Congress Book Launch - A Subtle Balance, Ottawa

Odell House, University of Ottawa, 180 Waller Street, Ottawa, ON K1N 9B9
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Please join Edward Parson and McGill-Queen's University Press for the launch of the new book

A SUBTLE BALANCE: 
Expertise, Evidence, and Democracy in Public Policy and Governance, 1970-2010

A critical review of major trends and enduring tensions in Canadian public policy and governance since 1970.

The launch will include a panel discussion (2:30-3:30 PM) featuring Her Honour, Elizabeth Dowdeswell, and Professors Mel Cappe, Michael Wolfson, Ted Parson, and Rob Dobell, followed by a reception.

To RSVP, please email jodie@uvic.ca

A Subtle Balance critically reflects on major trends and enduring challenges over the last four decades of public policy and governance. During this time, a tension has existed between two aims for public decisions: that they be based on the best available evidence and analysis, and that they be fully democratic. 

This period has seen a continuing drive for more direct citizen engagement in decision-making and governments trying to address major policy issues through novel consultative and collaborative processes. In essays that offer detailed and novel insights into the recent history of specific issues in social policy, environmental policy, and processes of policy advice and decision-making, contributors elaborate on how these trends have played out in diverse areas of practice, what their consequences have been, and how specific institutional reforms could reset the requisite balance between expertise, evidence, and democracy in Canadian public policy.

Inspired by the wide-ranging contributions to scholarship and practice of A.R. (Rod) Dobell, A Subtle Balance draws on the influences of distinguished scholars and sophisticated practitioners of public policy to assess recent changes in governance.