. He cautions the federal
government not to change its current employment
and immigration policy in this regard. Finally, his
investigation reveals that Canadian Studies as defined
VOL . XXII, NO . 4 1996
Reviews/Comptes rendus
above is virtually absent from Quebec’s francophone
universities. A couple of institutions have “Quebec
Studies” and recently a new Canadian Studies program at the Université du Québec à Hull has started
up. With this exception, the old saw of “two
solitudes” obtains in this area of academic life as well.
In short, Professor Cameron provides a systematic review of the state of affairs in Canadian Studies in the 1990s. As such, it furnishes useful information for those concerned with this “enterprise”
today and, perhaps, for those who wish to trace the
history of academic life in the late twentieth century.
WILLIAM D. COLEMAN, Department of Political Science, McMaster University
Hard Choices or No Choices: Assessing
Program Review
edited by Amelita Armit and Jacques Bourgault.
Toronto: The Institute of Public Administration of
Canada and Canadian Plains Research, 1996.
Pp. 200. $22.00.
This selection of essays examines the strategies and
the implications of program review as developed by
the various levels of government in Canada. It is
written in three parts: Part I, The Federal Government and Program Review; Part II, Provincial Governments and Program Review; and Part III, Program Review in Canada. There are 17 contributors:
Amelita Armit, Jacques Bourgault, Arthur Kroeger,
Mohamed Charih, Paul Thomas, Gilles Paquet,
Marianne Weston, Claire Morris, Pierre Roy, Patricia
Boynton, Jay Kaufman, Howard Leeson, David M.
Cameron, Allan Tupper, André Bernard, Evert
Lindquist, and Pierre DeCelles.
The book looks at program review against the
context of the previous period of spending. Accordingly, program review is discussed from the perspective of globalization, competitiveness and social
reform. The analysis suggests a reduction of the role
of the Canadian state. Notwithstanding the perceived
417
trend toward the reduction of the role of the state,
there are various concerns such as its actual role
within the changed environment of the 1990s and
beyond. The editors assert that “this publication aims
to capture initial assessments of the reform processes in the federal and provincial governments, the
reactions from various publics and the prospects for
implementation” (p. 5). Some contributors such as
Paul Thomas point to major contradictions in the
objectives of program review, some of which are
associated with the New Public Management projected as the new approach to state management.
Others such as Gilles Paquet are rather critical of
the program review process and point to difficulties
in the attainment of the objectives established. Other
contributors such as Tupper, Lindquist, and Leeson
address issues closer to federal-provincial relations.
An interesting observation comes from Claire
Morris’ contribution. She observes, “New Brunswick’s experience with program review has a long
history which includes fundamental restructuring
brought about by Equal Opportunity in 1967, the
comprehensive Government Reform in 1983, and the
ongoing program review which characterizes the
current administration” (p. 71). This suggests that
the process should be viewed within a longer term
perspective.
Another interesting issue relates to the manner
in which the various provinces have, and continue
to, approach program review. In this regard, the book
presents a comparative approach to program review.
First, there is the initiative by the federal government. Second, there are the approaches of the provinces. Third, there is the comparison between the
various approaches.
Overall, the book deals with the program review
process, its impact on governance, and the prospects
for the future. The authors raise a variety of
important questions concerning some of the challenges facing the various governments. It is observed
that the analysis captures “the rethinking of
Canadian society and its values, the redefinition of
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE P OLITIQUES,
VOL. XXII, NO. 4 1996
418 Reviews/Comptes rendus
the relationship between individuals and the state
and its instruments for governance and public
management” (p. 7).
It is stated elsewhere that the presentations on
the provinces were prepared by people on the front
lines and, as a consequence, in some cases, represent more of a testimony than a critical analysis.
The reviews point to trends of both centralization
and decentralization as reform strategies.
The book suggests that the federal government,
as well as the provinces, is undergoing major structural and other changes in reaction to their respective deficit and debt situations which pose major
challenges for both officials and citizens within and
outside the public sector. In this regard, program
review should be carefully examined by all sectors
of Canadian society. The process involves a reassessment of the democratic process.
The book captures significant shifts in Canadian
public sector management. By way of illustration,
Arthur Kroeger compares the contemporary challenges to those of the immediate postwar period
when bold initiatives were undertaken. Accordingly,
2000 and beyond presents new challenges for the
Canadian state.
RICHARD W. PHIDD, Department of Political Studies,
University of Guelph
The Transmission of Monetary Policy in Canada
by Bank of Canada. Ottawa: Bank of Canada, 1996.
Pp. 125. $25.00.
Over the past few years the way in which the Bank
of Canada implements monetary policy has changed.
The traditional methods of fixed reserve requirements, open market operations and moral suasion
have given way to a sensitive and complex formulation which is much more market driven.
Now in a welcome new initiative the Bank has
published this volume containing reprints of ten arCANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE POLITIQUES,
ticles which previously appeared elsewhere and
which provide detail on how monetary policy is
transmitted to the real economy and the factors that
go into determining what that policy will be. As such
it is an ideal supplement to the usual university level
text in money and banking.
Governor Thiessen’s 1995 Hermes Lecture at
Glendon College is the lead-off piece and provides
as clear a statement of the transmission mechanism
and its limitations as any to be found. Were the volume to contain nothing else, this piece is something
that any student of monetary policy needs to read.
It is a welcome potential addition to the reading list
of any introductory money and banking course.
The other pieces provide the details of the actual
mechanics of just how the Bank seeks to change
market behaviour, the factors taken into consideration by the bank in determining what monetary
policy should be and some of the more sophisticated
empirical research done by the bank on measuring
the leads and lags in monetary policy transmissions
and the accuracy of forecasting.
The article by Charles Friedman on monetary
conditions and the index constructed to gain some
understanding of what is happening at any given
time is the other gem in the collection. Reading this
will provide a detailed description of just what factors the central bank uses to determine its policy
actions and the relative weighting accorded each.
Two other pieces look at the empirical research on
the transmission of monetary policy.
None of these articles should be considered as
light bedtime reading. But the reader who takes the
time to wade through material which at times is a
bit dry will benefit with a more profound and comprehensive understanding of what monetary policy
is all about and what drives it.
I have but two negative comments. First, given
the most recent changes in the central bank’s methods of implementing monetary policy, the volume
VOL . XXII, NO . 4 1996
Reviews/Comptes rendus
is already somewhat obsolete. A short supplementary note from the research staff would easily rectify this problem and make the volume all the more
useful and extend its half-life by many years. Second, including the earlier Hanson lecture by former
Governor John Crow on “The Work of Canadian
Monetary Policy” would have rounded out an otherwise excellent collection. However, I suppose that
including that piece was not politically expedient.
DAVID E. BOND, Hongkong Bank of Canada; and Faculty of Commerce, University of British Columbia
Ensuring Competition: Bank Distribution of
Insurance Products
by Ignatius J. Horstmann, G. Frank Mathewson, and
Neil C. Quigley. Toronto: C.D. Howe Institute, 1996.
Pp. viii, 110. $12.95.
This books argues that consumers will benefit significantly from the removal of the current federal
prohibition on bank branch distribution of insurance
products. It is assumed that banks will also be permitted to utilize their information databases, including risk assessments, to custom tailor packages of
banking and insurance products to better serve their
customers’ financial needs. The term “banks” is
broadly interpreted to include all deposit-taking institutions to which the federal restrictions apply
(e.g., federally incorporated trust companies).
The authors neatly adapt analysis from the economics of commodity “bundling” to demonstrate
how the removal of the distribution restriction will
enhance product choice. Coupled with the exploitation of bank databases and associated search and
administrative efficiencies, the banks will enjoy a
comparative advantage in marketing of at least some
insurance products. These economies of scope and
intense competition with traditional insurance providers will lead to lower insurance prices, new products, and improved customer service especially for simpler insurance products (e.g., personal term insurance)
which complement conventional bank products.
419
Bank entry into insurance distribution through
branches could take a variety of forms: an agency
arrangement with independent insurance companies,
insurance company takeovers, joint ventures or establishment of new insurance subsidiaries. The first
three strategies create the potential for disagreements over such matters as product pricing, the
shared use of banking customer data and differences
in corporate culture and remuneration schemes.
Thus, the authors anticipate that the life insurance
subsidiary approach will be the preferred route of
Canadian banks. Since 1992, four of Canada’s five
largest banks have established insurance subsidiaries. They will be well positioned, therefore, to exploit in the most effective way their comparative
advantage in distributing insurance products.
The book reviews several concerns over potential disbenefits arising from deregulation including
predatory pricing, tied selling, and increased concentration of banking power. It concludes that existing empirical evidence does not suggest that monopoly rents are present in the Canadian banking
industry. Moreover, robust competition and corporate self-interest will ensure they do not arise after
deregulation. The authors are also sanguine over illicit use of information and possible privacy concerns. By obtaining explicit permission to use customer information and adherence to an industry code
of conduct or appropriate government regulations
reasonable behaviour can be assured.
The experience of several industrialized countries
is surveyed and offered in support of the view that
the benefits of increased competition will be substantial and sustained in the long run. The lessons
to be drawn from deregulation in Australia and New
Zealand are particularly salutary: dramatic
reductions in commissions’ saving and insurance
products, substantially lower prices, and improved
customer service.
The book makes a valuable contribution to the
debate over bank distribution of insurance products.
Though apparently too late to influence the 1997
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE P OLITIQUES,
VOL. XXII, NO. 4 1996
420 Reviews/Comptes rendus
review of 1992 amendments, its persuasive analysis should help make the case for removing restrictions on bank distribution of insurance products
during the next major round of financial sector reform expected early in the next century.
JOHN BENSON, Department of Economics, University
of Guelph
Discourse and Power in Educational
Organizations
edited by David Corson. Toronto: OISE Press, 1995.
Pp. xviii, 348.
Discourse and Power in Educational Organizations
makes a useful contribution to educational scholarship by examining the role of discourse in identifying, manipulating, and changing power relations in
educational settings. Many educational scholars take
for granted the power of language in mediating social relationships, particularly within and as a consequence of educational processes, but this volume
argues convincingly and thoroughly for an examination of the theoretical bases, methodological challenges, and practical utility of discourse analysis.
Many of the chapters, written by scholars in Canada,
Australia, Austria, Great Britain, New Zealand, and
the United States, provide context-sensitive descriptions of educational processes and relationships,
often including illustrative examples of dialogue. At
the same time, the authors employ a variety of analytic strategies that are theoretically robust enough
to be readily applied to other settings and cases and
to readily suggest not only theoretical but also practical and policy implications.
Many of the chapters are explorations of particular educational settings and relationships, including
teachers’ attitudes about instructional feedback from
administrators, interactions between preservice and
associate teachers, decision-making meetings involving school personnel and community members,
and instructional interactions among teachers and
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE POLITIQUES,
students. The reader is invited to consider the
explanatory power of a variety of analytic strategies including gender role socialization and administrative role congruence; the congruence of personal
orientations in the success of instructional feedback
dyads; the complexities of context specificity, strategies of control, negotiation, and resistance; how
“ideology” hinders listeners’ abilities and engenders
“otherness”; the relative value of feminist poststructural theory over more traditional organizational
perspectives in explaining gender relations in
schools; coercive versus collaborative power relations; and the construction of students’ cultural
“difference” in classrooms. In several instances,
similar settings and relationships are considered
more than once across chapters, providing a nice
critique of particular theoretical perspectives and
also suggesting a variety of different policy implications. Other pieces discuss the power of discourse
at the policy level to shape educational practice and
its consequences for deaf people and for culturally,
racially, and linguistically diverse students, the application of gender equity policy in schools, and the
ways we write, talk, and think about educational
change. Still other chapters take a more general look
at the role of educational organizations in advancing the use of discourse in power relations, map out
some ethics for discourse in different educational
settings, discuss the tendency for discourse analysis to support and be supported by radical and critical, rather than liberal perspectives, and acknowledge the necessity and the challenges of moving
from critique to action.
This is a useful book, both in its entirety and
chapter by chapter. It covers new ground in educational studies. The magnitude and sophistication of
its concepts are balanced with clear illustrations of
specific language use and careful attention to methodological processes, making it not only accessible
to educational scholars, but in a number of instances,
convincing to the uninitiated. It demonstrates the
utility of discourse analysis for policy studies and
VOL . XXII, NO . 4 1996
Reviews/Comptes rendus
begins to suggest new ways of thinking about and
constructing educational policy.
NINA BASCIA, Department of Theory and Policy Studies, OISE
NEW BOOKS
Keith G. Banting and Charles M. Beach. Labour
Market Polarization and Social Policy Reform.
Kingston: Queen’s University Press, 1995. Pp.xi,
258. $19.95.
Bryan Downie and Mary Lou Coates (eds.). Managing Human Resources in the 1990s and Beyond:
Is the Workplace Being Transformed? Kingston: Industrial Relations Centre Press, 1995. Pp.xii, 190.
$35.00.
421
Munro Eagles, James P. Bickerton, Alain-G.
Gagnon and Patrick J. Smith. The Almanac of
Canadian Politics. 2nd edition. Toronto: Oxford
University Press, 1995. Pp.xviii, 765. $30.00.
Margrit Eichler (ed.). Change of Plans: Towards a
Non-Sexist Sustainable City. Toronto: Garamond
Press, 1995. Pp.x, 185. $18.95.
Harry Kitchen and Douglas Auld. Financing Education and Training in Canada. Toronto: Canadian
Tax Foundation, 1995. Pp.ix, 151. $35.00.
Will Kymlicka. Multicultural Citizenship: A Liberal Theory of Minority Rights. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1995. Pp.vii, 280. $43.00.
Daniel Thursz, Charlotte Nusberg and Johnnie
Prather (eds.). Empowering Older People: An International Approach. Westport, CT: Auburn House,
1995. Pp.xiv, 219. $59.95.
Don Waterfall. Dismantling Leviathan: Cutting
Government Down to Size. Toronto: Dundurn Press,
1995. Pp.xiv, 170. $16.99.
CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY – ANALYSE DE P OLITIQUES,
VOL. XXII, NO. 4 1996