YORK UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES
DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
Course: GS POLS 6155 3.0 – Democratic Administration
cross-listed as GS/LAW 6680, GS/PPAL6155, and SB/PUBL6155
Term: Fall 2013-14
Professor: Thomas R. Klassen
Office: Ross Building South, Room S636
Telephone: 416-736-2100 ext. 88828
Email: tklassen@yorku.ca
Office hours: Thursday and Friday 10:30-11:30 or by appointment
Website: www.yorku.ca/tklassen
Date and time: Thursday 11:30 - 14:30
Location: Douglas Verney Seminar Room, Department of Political Science, S674 Ross South
Course Description
The study of democratic administration is based on the premise that the permanent executive of
the state can play a central role in enhancing democracy and the capacity of citizens to govern
themselves collectively. For example, general elections are seen as too shallow, infrequent and
unable to represent the views of minority groups. However, many of the principles of public
administration were developed prior to the democratization of the state, and one result has been
public administration and public policy-making procedures that are unnecessarily hierarchical,
inflexible, and inefficient.
The purpose of this seminar is to examine the extent to which an increased level of citizen
participation in policy-making and program delivery, and a higher standard of public service
ethics and accountability, can be attained. The objectives of the course are three-fold. The first
objective is a comparative and historical analysis to better understand the possibilities of citizen
empowerment and how social and political contexts shape those possibilities. The second
objective is an investigation of the bureaucratic impediments to increasing democracy. And,
third, an examination of the promise and limits of recent attempts by governments to overcome
such impediments. This seminar includes readings on both the theory and practice of democratic
administration.
This course is the core course for the Graduate Diploma in Democratic Administration. For
more details on the diploma please see:
http://www.yorku.ca/gradpols/documents/DiplomaEnrollmentForm2010_000.doc
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Course Readings
Required readings are available electronically via the York University Libraries. Additional
required readings will be assigned based on the interests of the students in the course.
Evaluation
Seminar leadership and participation
Draft outline of research paper
Presentation of selected paper/article/book
Oral presentation of draft final paper
Final research paper
Date due
Ongoing
October 24
Oct. 24- Nov. 22
Nov. 28 and Dec. 5
Dec. 5
Worth (%)
20
10
15
10
45
Note: Late assignments will not be accepted. Assignments may only be submitted in hard copy
during office hours or class time. Missed oral presentations will be graded as zero. Weekly
attendance is mandatory.
The last day to drop this course without receiving a grade is November 8, 2013.
students will have the opportunity to sign up to lead the discussion for one reading each week,
and also to present on a readings of their choice not on the course outline. Students will have an
opportunity to present their draft final papers on November 28 and December 5 so that they may
receive comments from colleagues. Presentations must be professional in all regards. Students
are reminded that the presentation and the final paper must incorporate course readings, as well
as additional readings, related to their final research paper.
WEEKLY SCHEDULE
Week I – September 12 – Introduction and Course Overview
Week II – September 19 - Key Concepts and Terms
Watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmOvEwtDycs&NR=1&feature=fvwp
[two British bureaucrats speaking]
Watch: Beth Noveck in Demand a more open-source government http://on.ted.com/b9En
Gauvin, François-Pierre and Julia Abelson. Primer on Public Involvement. Toronto: Health
Council of Canada. Please read pages 8-18. Available as an ebook at:
http://site.ebrary.com.ezproxy.library.yorku.ca/lib/oculyork/docDetail.action?docID=10133557&
p00=handbook%20public%20administration%20canada
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Woller, Gary M. 1998. “Toward a reconciliation of the bureaucratic and democratic Ethos
Administration & Society” 30(1), 85-109. Available at:
http://aas.sagepub.com/content/30/1/85.full.pdf+html
Stark, A. 2002. “What is the new public management?” (book review essay), Journal of Public
Administration Research and Theory, 12(1), 137-152. Available from Library electronic
journals.
Arnstein, Sherry R. (1969) “A ladder of citizen participation,” Journal of the American Institute
of Planners” 35:4, 216-224 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01944366908977225
Recommended reading:
Sossin, Lorne. 2002. “Democratic administration” in Handbook of Public Administration in
Canada (pp.77-99). Toronto, ON: Oxford.
Ostrom, Vincent. 1989. The Intellectual Crisis in American Public Administration. Tuscaloosa:
The University of Alabama Press. See in particular “The intellectual mainstream in American
public administration” (chapter 2, pages 20-41) and “A theory of democratic administration: The
rejected alternative” (chapter 4, pages 65-86).
Pateman, Carole. 1970. Participation and Democratic Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press. See especially chapter 5 (pages 22-44) “Rousseau, John Stuart Mill and
G.D.H. Cole: A participatory theory of democracy.”
Week III – September 6 - The Democratic Deficit in Public Policy and Administration
Tholen, Barry. 2004. “Democratic renewal and the legitimacy of bureaucracy: Max Weber’s
critique of civil servants-rule” Research paper of the Netherlands Institute for Government.
Available at: http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/1752/NIG2-03.pdf
DeLeon, L. & DeLeon, P. 2002. “The democratic ethos and public management,” Administration
and Society 34(2), 229-250. Available from library electronic journals.
Halseth, Greg and Annie Booth. 2003. “What works well; what needs improvement: Lessons in
public consultation from british columbia’s resource planning processes,” Local Environment,
Vol. 8, No. 4, 437–455. Available from Library electronic journals or directly at:
http://cstc.bc.ca/downloads/Booth-Halseth%20%20Lessons%20in%20Public%20Consultation%20BC%20Planning%20Process.pdf
Recommended reading:
Greene, Ian and David Shugarman. 1997. Honest Politics: Seeking Integrity in Canadian Public
Life. Toronto: Lorimer. See especially chapter 1.
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Week IV – October3 - Democracy and Regulation
Ostrom, E. 1999. “Coping with the tragedy of the commons,” Annual Review of Political Science
2, 493-535 Available from Library electronic journals.
Howlett, M. and Rayner, J. 2004. “(Not so) ‘Smart regulation’? Canadian shellfish aquaculture
policy and the evolution of instrument choice for industrial development,” Marine Policy 28,
171-184. Available from Library electronic journals.
Winfield, M.S., Whorley, D. & Kaufman, S.B. 2002. “Public safety in private hands: A study of
Ontario's technical standards and safety authority,” Canadian Public Administration, 45(1), 2451. Available from Library electronic journals.
Recommended reading:
Doern, G.B. and R. Johnson. 2006. “Multilevel regulatory governance: Concepts, context and
key issues,” in G.B. Doern and R. Johnson (eds.) Rules, Rules, Rules: Multilevel Regulatory
Governance. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp. 3-28.
Week V – October 10 - Democratic Administration and Innovation
Frug, J. 1990. “Administrative democracy,” University of Toronto Law Journal 40 (3), 559-586.
Available from Library electronic journals.
Price Boase, J. 2000. “Beyond government? The appeal of public-private partnerships,”
Canadian Public Administration 43(1), 75-92. Available from Library electronic journals.
Roy, Jeffrey. 2008. “Beyond Westminster governance: Bringing politics and public service into
the networked era,” Canadian Public Administration 51(4) 541-568. Available from Library
electronic journals, and also at: http://www.mikekujawski.ca/ftp/Westminster.pdf
eDemocracyBlog.com - Thoughts on eDemocracy, eGovernment, politics and technology
Recommended reading:
Behn, R.D. 2008. “The adoption of innovation: the challenge of learning to adapt tacit
knowledge,” in Sanford Borins (ed.) Innovations in Government: Research, Recognition, and
Replication (Washington, DC: Brookings Institute), pp. 138-158.
Bendix, R. 1965. “Bureaucracy and the problem of power,” in Robert K. Merton, et al., Reader
in Bureaucracy (New York: The Free Press), pp. 114-135.
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Week VI – October 17 - The Politics of Discretion
Sossin, Lorne. 2002. “Law and intimacy in the bureaucrat-citizen relationship” in Personal
Relationships of Dependence and Interdependence in Law. The Law Commission of Canada
Vancouver: UBC Press, pp 120-154. Available as an ebook at:
http://site.ebrary.com.ezproxy.library.yorku.ca/lib/oculyork/docDetail.action?docID=10087597&
p00=citizens%20bureaucrats
Johnson, Genevieve Fuji. 2011. “The Limits of Deliberative Democracy and Empowerment:
Elite Motivation in Three Canadian Cases”. Canadian Journal of Political Science 44(1), 137159.
Roberts, A. 2002. “Administrative discretion and the access to information act,” Canadian
Public Administration 45(2), 175-195. Available from Library Electronic Journals.
Recommended reading:
Goodsell, C. 1994. The Case for Bureaucracy: A Public Administration Polemic (3rd edition)
chapter 5. Chatham, NJ: Chatham House Publishers.
Week VII – October 24 - Reinventing Government: The Marketization of the State?
Peters, Guy B. 2002. “Governing in a market era: Alternative models of governing” chapter 5 in
Public Administration: An Interdisciplinary Critical Analysis edited by EranVigoda. New York:
Marcel Dekker. pp 85-97. Available as an ebook at:
http://site.ebrary.com.ezproxy.library.yorku.ca/lib/oculyork/docDetail.action?docID=10051418&
p00=democratic%20administration
Dutil, Patrice A., Cosmo Howard, John Langford and Jeffrey Roy. 2008. “Rethinking
government-public relationships in a digital world: Customers, clients, or citizens?” Journal of
Information Technology & Politics 4 (1), 77-90. Available at:
http://www.tandfonline.com.ezproxy.library.yorku.ca/doi/pdf/10.1300/J516v04n01_06
Whorley, D. 2001. “The Andersen-Comsoc affair: Partnerships and the public interest,”
Canadian Public Administration 44, 320-345. Available from Library electronic journals.
Peters, B.G. 1998. “Governance without government? Rethinking public administration,”
Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 8(2), 223. Available from Library
electronic journals.
Terry, L.D. 2005. “The thinning of administrative institutions in the hollow state,”
Administration & Society 37(4), pp.426-444. Available from Library electronic journals.
Recommended reading:
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Osborne, David and Ted Gaebler. 1992. Reinventing Government: How the Entrepreneurial
Spirit is Transforming the Public Sector. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley.
October 31 – Reading/Co-Curricular Week – no class
Week VIII – November 7 - State, Citizens, Social Movements and Public Participation
Denhardt, J.V. and K.B. Campbell. 2006. “The role of democratic values in transformational
leadership,” Administration and Society 38(5), 556-72. Available from Library electronic
journals.
Baccaro, Lucio and Konstantinos Papadakis. 2009. “The downside of participatory-deliberative
public administration.” Socio-Economic Review 7(2), 245-276. Available from library electronic
journals.
Coleman, Stephen and Jay G Blumler. 2009. Internet and Democratic Citizenship: Theory,
Practice and Policy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Please read chapter 5 “EDemocracy from Below” Available as an ebook at:
http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.library.yorku.ca/ehost/detail?sid=5276c81f-007a-40c5-b3e5dd893945c753%40sessionmgr14&vid=1&hid=19&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%
3d#db=nlebk&AN=304685
Recommended reading:
Wilson, H. Thomas. 2001. “The civil service in capitalist democracies & bureaucratic
representation through implementation processes.” Chapter 2 of Bureaucratic Representation:
Civil Servants and the Future of Capitalist Democracies. Boston, MA: Brill.
McElligott, G. 2001. “Front-line workers and public policy” and “State workers and democratic
administration.” Chapters 7 and 8 in Beyond Service: State Workers, Public Policy, and the
Prospects for Democratic Administration. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press.
Week IX –November 14 - International Development and Democratic Administration
OECD. 2009. Focus on Citizens: Public Engagement for better Policy and Services. Paris.
OECD. Read three sections that are of interest, with at least one country study. Available at:
http://www.oecd.org/document/25/0,3746,en_2649_33735_42216857_1_1_1_1,00.html
United Nations Research Institute on Development (2005) Gender Equality: Striving for Justice
in an Unequal World. Chapter 11 “Gender and good governance.” Available online from
UNRID. Note: In order to access the document you must complete a very short user survey.
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Otenyo, Eric E. 2006. “Vincent Ostrom's democratic administration and new public management
in East Africa.” Paper prepared for discussion at the Indiana University’s Workshop in Political
Theory and Policy Analysis. Available at:
http://www.indiana.edu/~voconf/papers/otenyo_voconf.pdf
Recommended reading:
Otenyo, Eric E. and Nancy Lind. 2006. Comparative Administration: The Essential Readings.
London: Elsevier.
Week X – November 21 - Public Employees and Democratic Administration
Chappell, L. 2002. “The Femocrat strategy: Expanding the repertoire of feminist activities,”
Parliamentary Affairs 55(1), 85-98. Available from Library electronic journals.
Bourgon, Jocelyne. 2007. “Responsive, responsible and respected government: Towards a New
Public Administration theory,” International Review of Administrative Sciences 73(1), 7-26.
Available from Library electronic journals.
Week XI – November 28 - Oral presentation of draft final paper
Readings to be assigned
Week XII – December 5 - Oral presentation of draft final paper
Please note that the final paper is due on this date.
Resources
There is considerable information available on the Web on public administration. Some of the
web sites below may be of assistance in your research and of interest in exploring issues related
to democratic public administration. The web-sites can be accessed directly from the course
outline posted on the Web.
Primarily Public Administration Related
Canada School of Public Service: information about the latest news and trends in executive
learning, including information about executive education and development programs and
services and to documents
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Canadian Government Executive: magazine for public sector decision makers containing stories
on emerging public policy and public administration developments and innovations
Canadian Government Information on the Internet: classified by subject, province, and
municipality; includes a list of government discussion groups compiled Public Works and
Government Services Canada
Guide to Canadian Political Science Resources: links to current information about Canadian
government institutions and the policy making process from the National Library of Canada at http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/caninfo/ep032.htm#32
Index to Federal Royal Commissions: materials associated with the more than 150 federal Royal
Commissions that have taken place since Confederation from the National Library of Canada
The Innovation Journal: independent, peer-reviewed, Internet-based journal devoted to sharing
ideas and discussing public sector administration innovation
Office of the Auditor General of Canada: publications, including searchable full text of the
Reports of the Auditor General
Parliamentary Internet Parlementaire: access to the House of Commons, Senate and the Library
of Parliament, including debates, committee proceedings, and status of legislation
Privacy Commissioner of Canada: includes annual reports
Privy Council Office: includes annual reports to the Prime Minister
Public Service Commission Library: includes research papers on public service reform
Public Administration Institutes and Think Tanks
Institute of Public Administration of Canada: national non-profit organization, concerned with
the theory and practice of public management, with 17 regional groups across Canada
United Nations Online Network in Public Administration and Finance: forum for knowledge,
experiences and best practices worldwide of sound public policies, effective public
administration and efficient civil service.
Primarily Policy Related
Caledon Institute of Social Policy
Canada West Foundation
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Canadian Council on Social Development (CCSD)
Canadian Labour Congress
Canadian Policy Research Networks (CPRN)
CD Howe Institute
Conference Board of Canada
Fraser Institute
International Labour Organization
Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP)
International Reform Monitor
Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD)
Policy Horizons Canada
Other useful electronic sources of information:
Canadian Social Research Links
Elections Canada
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