{"id":1867,"date":"2020-02-14T13:59:22","date_gmt":"2020-02-14T18:59:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/rgi\/?p=1867"},"modified":"2026-03-16T12:42:55","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T16:42:55","slug":"how-i-spent-last-summer-mike-beale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/rgi\/2020\/how-i-spent-last-summer-mike-beale\/","title":{"rendered":"How I Spent Last Summer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n How I Spent Last Summer\n <\/h1>\n \n \n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

By Mike Beale<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last summer I had the occasion to immerse myself in the world of public policy as seen through an academic lens. I had agreed to participate as a panelist at an academic conference, and review three textbooks from my practitioner\u2019s perspective. I must admit, I didn\u2019t fully appreciate at the time that reviewing three textbooks meant reading three textbooks[1]<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I got to learn a bit about how political scientists think and write about public policy. There was a language barrier \u2013 I discovered my 36-year career working on policy in the federal government was not a great help in understanding academic textbooks! But once some basic vocabulary had been acquired, it became a rewarding journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, I didn\u2019t agree with everything I read. A pretty basic starting point is what is meant by public policy. The generally accepted definition appears to be \u201cwhatever government chooses to do or not to do<\/a>.\u201d To me, as a former practitioner, this confuses decisions with policy: governments make decisions all the time, but it is only when they are guided by a framework that one can say a policy exists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does Canada have a climate change policy? I would say yes; decisions are made within the context of the Paris Agreement, the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change, etc. Does Canada have an energy policy? I would say no. Does it matter? Well, it depends on whether you think government decisions on energy should be made on a case-by-case basis or should reflect a preexisting and hopefully coherent framework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, I do like the implication from the academic definition that non-decisions sometimes matter as much as decisions \u2013 certainly the history of environmental policy is littered with government non-decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Otherwise, there was a lot in the literature that resonated positively with this practitioner. I liked the notion of \u201cbounded rationality<\/a>\u201d \u2013 policymakers making decisions based on cognitive and organizational shortcuts \u2013 as a more realistic alternative to the ideal of \u201ccomprehensive rationality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I learned about \u201cpolicy monopolies<\/a>,\u201d or \u201cthe ability of certain groups to maintain a dominant image of the policy problem<\/a>\u201d \u2013 the dominant place of carbon pricing in Canada\u2019s policy debate on climate change comes to mind. For some reason, the notion of \u201csolutions chasing problems<\/a>\u201d also brought carbon pricing to mind. And the description of the policy process as the \u201ccontinuing collective management of the problematic<\/a>\u201d seems generally apt, though perhaps a bit generous when it comes to climate change (is the problem actually being managed, and is the management continuous?).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in sum, I learned to appreciate the contributions of political science to policy thinking.  Not a bad way to spend a summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[1]<\/a> Cairney, Understanding Public Policy<\/a>, Macmillan; Colebatch and Hoppe (eds.), Handbook on Policy, Process and Governing<\/a>, Edward Elgar; Weible and Sabatier (eds.), Theories of the Policy Process<\/a>, Westview Press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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