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There is a consensus throughout much of the western world that the public sector is in urgent need of repair. This study seeks to understand why this is so by comparing developments in Canada and the United Kingdom. It looks to changes in values both in society and inside government, and to the relationships between politicians and civil servants at the top and between civil servants and citizens at the bottom.
Donald J. Savoie argues that both Canada and the UK now operate under court government rather than cabinet government. By court government, he means that effective power now rests with their respective prime ministers and a small group of carefully selected courtiers. For things that matter to prime ministers and their courts, the decision-making process shifts from formal to informal, involving only a handful of actors. For things that matter less to them, the decision-making process is horizontal, cumbersome, and consultative, and involves a multitude of actors from different government departments and agencies as well as a variety of individuals operating outside government.
Court governments undermine both the traditionally bureaucratic model and basic principles that have guided the development of our Westminster-Whitehall parliamentary system. Nonetheless, Canada and the United Kingdom still cling to accountability requirements better suited to the past and the traditional bureaucratic model. Savoie concludes with a call for new accountability requirements that correspond with court government as well as the new relationships between politicians and civil servants, and civil servants and citizens.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A System of Government Fast Losing Its Sense of Democracy!,
By Ian Gordon Malcomson (Victoria, BC) - See all my reviews (HALL OF FAME) (TOP 10 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Court Government and the Collapse of Accountability in Canada and the United Kingdom (Hardcover)
If you have a growing sense that senior government in this country is becoming autocratic, aloof, and unaccountable, this book is for you. Savoie does a masterful job in picking apart and analyzing the current composition and dynamics of two leading examples of the Wesminster Model of parliamentary democracy: Canada and Britain. The book first examines how both nations have reached their present state by what can be called political creep or gradualism. Both the unwritten and written forms of these countrys' constitutions never clearly spell out the limitations of power for such institutions and functions as cabinet, the prime minister, and parliament. It is just assumed that these particular loci of authority within the scheme of government evolve within the general prescriptive guidelines of responsibility, representation, and transparency. As 20th society became more complex in its social, economic and political relationhips, the principles of governance gradually got lost in the process. The bond between executive and legislative branches, where government reported to parliament as its democratic duty, continues to change in complexion. Not all key political decisions made in cabinet or its inner sanctum ever made it to the floor of the House of Commons for a vote, simply because they were deemed to be matters of national security and must remain the property of only a few rather than the domain of the many. The next part that Savoie looks at involves the reasons behind this style of government by fiat or order-in-council. Much of the change in how we are governed today is due in large part to the growing public negativity towards the ability of government to make sound and effective decisions for the good of all. This perception manifests itself in various 'voices' throughout society, baying for simple answers to what government might claim are difficult issues. With so much dissonance out there, as reflected in the body of parliament, government often resorts to making decisions that reflect their narrow perspective or that of special interest groups. One of the forces that continues to try and make government accountable on matters such as public spending is the media. It is this fraternity and some MPs that have largely assumed the role of chasing those in high office to implement some badly-needed ethical standards in order to be more responsible to the public at large. The book contains a fair collection of anecdotes and charts by which the reader can confirm the nuts and bolts of Savoie's thesis. According to him, we are in a dangerous political strait, where people have personally become disconnected from government to the point of relying strictly on the news for their information. Definitely a sad state of affairs.
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