000 01457pab a2200169 454500
008 180718b2003 xxu||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
100 _aGow, J.I.
245 _aWhere are we coming from? Are there any useful lessons from our administrative history?
260 _c2003
300 _ap.178-201.
362 _aSummer
520 _aThis article challenges the notion that contemporary conditions are so new that there are no useful lessons to be learned from administrative history. Beginning with the observation that many recent innovations in public organizations were foreshadowed under the United Canadas, 1841-1867, it asks why they were gradually abandoned over the first century of Confederation, only to be revived recently. For reasons of efficiency and democratic governance, the department became the keystone organization of Canadian public administration, and bureaucracy the key decision-making technology. Changes in economic conditions, technology, elite ideology and political culture led to the introduction of public management as an alternative to bureaucracy. Neither form has met all the needs of politicians, public servants and citizens. One lesson of the past is that other values, like representativeness, will assert themselves with the result that the system will continue to evolve. - Reproduced.
650 _aPublic administration
700 _aHodgetts, J.E.
773 _aCanadian Public Administration
909 _a59027
999 _c59027
_d59027