Les langues de la campagne électorale provinciale de 2022 au Québec

Political parties in Quebec face dilemmas when it comes to language and translation policy: French is the province’s only official language and the mother tongue of the vast majority of the population. However, a significant percentage of the population, between 10 per cent and 15 per cent depending on the criteria, is considered English-speaking. In this context, and because every vote matters, parties translate some material into English, but what they translate and to what extent varies from one party to another. This contribution examines the languages of seven communication tools used by Quebec political parties during the 2022 provincial election, that is, their name, logo, slogan, website, program, social media accounts and election signs. The results show that there is a link between language and translation practices, on the one hand, and party ideology, on the other.Les partis politiques québécois font face à un dilemme au moment d’adopter une politique linguistique et de traduction. Bien que le français soit la seule langue officielle du Québec et la langue maternelle de la grande majorité de la population, un pourcentage relativement important de la population est de langue anglaise, soit de 10 % à 15 % selon le critère choisi. Dans ce contexte, et parce que chaque vote compte, les partis politiques traduisent du matériel en anglais, mais ce qu’ils traduisent et à quel point ils traduisent varie d’un parti à l’autre. Le présent article pose un regard sur sept outils de communication utilisés par les partis politiques au cours de la campagne électorale provinciale de 2022 : nom du parti, logo, slogan, site web, programme, réseaux sociaux et affiches électorales. Les résultats font état d’un lien entre les pratiques linguistiques et de traduction, et l’idéologie des partis politiques

Doug Ford, neoliberal parliamentarism and oscillating majoritarianism: The use of constitutional tools to centralize power and undercut democratic decision-making processes

Since becoming Premier of Ontario in 2018, Doug Ford has utilized the Westminster Parliamentary system and invocations of particular types of majoritarian politics to attempt to shield his government from accountability and critique. This article explores the use of majoritarian discourse and the specific legislative tools that the Ford government has used to further the neoliberalization of the Ontario state apparatus. This is represented by, but not limited to, The Better Local Democracy Act (2018) and the use of creatures of the province to impose a total restructuring of the City of Toronto’s democratic-decision making institutions and processes; the Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act (2022), which set an unparalleled centralization of power in municipal mayor’s offices in Toronto and Ottawa; and his unprecedented usage of the Notwithstanding Clause on two occasions, but particularly the Keeping Students in Class Act (2022) which overrode constitutionally protected collective bargaining and strike rights for CUPE education workers in Ontario. Utilizing a combination of what Ian Bruff (2014) describes as ‘authoritarian neoliberalism’ and Thomas McDowell (2019; 2021) refers to as “neoliberal parliamentarism,” this article argues that while seemingly very different cases that these pieces of legislation and the discourses to justify them are indicative of a turn towards an oscillating majoritarian and inverted majoritarian form of neoliberalization rooted in the idea of a specific form of executive parliamentary supremacy at multiple territorial levels of Canadian federalism and governance.  Depuis qu’il est devenu premier ministre de l’Ontario en 2018, Doug Ford a utilisé le système parlementaire de Westminster et des invocations de types particuliers de politiques majoritaires pour protéger son gouvernement de la responsabilité et de la critique. Cet article explore l’utilisation du discours majoritaire et les outils législatifs que Ford a utilisés pour favoriser la néolibéralisation de l’appareil d’État de l’Ontario. Cela est représenté par, mais sans s’y limiter, la Loi sur l’amélioration de la démocratie locale (2018) ; la Loi sur les maires forts et la construction de logements (2022) ; et son utilisation sans précédent de la clause dérogatoire à deux reprises, mais en particulier la Loi sur le maintien des élèves en classe (2022). En utilisant la théorie du parlementarisme néolibéral de Thomas McDowell (2019 ; 2021), cet article soutient que, bien qu’apparemment très différents, ces textes de loi et les discours qui les justifient sont révélateurs d’un virage vers une forme oscillante de majorité et de suprématie parlementaire exécutive spécifique à plusieurs niveaux territoriaux du fédéralisme et de la gouvernance canadiens

Testing the Laurentian hypothesis: regionalism and federal lobbying access

The literature on regional representation within the federal policy process has had limited engagement with interest group composition. While some have referenced an Ottawa ‘bubble,’ there has been no empirical demonstration. This paper responds to this gap in assessing how regional location affects organizational access to the federal government. Leveraging existing datasets through the Commissioner of Lobbying and some additional data collection, we test hypotheses relating to central Canadian lobbying. Our analysis makes three core contributions. First, we find that lobbying from central Canada has a statistically and substantively significant increase in expected average meeting counts per month. The Great Lakes-Laurentian region in particular sees higher access. Second, using the ‘five region-Canada’ model, we find that Ontario organizations are more active than most regions except the Prairies. Contrary to popular discourse, we find little evidence that Prairies organizations receive less access on average. Third, our findings are consistent when fixating on central agencies.La littérature sur la représentation régionale dans les processus des politiques fédérales a peu porté sur la composition des groupes d'intérêt. Tandis que certains ont fait référence à une « bulle » d'Ottawa, il n'y a pas eu de démonstration empirique. Cet article répond à cette lacune en évaluant comment l'emplacement régional affecte l'accès des organisations au gouvernement fédéral. En tirant parti des ensembles de données existant par le Commissariat au lobbying et de certaines données supplémentaires, nous évaluons des hypothèses concernant le lobbying dans le centre du Canada. Notre analyse apporte trois contributions essentielles. Premièrement, nous constatons que le lobbying émanant du centre du Canada entraîne une augmentation statistiquement et substantiellement significative du nombre moyen attendu de réunions par mois. La région des Grands Lacs-laurentides, en particulier, connaît un accès plus élevé. Deuxièmement, en utilisant le modèle des « cinq régions du Canada », nous observons que les organisations de l'Ontario sont plus actives que la plupart des régions, à l'exception des Prairies. Contrairement au discours populaire, nous trouvons peu de preuves que les organisations des Prairies reçoivent moins d'accès en moyenne. Troisièmement, nos résultats sont constants lorsqu'on se concentre sur les organismes centraux

The 2021 Yukon election: vision free, with big spending commitments

The 2021 Yukon election took place in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic; pandemic management, housing, and spending promises all featured prominently in the campaign. The election ended with the Yukon Party and Liberal Party tied with eight seats, and the NDP had three. To stay in power, the Liberals formed a minority government supported by the NDP through a Confidence and Supply Agreement. L’élection de 2021 au Yukon s'est déroulée dans le contexte de la pandémie de COVID-19; gestion de la pandémie, logement et promesses de dépenses figuraient toutes dans la campagne. L'élection s'est terminée avec le Parti du Yukon et le Parti Libéral à égalité avec 8 sièges, et le NPD avec 3. Pour rester au pouvoir, les Libéraux ont formé un gouvernement minoritaire soutenu par le NPD par le biais d'un accord de confiance et de soutien

Calibration and specification in policy practice: Micro-dimensions of policy design

Three aspects of policy success – programme implementation, pol- icy solution feasibility and political legitimacy and support – need to be at the front of mind when policies are formulated. Many uncertainties endemic to policy-making surround these issues and present considerable public management challenges. Many of these problems, however, are linked to the poor conceptualization and understanding of policy content on the part of policy-makers, something for which policy scholars must share some blame. This is especially true with respect to the existing literature on the micro-level aspects of policies; the level at which goals and policy instruments are concretely implemented in the form of specific policy targets and tool calibrations. While these latter subjects have been examined in the past by luminaries such as Eleanor Ostrom, Guy Peters, Peter Hall and Lester Salamon, their insights into this level of policy-making have been glossed over in the mainstream policy sciences and the significance of their work for real-world policy analysis insufficiently appreciated. This article sets out a framework of policy calibrations and specifications that reconciles and incorporates these insights in order to enhance the chances of policy success through improved policy design

Cannabis policy as harm reduction: Polymorphic models of responsible regulation

Cannabis policy is evolving around the world. While cannabis legalization is perhaps inevitable, responsible regulation is not. Canada provides a unique case study. This paper explores five regulatory models that guide contemporary cannabis policy, organized around public safety, public health, medicinal and therapeutic models, commerce, and racial justice. First, we assess each by focusing on fundamental assumptions, operational goals, and practical outcomes. Next, we consider the impacts of each of these models by exploring significant categories of cannabis policy-based harm. Third, we attempt to reconcile tensions between commerce and control, liberty and safety, and justice and fairness. By re-aligning regulatory cannabis models, we focus on access, equity, and tolerance, re-conceiving public safety, and explicitly committing to consent as central to cannabis diversion programs. Finally, in place of singular governance models, we propose several intermediate polymorphic policy reforms to inform this re-alignment.La politique du cannabis évolue dans le monde entier. Bien que la légalisation du cannabis soit peut-être inévitable, une réglementation responsable ne l'est pas. Le Canada fournit une étude de cas unique. Cet article explore cinq modèles réglementaires qui guident la politique contemporaine du cannabis, organisés autour de la sécurité publique, de la santé publique, des modèles médicaux et thérapeutiques, du commerce et de la justice raciale. Tout d'abord, nous évaluons chacun en nous concentrant sur les hypothèses fondamentales, les objectifs opérationnels et les résultats pratiques. Ensuite, nous examinons les impacts de chacun de ces modèles en explorant des catégories significatives de préjudices basés sur la politique du cannabis. Troisièmement, nous tentons de concilier les tensions entre commerce et contrôle, liberté et sécurité et justice et équité. En réalignent les modèles réglementaires du cannabis, nous mettons l'accent sur l'accès, l'équité et la tolérance, en reconsidérant la sécurité publique et en nous engageant explicitement à placer le consentement au cœur des programmes de diversion du cannabis. Enfin, au lieu de modèles de gouvernance singuliers, nous proposons plusieurs réformes politiques polymorphes intermédiaires pour informer ce ré-alignement

Designing policies that could work: understanding the interaction between policy design spaces and organizational responses in public sector

The goal of this paper is to contribute toward bridging the gap between policy design and implementation by focusing on domains, such as education, healthcare and community services, where policy implementation is largely left to the autonomous decision of public service providers, which are strategic actors themselves. More specifically, we suggest that two characteristics of policy design spaces in which policies are designed, i.e., the level of ideational coherence and the prevailing function of the adopted policy instruments, generate systematic patterns of responses in terms of the extent of compliance with policy goals, the presence of strategic gaming and possible defiance. We illustrate our model through a contrastive case study of the introduction of performance-based funding in the higher education sector in four European countries (France, Italy, Norway, and the United Kingdom). Our analysis displays that policy designs chosen by governments to steer public systems have different trade-offs in terms of responses of the public organizations involved that are essential to effectively implement governmental policies. The model we are proposing provides therefore a framework to understand how these interactions unfold in specific contexts, what are their effects on the achievement of policy goals and how policy makers could exploit their degrees of freedom in policy design to reduce unwanted effects

Policy design receptivity and target populations: A social construction framework approach to climate change policy

The public-elite policy feedback mechanism of the Social Construction Framework (SCF) postulates that the public rewards policymakers for the appropriate distribution of benefits and burdens to target populations. In this article we test a key part of this dynamic by examining public receptivity to policy design features as a function of target population choice. We conduct a national survey experiment of approximately 3350 Americans. Our instrument asks respondents to indicate support or opposition to a range of policy tools in a suite of six climate change policies, but varies who would be responsible for options based upon Schneider and Ingram's idealized types. Our research design tests the independent effects of deservingness and power foundational to the construction of target populations in the SCF. We find, in general, deservingness to be a stronger predictor of support for policy tools than notions of power. We also identify situations where deservingness acts independently of power in ways not anticipated by the SCF—notably public favor for burdens on powerful groups. Our findings offer implications for theoretical and empirical development of the SCF regarding the influence of policymakers' perceptions of public acceptance of policy design in crafting public policies

It is about time! Exploring the clashing timeframes of politics and public policy experiments

Although existing studies on experimental policymaking have acknowledged the importance of the political setting in which policy experiments take place, we lack systematic knowledge on how various political dimensions affect experimental policymaking. In this article, we address a specific gap in the existing understanding of the politics of experimentation: how political timeframes influence experimental policymaking. Drawing on theoretical discussions on experimental policymaking, public policy, electoral politics, and mediatization of politics, we outline ex- pectations about how electoral and problem cycles may influence the timing, design, and learning from policy experiments. We argue electoral timeframes are likely to discourage politicians from undertaking large-scale policy experiments and if politicians decide to launch experiments, they prefer shorter designs. The electoral cycle may lead politicians to draw too hasty conclusions or ignore the experiment’s results altogether. We expect problem cycles to shorten politicians’ time horizons further as there is pressure to solve problems quickly. We probe the plausibility of our theoretical expectations using interview data from two different country contexts: Estonia and Finland

Public value and procedural policy instrument specifications in “design for service”

Strokosch and Osborne and others have recently argued the essence of effective service delivery in and by government increas- ingly involves the re-orientation of top-down service delivery toward enhanced co-design and co-creation. This new emphasis on what Strokosch and Osborne term designing and managing “for” services is seen to be increasingly replacing or augmenting an older emphasis on these tasks in the design “of” services. Analyzing and managing service design and delivery in this way, however, requires a steady eye to be maintained on the different ways in which “public value” is generated through each service process and upon the different kinds of policy tools useful in each activity. This paper expands and develops this thinking and the research and practice agenda around this emergent “designing for service” para- digm. It does so by focusing on the nature and types of substan- tive and procedural policy tools used in these efforts and especially upon a shift in emphasis toward the better understanding of the micro-level specifications of the procedural instruments used in management and design “for” services