The Road to Innovation, Convergence or Inertia: Devolution in Housing Policy in Canada

The focus of this paper is on housing policy in Canada since 1945 with a particular emphasis on the period since 1986 when the federal government began its withdrawal from housing policy. The paper applies existing theories of policy change, namely innovation, convergence, policy learning, and policy inheritance to the five phases of housing policy that have occurred in postwar Canada. It also incorporates two surveys of provincial housing policy conducted by the authors in 1994 and 1997 to assess the changes that have occurred since the federal government withdrawal in 1996. The analysis suggests that within a broader model of the policy process which deals with both periods of change and non-change, the theories of change can explain previous periods of activism, but the model can also explain the current period which can best be described by inertia. This inertia is understandable because the preceding conditions for change which existed in the earlier phases of housing policy are largely absent today.

State and ethnicity in Botswana and Mauritius: A democratic route to development?

Botswana and Mauritius stand virtually alone among developing countries in having achieved rates of economic development rivalling those of the East Asian NICs, while maintaining democratic institutions. We compare their experiences with the goal of identifying aspects of a democratic route to development that avoids the inherent authoritarianism of the East Asian model. Our study is based upon Hyden's [1992] governance model, but we suggest two important modifications to that model. A strong state seems essential to achieving economic development, and we identify means of reducing the tendency for such states to lose accountability. Secondly, the experience of these two countries suggests ways in which the ethnic and tribal divisions that are so common in LDCs can be recognised by the state so that social pluralism makes a positive contribution to effective and democratic governance.