Policy analysis and advocacy in the Canadian labour movement: when the force of argument is not enough

As states in the early twentieth century established labour ministries to manage and mitigate class conflict, the question of whether and under what conditions the public policy perspectives of the working class and their trade unions could find a hearing within the state became significant. As the labour-capital compromises that characterized the political economy of post-1945 liberal democracies unravelled and the internal architecture of states transformed with the rise of neoliberalism, the labour movement’s policy influence has declined, even within institutions of social dialogue. While it remains strategically important for trade unions to engage in state-oriented policy analysis and advocacy, the force of argument, of good rational analysis, is insufficient in the current era. This exploration of trade unions’ resulting reorientation of their policy advocacy tactics and strategies suggests a creative process of engaging members and the public is underway.

The policy capacity of political parties in Canada

Political parties and their members are often viewed as having limited impact on government policy choices. However, prior research shows that both sets of actors devote considerably more time and resources to policy-related activities than this view would suggest. We examine the policy capacity of parties and their members to influence policy-making in Canada over the course of the last decade. We focus on the ability of party members to have their policy wishes included in election campaign manifestos and the extent to which the 2008 and 2011 federal Conservative governments were able to fulfill their campaign commitments in a highly challenging policy capacity environment. Consistent with prior studies on previous Conservative and Liberal governments, this examination demonstrates that while governments face a number of influences on their policy choices, the policy wishes of party members and the election campaign policy commitments of parties have a significant influence.

Canadian legislatures, public policy and policy analysis

This chapter aims to clarify the roles that legislatures play in Canadian public policy and its analysis by looking at the institution as it functions in the country’s parliamentary system of government. The chapter begins by describing the four core functions that legislatures perform in Canada’s parliamentary system, namely making government, making government work, making government behave, and making alternative governments. The chapter then explains how and where these functions fit into the public policy process, most significantly in the agenda-setting, implementation and evaluation stages. The chapter concludes with some thoughts on what this fresh perspective on Canadian legislatures and public policy offers for policy analysis in this country.

The diminished invisible private service: consultants and public policy in Canada

Management consultants who work for and with the various orders of government in Canada are no longer as invisible as they once were. Other authors have increasingly been writing about this policy and management actor and the media and the general public are also beginning to better understand the influence that management consultants have on how decisions are made in government. A question that remains is how much control and influence do management consultants have with government and administrative actors and if the private service is indeed stepping over any democratic boundaries.

Policy analysis and the central executive

This chapter examines the policy making role of key central agencies within the Canadian federal core executive, and in particular their role in initiating, contesting, directing and coordinating policy advice across government. The chapter considers the three formal public service central agencies—the Privy Council Office, the Department of Finance and the Treasury Board Secretariat—as well as the Prime Minister’s Office which, although lacking formal authority to act for the Prime Minister, is nevertheless integral in providing policy advice to the head of government and coordinating policy development among ministers’ partisan political staff. Using elite interviews and documentation obtained through Access to Information, the chapter explores the advisory instruments of policy briefing notes and memoranda to cabinet as well as general advisory processes in the central executive.

Policy analysis in Canada: an introduction

The ILPA series of country studies displays some significant variation between jurisdictions in terms of the timing and purview of analysis and also shows how the movement towards the application of scientific precepts to policy questions continues to be moderated by adherence to older, more partisan political modes of decision-making and program planning. Despite a discernible trend toward the professionalization of policy advice in most countries, a variety of actors continue to contribute diverse ideas to policy debates, with policy advice systems, and their analytical components, taking diverse forms across nations, sectors and levels of government. In this volume, we present a more systematic and comparative up-to-date understanding of policy analysis practices in Canada than has hitherto been available. This introduction provides an overview of past research into the area and outlines a series of topics and research questions which are addressed in the other contributions to the book.

Public policy studies in North America and Europe1

North American and European public policy programs are placed in a comparative context and assessed in light of domestic and global developments. The historical background of policy analysis and research in light of the nature and scope of American influence, the development of differences and similarities in policy analysis versus research, the roles and impacts of ‘experiential learning’ tools such as co-ops and internships, and the roles and impacts of accreditation bodies, are identified and discussed as key determinants in the development and nature of public policy programs.

Academics and public policy

Academic researchers are important contributors to the public policy process in Canada and other countries. However, they generally do not contribute directly. First their work tends to pass through the hands others, sometimes called knowledge brokers, before it reaches those who actually make public policy. Secondly, although policy advisors and ultimate decision-makers tend to be aware of major schools of thought, they are less likely to be influenced by any specific single journal article or book. This chapter explores the process by which academic research finds its way into public-policy process and illustrates steps academic researchers can take to increase the chances their work will be taken account of in policy-making. The chapter ends with a word of caution about what can go wrong if academic researchers over-reach and try to influence the policy process without taking account of context.

Media and public policy

Mass media has taken on an increasingly influential role with respect to the design, implementation and critical evaluation of public policy. This chapter explores the many ways in which media “matters” to the policy process, by highlighting media’s traditionally limited role in the scholarly literature on public policy, then moving on to a wider discussion of the direct and indirect capacity of media to influence the policy process. Media effects on policy such as framing and agenda setting are reviewed, as are concepts such as the institutional factors that guide political media production and the relationship between policymakers, public opinion and the media. The chapter concludes with a reflection on some of the contemporary challenges for the media-policy relationship in a rapidly evolving digital media environment.

Policy analytical capacity and Canadian business associations

Since the 1980s, policy advisory systems in Canada have become more open and accessible to inputs from civil society groups. However, the capacity to exploit this new openness is not evenly distributed within civil society. Based on survey data from Canadian business associations, this chapter argues that business groups have generally endowed themselves with impressive capacities for policy analysis and advice, and that these capacities have increased over the last decade or so. Business associations have commonly made a significant and sustained commitment to this endeavour, whether using in-house personnel or external resources, and have developed strong analytical means for providing governments with policy advice. To the extent that this capacity is unmatched by other sections of civil society, the greater openness of policy advisory systems may not reflect a new era of genuine pluralism, but reinforce existing biases in civil society.