01758pab a2200181 454500 180718b1996 xxu||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d Anderson, George The new focus on the policy capacity of the federal government 1996 469-88 Winter Senior officials in the federal public service are giving new attention to the need to strengthen policy capacity and this article draws heavily on the work of a task force of federal officials. Four themes run through the article: there is a strong, but neglected, managerial dimension to policy work; the greatest weakness in the current system is dealing with longer-term and strategic issues, especially of a horizontal nature; policy managers need to pay more attention to how to work with and support of the external policy community; leadership at the most senior levels of the public service is critical for strengthening policy capacity. Policy management within departments is examined in terms of seven broad policy functions and organizational arrangements. Policy management across government is examined in terms of the role of central agencies and the special problems of horizontal coordination, including the conditions promoting coordination and the machinery of interdepartmental relations. The importance of the personnel dimension of policy work is underlined, with consideration of policy generalists, policy managers and policy specialists. Finally, relations with the policy research community and the provinces are examined. - Reproduced Civil service - Canada Public administration - Canada Public administration Canadian Public Administration 35480 35480 35480 0 0 0 0 IIPA IIPA 2018-07-19 Volume no: 39, Issue no: 4 AR35736 2018-07-19 2018-07-19 AR