Article2002

The Changing Role of Consultants in Canadian Policy Analysis

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Public Policy and Administration Research Public Administration and Governance Public Administration in Developing Nations

Abstract

Abstract This article explores the Canadian government's trend toward outsourcing policy analytical and advisory services over the 1980s and 1990s. We test three (not mutually exclusive) hypotheses about why such policy consulting has increased. A combination of New Public Management values and knowledge expansion are shown to drive this trend. In the late 1990s, the federal government significantly decreased the number of in-house operational and administrative support workers. These reductions enabled the government to contract out more while a managerial and administrative cadre remained in place to manage the contracts. The main implication is that contracting out analytical and advisory services does not necessarily lower costs, but does aid government in pursuing other objectives. The growth in Canadian policy consulting corresponded with a stabilization of public service personnel expenditures, a focus on leaner government, and an ability to rely on outside specialists for objective, expert advice.

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References

1987The Economic Institutions of Capitalism 1992Introduction: epistemic communities and international policy coordination 1995Reinventing Government: How the Entrepreneurial Spirit is Transforming the Public Sector 1996The New Governance: Governing without Government 1994THE HOLLOWING OUT OF THE STATE: THE CHANGING NATURE OF THE PUBLIC SERVICE IN BRITAIN 1999Running Government Like a Business 2000Governing from the centre: the concentration of power in Canadian politics 2001The ingenuity gap

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2012Public Managers in the Policy Process: More Evidence on the Missing Variable?2014The distribution of analytical techniques in policy advisory systems: Policy formulation and the tools of policy appraisal 2013Searching for Substance: Externalization, Politicization and the Work of Canadian Policy Consultants 2006-2013 2018Shifting Agendas: Private Consultants and Public Planning Policy 2014Duplicative or Complementary? The Relationship between Policy Consulting and Internal Policy Analysis in Canadian Government

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