Donald Savoie

Louis J. Robichaud, the first elected Acadian premier of New Brunswick, transformed an inward-looking province with an ingrained aversion to change into a vibrant modern society now home to strong political, administrative, and educational institutions. Donald Savoie draws a portrait of adroit political leadership and of a man who, recognizing his province's need for modernization, rose unwaveringly to the demands of office and ushered in profound and enduring change for Acadians and for all New Brunswickers. In a timely biography informed by a long friendship between fellow Acadians, Savoie contrasts the challenges of governing New Brunswick in the 1960s with those faced by governments and political leaders today to better understand the magnitude of Robichaud's accomplishments over a ten-year span. Leading a province with a long history of intolerance towards minority groups, notably Acadians, Robichaud's Liberal government confronted the dominant Anglo-Protestant political class and introduced reforms that included the Official Languages Act, broader access to education for francophones, the establishment of the Université de Moncton, and initiatives in regional and natural resource development, health care, and equitable public services across the province's disparately funded urban and rural counties. Seismic changes at the time, these reforms are now woven into the social fabric of New Brunswick. Informative and lively, Louis J. Robichaud argues convincingly that while the premier's achievements can be viewed as specific to his era, his political fortitude and vision are a model for politicians, legislators, and civil servants today.

Louis J. Robichaud, le premier Acadien élu premier ministre du Nouveau-Brunswick, a transformé sa province repliée sur elle-même et réfractaire au changement, en une société moderne et dynamique maintenant dotée de solides institutions politiques et administratives et d'établissements d'enseignement. Donald J. Savoie trace le portrait d'un leadership politique adroit et d'un homme qui, reconnaissant la nécessité de moderniser la province, s'est consacré sans relâche à l'exercice de sa charge et a insufflé un changement profond et durable dans la communauté acadienne et toute la population du Nouveau-Brunswick. Éclairée par une longue amitié entre confrères acadiens, cette biographie qui tombe à point met en contraste les défis de diriger le Nouveau-Brunswick dans les années 1960 et ceux auxquels les gouvernements et les dirigeants politiques font face aujourd'hui, afin de bien saisir toute la magnitude de ce que Robichaud a accompli en une décennie. Dirigeant une province marquée par une longue histoire d'intolérance envers les groupes minoritaires, notamment les Acadiens, le gouvernement libéral de Robichaud a tenu tête à la classe politique anglo-protestante dominante et adopté des réformes qui comprenaient la Loi sur les langues officielles, un accès élargi à l'éducation pour les Acadiens, la création de l'Université de Moncton et des initiatives liées au développement régional, à l'exploitation des ressources naturelles, aux soins de santé et à l'équité des services publics dans tous les comtés ruraux et urbains de la province, au financement très inégal. Ces réformes, véritables changements sismiques à l'époque, forment maintenant la trame du tissu social du Nouveau-Brunswick. Informative et vivante, cette biographie de Louis J. Robichaud fait valoir avec éloquence que si les réalisations du premier ministre peuvent être considérées comme particulières à son époque, son courage politique et sa vision sont un modèle pour les politiciens, les législateurs et les fonctionnaires actuels.

In this informative critique of contemporary leadership, renowned political scientist Donald Savoie poses and answers the crucial questions: where is power located, and who is in charge? In recent years it has become extremely difficult to pinpoint the location of political and economic power, making it complicated to determine who is to blame for political and economic catastrophes and leading to increased disenchantment with Western politicians and bureaucrats. Power considers how forces such as globalization, the new media, the changing role of the courts in parliamentary democracies, the partisanship of political parties in shaping policy, and collapsing boundaries between governments and within government departments have caused citizens to feel their countries are less democratic. Savoie argues that power is leaving institutions and organizations and going to powerful individuals in both the public and private sectors, who often push aside formal processes in order to drive change.

In this informative critique of contemporary leadership, renowned political scientist Donald Savoie poses and answers the crucial questions: where is power located, and who is in charge? In recent years it has become extremely difficult to pinpoint the location of political and economic power, making it complicated to determine who is to blame for political and economic catastrophes and leading to increased disenchantment with Western politicians and bureaucrats. Power considers how forces such as globalization, the new media, the changing role of the courts in parliamentary democracies, the partisanship of political parties in shaping policy, and collapsing boundaries between governments and within government departments have caused citizens to feel their countries are less democratic. Savoie argues that power is leaving institutions and organizations and going to powerful individuals in both the public and private sectors, who often push aside formal processes in order to drive change.

How the efforts of Pierre E. Trudeau and Louis J. Robichaud led to fundamental change for both Canada and New Brunswick

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.

During his successful campaign to become Conservative Party leader in the spring of 2004, Stephen Harper said of the Maritime provinces, "We will see the day when the region is not the place where you visit your grandparents, but instead more often than not the place where you visit your grandchildren." In Visiting Grandchildren, esteemed policy analyst and scholar Donald J. Savoie explores how Canadian economic policies have served to exclude the Maritime provinces from the wealth enjoyed in many other parts of the country, especially southern Ontario, and calls for a radical new approach in how Canadian governments determine policies that affect the different regions.Savoie advocates a 'ratchet effect' for national economic policies, whereby regions take turns at high growth, with the slow-growth region of one period becoming the high-growth region of the next, with none moving from slow-growth to decline. He demonstrates how this pattern has been effective in countries undergoing long-term regional convergence and how it would recognize that what is good for the Maritimes is good for Canada no less than what is good for Ontario is good for Canada.Visiting Grandchildren looks to history, accidents of geography, and to the workings of national political and administrative institutions to explain the relative underdevelopment of the Maritime provinces. Savoie argues that the region must strive to redefine its relationship with the national government and with other regions, that it must ask fundamental questions of itself about its own responsibility for its present underdevelopment, develop a cooperative mindset, and embrace the market, if it is to prosper in the twenty-first century. Savoie's work serves as the blueprint for a new way of envisioning the Maritime region.

Canada's machinery of government is out of joint. In Breaking the Bargain, Donald J. Savoie reveals how the traditional deal struck between politicians and career officials that underpins the workings of our national political and administrative process is today being challenged. He argues that the role of bureaucracy within the Canadian political machine has never been properly defined, that the relationship between elected and permanent government officials is increasingly problematic, and that the public service cannot function if it is expected to be both independent of, and subordinate to, elected officials. While the public service attempts to define its own political sphere, the House of Commons is also in flux: the prime minister and his close advisors wield ever more power, and cabinet no longer occupies the policy ground to which it is entitled. Ministers, who have traditionally been able to develop their own roles, have increasingly lost their autonomy. Federal departmental structures are crumbling, giving way to a new model that eschews boundaries in favour of sharing policy and program space with outsiders. The implications of this functional shift are profound, having a deep impact on how public policies are struck, how government operates, and, ultimately, the capacity for accountability.

Canada's machinery of government is out of joint. In Breaking the Bargain, Donald J. Savoie reveals how the traditional deal struck between politicians and career officials that underpins the workings of our national political and administrative process is today being challenged. He argues that the role of bureaucracy within the Canadian political machine has never been properly defined, that the relationship between elected and permanent government officials is increasingly problematic, and that the public service cannot function if it is expected to be both independent of, and subordinate to, elected officials. While the public service attempts to define its own political sphere, the House of Commons is also in flux: the prime minister and his close advisors wield ever more power, and cabinet no longer occupies the policy ground to which it is entitled. Ministers, who have traditionally been able to develop their own roles, have increasingly lost their autonomy. Federal departmental structures are crumbling, giving way to a new model that eschews boundaries in favour of sharing policy and program space with outsiders. The implications of this functional shift are profound, having a deep impact on how public policies are struck, how government operates, and, ultimately, the capacity for accountability.

Redefined during the past thirty years, the centre of government currently extends itself further than ever before. Central governmental agencies are 'where the rubber meets the road', where public service meets politics, and policy becomes reality. So who's driving this car? Agencies such as the Privy Council Office, the Finance Department, and the Treasury Board exert their influence horizontally, deciding how policy is made and how money gets spent According to Donald Savoie, these organizations, instituted to streamline Ottawa's planning processes, instead telescope power to the Prime Minister and weaken the influence of ministers, the traditional line departments, and even parliament, without contributing to more rational and coherent policy-making. This is scholarship at its best: rigorous and riveting. The government operates as a combination of known procedures and the more elusive subtleties of human relationships and unspoken codes of behaviour. Donald Savoie's long-time involvement in government affairs allows him to read through the surface of the results of his extensive research-which included several interviews with elites-in order to expose all the levels of power at play. Indispensable reading for students of politics, public policy, and public administration, Ottawa watchers, journalists, lobbyists, and civil servants who want to know what is really going on.