Inside the IMF: comparisons with policy-making organizations in Canadian governments

Article Abstract:

The paper identifies the main differences between the decision-making environments of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Canadian governments, with a view to comparing administrative practices in the IMF with those in government policy-making organizations. Many of the IMF's distinguishing features arise from its international character and the need to solve "collaboration problems." They include a detachment from electoral politics and external agencies, a heavy reliance on rules, universal membership, weighted voting, a specialized and technical subject-matter with broad doctrinal consensus, a comparative availability of resources and continuity in leadership. The paper then reviews the features of the administrative practices in the IMF that tend to distinguish it from policy-making organizations in the Canadian federal and provincial governments. These include top-down organizational discipline, numerous and well-staffed review procedures, elite recruitment, high pay and an internally generated and incremental approach to administrative reform. Conclusions are made about the extent to which the IMF's distinguishing administrative features are linked to its particular decision-making environment and about the lessons that might be drawn for the management of Canadian policy-making organizations. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

International Affairs, Finance, taxation, & monetary policy, Intnl Monetary Fund, Analysis, International Monetary Fund, National government, Federal government, Public administration

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Shorter measures: the changing ministerial career in Canada

Article Abstract:

Characteristics of ministerial careers - the length of time cabinet ministers hold office, the number and type of portfolios they hold, ministers' pre-cabinet political experience, the circumstances of their leaving cabinet, and the like - constitute an important but understudied aspect of Canadian cabinets. This article examines career patterns among the 1,375 individuals who held ministerial office in the ten provinces between the mid-1940s and the mid-1990s. Evidence of sweeping changes in the basic contours of provincial ministerial careers since World War II is presented and analysed. Possible implications of these changes on internal cabinet dynamics are discussed. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Research

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Recent changes in the cabinet decision-making system in Ottawa

Article Abstract:

The decision-making system used by cabinet officials in the Mulroney government of Canada is outlined, and showing how this system differs from that of previous governments. The history of the cabinet system in Canada, including political and constitutional influences, is given. There has been much reorganization since 1984 to the end that decisions be made efficiently, in line with the government's priorities.

Decision-making, Decision making, Political activity, Mulroney, Brian, Trudeau, Pierre

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