The continuing relevance of DREE decentralization
Article Abstract:
In 1973-74, as one of several steps taken to implement the results of a major policy review, the Department of Regional Economic Expansion was decentralized in a thoroughgoing manner. The new organization, which remained in place until early 1982, was given strengthened offices under directors general in each province, regional headquarters under assistant deputy ministers in Moncton, Montreal, Toronto, and Saskatoon, and a streamlined head office in the national capital. Ottawa-based staff, as a proportion of the total (excluding PFRA), fell from about 80 per cent to less than 40 per cent. The author, who was closely associated with the department at the time, reviews the experience. He concludes that though the reorganization was a success, the government has made limited progress with the concept of administrative decentralization; and he identifies some of the factors that help to explain this failure. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)
Publication Name: Canadian Public Administration
Subject: Government
ISSN: 0008-4840
Year: 1987
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The political administration of government reorganization: the merger of DREE and ITC
Article Abstract:
The article examines the political administration of government reorganization through an analysis of the 1982-83 merger of the Department of Industry Trade and Commerce (ITC) and the Department of Regional Economic Expansion (DREE) to form the Department of Regional Industrial Expansion (DRIE). Three issues of political administration are examined: the role and sustainability of prime ministerial power; the partial clash between policy and organization; and field versus headquarters operations. The slowness of the reorganization process is attributed to an inevitable sag in prime ministerial power, to line department versus central agency clashes over policy versus organizational imperatives, and to headquarters-field tensions over the practical meaning of delegated authority in the midst of the reorganization. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)
Publication Name: Canadian Public Administration
Subject: Government
ISSN: 0008-4840
Year: 1987
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The merit principle in the provincial governments of Atlantic Canada
Article Abstract:
The merit principle is the primary means of restraining or avoiding political influence in civil service employment. It has received a good deal of attention at the national level of government but much less so at the provincial level. This article is designed to provide an assessment for Atlantic Canada. The author reviews the background in Britain and Canada and, after identifying the main elements of the principle, as developed at the national level of government in Canada, deals separately with each of the four Atlantic governments. He concludes that the merit principle has had its ups and downs throughout the region and that its current status varies considerably from province to province. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)
Publication Name: Canadian Public Administration
Subject: Government
ISSN: 0008-4840
Year: 1988
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