Papers
Recension - Politiques publiques : le Québec comparé, sous la dir. de Jean Crête (PUL)
Publiée dans Politique et Sociétés, vol. 28, n. 2, 2009
Recension du récent ouvrage Politiques publiques : le Québec comparé, sous la dir. de Jean Crête aux Presses de l'Université Laval.
- 10 Views
-
Like (1)
Alberta Climate-Change Policy in the Canada-Us Context
Presented at APSA 2009, Toronto
Among state and provincial climate-change policies in Canada and the United States, Alberta is a puzzling case. From 1992 to 2002, as it worked within the Canadian federal-provincial climate-change policy system, Alberta consistently advocated a voluntary approach. However, its policy changed in 2002, the same year Canada ratified the Kyoto Protocol over the objections of Alberta and other provinces. In October 2002, Alberta published a climate change plan which announced the intention of the province to regulate greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). In 2003, the Climate Change Emissions Management Act was adopted. Provincial regulations regarding intensity of GHG emissions from large firms became effective July 1, 2007. How can we explain this dramatic change in Alberta policy, in contrast to other Canadian provinces and US states? While a number of US states have enacted climate-change legislation, those actions, unlike Alberta, have generally been consistent with their previous positions on the issue. Within Canada, prior to 2008 when British Columbia announced plans to legislate, Alberta was the only province to introduce climate-change legislation. Why did one of the most carbon-intensive sub-national jurisdictions in North America not remain committed to a purely voluntary approach? The proposed paper studies this contrast between Alberta policy and that in all other sub-national jurisdictions in the two countries. The purpose is to identify the most important factors explaining Alberta’s unique policy, and thereby cast light on the larger subject of climate-change instrument choice.
Understanding the selection of policy instruments in Canadian climate-change policy
co-authored with Douglas Macdonald, presented to CPSA annual meeting, Ottawa, 2009
Climate change policy in Canada is an important subject of concerns and debates at the public and academic levels. Consequently, the absence of extensive study of provincial climate change policy might come as a surprise. To be sure, some aspects of Canadian climate change policy have been extensively studied by scholars. The process of Canada’s Kyoto Protocol ratification is certainly one of those topics
(Bernstein, 2002; Harrison, 2007). Studies have also been published on national climate change policy-making (Simpson, Jaccard, and Rivers, 2007; Paehlke, 2008) programs, and intergovernmental negotiations (Macdonald, Houle, and Patterson, forthcoming; Winfield and Macdonald, 2007; Bramley and Hornung, 2000; Bramley, 2002), and the role of different policy actors (Macdonald, Brieger, and Fleck, 2001; Macdonald, 2007). However, studies on Canadian provinces seem to be still lagging despite some recent related contributions (Macdonald, VanNijnatten, and Bjorn, 2004; Houle 2007; Winfield et al., 2008). In this paper, we study differences in instrument choices in climate change policy among Canadian provinces and propose a first explanation. In order to do so, we used the theoretical framework proposed by Rabe (2004), which insists on the framing of the issue of climate change, by policy-makers and policy entrepreneurs, as the main explanation for instruments selection in climate change policy in sub-federal jurisdiction. Although Rabe (2004) develops is typology to explain variation in instruments choice between American States, we argue that it can be applied to Canadian provinces and propose a first operationalization of this theory in the context of Canadian provinces. In the first section of this paper, we stated our research questions and the hypotheses that we proposed to test. In the second section, we define more precisely the content of climate change policies and in particular the policy instruments that are selected to achieve their objectives. The fourth section addresses the framing of the issue of climate change and presents our observation in the case of Canadian
provinces. In the final section we discuss the impact of the framing observed in each on the selected policy instruments and assess the overall utility of our operationalization of Rabe (2004) theoretical model for the study of provincial climate change policy.
- 11 Views
-
Like
Trente ans d'interventions du ministère de l'Environnement du Québec. Un premier inventaire
En collaboration avec Carole Beaudoin et Jean Mercier
Résumé - Ce texte décrit l'évolution des interventions du ministère de l'Environnement du Québec entre 1973 et 2003 à l'aide des informations recueillies dans la base de données IGE , et tente de dégager les principales tendances quant à l'utilisation, par le ministère de l'Environnement du Québec, des instruments réglementaires, économiques, volontaires et directs pour la protection de l'air, de l'eau et du sol. L'analyse des données démontre, dans un premier temps, que les interventions augmentent de 1983 à 1998. Ces interventions s'appuient plus fréquemment sur des instruments réglementaires pour la protection de l'eau, sur des instruments volontaires pour la protection de l'air et sur des instruments économiques pour la protection du sol, particulièrement dans la gestion des déchets solides. Ces constats sont interprétés sous l'angle de la théorie de la « nouvelle gouvernance » telle qu'elle se présente en analyse des politiques publiques.
From an Agenda to the Other: Environmental Issues Dynamics in Quebec
draft only (cpsa 2007)
The salience of environmental issues has continuously and constantly increased in western democracies from the 1970s onward. Whether one focuses on the media, public opinion, advocacy groups or decision-makers, environmental studies are a blooming field for policy analysts.
Many political scientists have attempted to explain the dynamics of influence among the media, policy and public agendas with regard to environmental issues. While we acknowledge seminal works by Michael Howlett and Stuart Soroka in Canada, we contend that a specific focus on the agenda-setting stage with regard to environmental issues is still lacking.
Compared to previous studies dealing with this topic, we locate our field of inquiry at the provincial level, we use a fifteen-year time-span and we break down environment as an issue into various sub-problems (for instance: climate change, ozone-depletion substances, waste management, acid rain, and so on).
Since we primarily aim at testing the media-driven hypothesis drawn from the literature, we analyze environmental policy in Quebec since the 1990s. Therefore, we rely on a computer-assisted frequencies analysis of newspaper articles (editorials and news stories) and proceedings of environment-related committees of the National Assembly of Québec. Time series are then constructed and analyzed. This suggests causal patterns that account for the dynamics of influence among the agendas. We discuss our results in the concluding section.
- 38 Views
-
Like
Improving the Study of Environment Policy Instrument Choices: An Integrative Model
Working paper (unpublished draft - do not cite without permission)
Science, as a social enterprise, can be described as fulfilling three basic functions: descriptive, explanative, and normative. The first two dimensions are probably the most scientific, the ones that have inspired the works of Thomas Kuhn or Karl Popper. The third dimension the normative function—or establishing norms about what should be—can be seen as a more practical necessity. Scientifics are daily compelled (by journalists or their own beliefs) to give their opinion on important societal matters. Environmental policy gives many examples of this. Scientists do not hesitate to propose the adoption of policy instruments and to criticise existing policies.
Of course, trying to bring to the attention of the general public and elected officials concerns about particular problems, even new problems, is a very legitimate and useful enterprise. However, one could ask if in the absence of a comprehensive description and a sound understanding of the past policy choices, their achievements, and their failures we have the adequate knowledge to build a normative analysis on what should be done or to develop a critical analysis of the policy process and instruments choices made.
Listening to experts gives sometimes the impression that there is a double standard. We have to be very careful when we address the questions of climate change science, pollutants dispersion, ecosystems, human health, etc. (or subjects studied by the natural sciences) and discuss only proved facts and carefully designed falsifiable theories. However, when it comes to public policy (or subjects studied by the social sciences) some scientists dismiss actual policies without much information about them, proposing “innovative” instruments, and comparing textbook policy instruments (developed by hypothetical-deductive thinking) with actual implemented instruments.
There is no reason to suppose that the achievement of scientific methods in social sciences should be lesser than the achievement in non-experimental natural sciences. Both domains are confronted by complexities and phenomenon that cannot be reproduced in an experimental setting. If one is optimistic about the success of the scientific enterprise to understand the dynamic of climate change or air and water pollution one should be equally optimistic about the success of the same enterprise to address the questions of environmental policy and instruments choices. Consequently, we insist in this paper on the explanative function as an important step toward a normative and critical perspective on the environmental policy instrument choices. The underlying idea is that without an adequate description of the selected instruments and an explanation of the observed choices, formulation of advice is somewhat hazardous.
The first part of this paper addresses the general study of public policy in order to discuss the importance to develop specific subfields. Then, we review the major contributions of this literature in order to situate the study of policy instruments. Also, we present some issues addressed by the literature in public administration/management and assess their important for the debates in public policy and, more precisely on policy instrument selection. In the second part of the paper, we briefly summarize the history and the principal explanative theories proposed in the literature on policy instruments. Then, we turn to the question of the choice of environmental policy instruments. We argue that a contextual explanation, integrating institutional and ideational explanations and paying attention to the characteristics of particular environmental problems and national and sub-national entities, might improve our understanding of environmental policy instrument choices. Finally, we present an integrative framework in order to reconstruct the meta-narratives of policy instrument choices.
Analyse critique d’une évaluation du programme ontarien Drive Clean
Premier brouillon / draft only
Contrairement à une impression courante, la pollution atmosphérique demeure un problème important au Canada. C’est pourquoi les gouvernements tentent de trouver des moyens pour diminuer la quantité de polluants qui se diffusent dans l’air. Après avoir obtenu certains succès dans le domaine de la production énergétique et de l’industrie, les administrations publiques se tournent de plus en plus vers le secteur du transport.
Dans le cadre de ce travail, nous nous proposons d’étudier une récente évaluation du programme ontarien Drive Clean. Il s’agit d’un programme d’inspection et de maintenance (I/M) obligatoire des véhicules routiers instauré par le gouvernement de l'Ontario en 1999.
Dans un premier temps, nous définirons la politique de lutte contre la pollution atmosphérique liée au secteur du transport dans laquelle s’intègre, à notre avis, le programme Drive Clean. Nous présenterons plus en détails le programme à la section II pour ensuite aborder l’évaluation, à la section III. Finalement, nous terminerons notre travail par une analyse critique de l’évaluation du programme.
- 6 Views
-
Like (1)
Pollutions atmosphériques et changements climatiques. Bilan des instruments de politiques publiques employés et des problèmes identifiés par le ministère de l’Environnement du Québec de 1973 à 2003
Présenté au congrès 2006 du Centre d'analyse des politiques publiques à l'Université Laval
Les problèmes reliés aux pollutions atmosphériques ainsi qu’aux changements climatiques pourraient bien devenir les principaux enjeux environnementaux qui interpellent nos gouvernements. Cependant, peu d’études empiriques portant sur le choix des instruments dans ce domaine ont été réalisées. Nous avons donc mis sur pied une base de données relatant les interventions publiques visant, notamment, ces problématiques. Après un bref exposé de la méthodologie et des outils que nous avons employés, nous dresserons un bilan des interventions mises en œuvre par le ministère de l’Environnement du Québec, de 1973 jusqu’à la période actuelle, en matière de pollutions atmosphériques et de changements climatiques. Par la suite, les interventions seront regroupées selon les différents types d’instruments qu’elles utilisent (économique, volontaire ou réglementaire). Leur évolution sera tracée en général ainsi que pour des problématiques particulières. Nous évoquerons également l’apparition des problèmes dans l’agenda gouvernemental. Finalement, nous présenterons différentes possibilités d’analyses statistiques et nous discuterons les pistes de développements futurs que laissent entrevoir nos récentes recherches.
- 3 Views
-
Like
Détection, réglementation et volontarisme. Étude du choix des instruments de politiques publiques dans les domains des changements climatiques et de la pollution atmosphérique au Québec
Communication présentée au deuxième Congrès international des associations francophones de science politique à l’atelier 12-B « Les instruments de l'action publique : histoires et effets », 2007
Les polluants atmosphériques et les changements climatiques semblent être parmi les principaux enjeux environnementaux qui interpellent nos gouvernements. Cependant, peu d’études empiriques portant sur le choix des instruments dans ce domaine ont été réalisées. Après un exposé de la méthodologie que nous avons employés, nous dresserons le bilan des interventions du ministère de l’Environnement du Québec, de l’apparition de ces enjeux jusqu’en 2005. Les instruments utilisés lors de ces interventions seront regroupés selon deux typologies inspirées des travaux de Christopher Hood et de Evert Vedung. La première est basée sur leur fonction (instruments de détection ou effectifs) et la seconde, sur le système d’incitatifs qu’ils créent (instruments économiques, volontaires ou réglementaires). Nous constaterons que le Ministère a d’abord acquis des connaissances par le choix et l’application d’instruments de détection. Par la suite, il a adopté une réglementation, et finalement, il eût recours à de nouveaux types d’instruments de politiques publiques (ententes volontaires et instruments de marché). Nous testerons quelques modèles proposés afin d’expliquer cette évolution, notamment l’approche des réseaux de politiques publiques, telle qu’elle a été opérationnalisée par Micheal Howlett et Douglas Macdonald. Ces auteurs insistèrent sur les caractéristiques propres aux réseaux et la répartition du pouvoir entre les acteurs. Nous nous interrogerons également sur la pertinence d’autres explications proposées telle que l’approche contingente.
- 1 View
-
Like
Food versus Fuel: Transnationalization and the Biofuels Debate in North America and Europe
Co-authored with Pr. Grace Skogstad and Charles Belanger, presented to the annual meeting of CPSA held in Ottawa in 2009.
This paper has two objectives. The first is to document the existence of a transnational policy community around biofuels; the second is to probe its impacts on domestic policy making and the degree to which we can talk about transnationalization of biofuels policy. The paper begins, in Part I, with a discussion of theorizing around the transnationalization of policy-making, and their constitutive membership of international organizations and communities and networks of non-state actors. Part II examines the policy ideas/discourses that underlie biofuels policies in the
United States, the EU and Canada. This discussion reveals considerable similarity across the three polities in ideas about the goals of biofuels policy as well as ideas about the appropriate means/instruments to promote biofuel production and consumption. Part III examines the case for
the transnationalization of biofuels policy. It documents the discourses and activities of international institutions, non-governmental organizations, and networks of state and/or non-state actors that comprise the transnational biofuels policy community and who are seeking to have an
impact on domestic biofuels policies. Part IV examines whether the policy ideas of the transnational policy community have filtered into and shaped domestic policy developments with respect to biofuels in the United States, the EU and Canada. Part V concludes.
Add Comment