A Subtle Balance: Expertise, Evidence, and Democracy in Public Policy Governance 1970-2010

ISBN 10: 0773545301 / ISBN 13: 9780773545304

Published by McGill-Queen's University Press, 2015

About this Item

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Seller Inventory # 374909648

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A Subtle Balance: Expertise, Evidence, and Democracy in Public Policy Governance 1970-2010
• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
• Publication Date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0773545301
• ISBN 13: 9780773545304
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

A Subtle Balance critically reflects on major trends and enduring challenges over the last four decades of public policy and governance. During this time, a tension has existed between two aims for public decisions: that they be based on the best available evidence and analysis, and that they be fully democratic.

This period has seen a continuing drive for more direct citizen engagement in decision-making and governments trying to address major policy issues through novel consultative and collaborative processes. In essays that offer detailed and novel insights into the recent history of specific issues in social policy, environmental policy, and processes of policy advice and decision-making, contributors elaborate on how these trends have played out in diverse areas of practice, what their consequences have been, and how specific institutional reforms could reset the requisite balance between expertise, evidence, and democracy in Canadian public policy.

Inspired by the wide-ranging contributions to scholarship and practice of A.R. (Rod) Dobell, A Subtle Balance draws on the influences of distinguished scholars and sophisticated practitioners of public policy to assess recent changes in governance.

Contributors include Martin Bunton, Barry Carin, Ian Clark, Rachel Culley, Rod Dobell, Lia Ernst, Jill Horwitz, John Langford, Justin Longo, Michael Prince, Harry Swain, Charles Ungerleider, Josee van Eijndhoven, Michael Wolfson, and David Zussman.

About the Author

Edward A. Parson is Dan and Rae Emmett Professor of Environmental Law at the University of California, Los Angeles.