University of Northern British Columbia: Open Journal Systems
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Designing an effective climate-policy mix: accounting for instrument synergy
Full text linkWe assess evidence from theoretical-modelling, empirical and experimental studieson how interactions between instruments of climate policy affect overall emissionsreduction. Such interactions take the form of negative, zero or positive synergisticeffects. The considered instruments comprise performance and technical standards,carbon pricing, adoption subsidies, innovation support, and information provision.Based on the findings, we formulate climate-policy packages that avoid negativeand employ positive synergies, and compare their strengths and weaknesses onother criteria. We note that the international context of climate policy has beenneglected in assessments of policy mixes, and argue that transparency andharmonization of national policies may be key to a politically feasible path to meetglobal emissio
Procedural tools and pension reform in the long run: the case of Sweden
Full text linkWelfare state reform is understood to be risky, difficult and still ongoing. As such, there is a need for analytic tools that can aid understanding of how governments are able to overcome the various barriers they face in seeking change, and the challenges of managing complex and hybridised welfare arrangements. This article argues that the policy tools literature provides several promising avenues for doing so. Specifically, it suggests that procedural policy tools – increasingly recognised in policy studies – are often critical for mitigating risk of blame, sustaining coalitions and supporting the ongoing adaptation of social policy systems to changing conditions and information. This is especially critical where policy innovations entail new substantive relationships between states, citizens and markets, as initial assumptions about individual and group behaviour are likely to be flawed. Procedural tools can enable learning and recalibration in the pursuit of public legitimacy for changing arrangements. To demonstrate the argument, this article engages closely with a case study of public pension reform in Sweden in the 1990s. The case study finds that, initially, reformers made use of a politically insulated parliamentary working group to design a new system, one which attempted to automate elements of policymaking and transfer risk from the state to the individual. However, this goal has proved more difficult to realise than imagined, and in the longer-term, the government used procedural tools for the purposes of learning and recalibration, and in doing so has gone some
Causal logics and mechanisms in policy design: How and why adopting a mechanistic perspective can improve policy design
Full text linkPolicy design undertakes to develop effective policies and hence must understandwhether and how effective policies can be formulated and implemented. However,very often policy design has failed to focus on the causal chain that represents theactual driver of policy effects and thus misconstrues the potential effectiveness of apolicy design. A mechanistic perspective is extremely helpful for conceptualising andpinpointing such causal chains, as it focuses on the real processes that must be activatedby policy-makers in implementing policy designs. This article identifies the main steps tobe taken when adopting such a mechanistic approach to policy design
Consultation in the Alberta oil sands: Clashing Indigenous and settler world views
No full textIndigenous calls for sovereignty, recognition of ancestral claims, and territorial rights are topics that are becoming increasingly relevant in Canada, particularly as industry continues to put pressure on provincial and federal governments to develop on Indigenous people’s traditional territory. Through the aggressive push for development and extraction of natural resources, two very different ontological perspectives of the land are coming into contact, often with the result that projects are delayed and/or brought to the courts, as well as arguably sabotaging efforts of collaboration and reconciliation in other areas of social and political life (Boyd and Lorefice 2018:573). Indeed, the settler-colonial ontological perspective of the land that believes that “any natural resource not used [is] wasted” (Davis 2018:145) conflicts with many First Nations’ traditional systems of stewardship and sustainability (Turner and Jones 2000). As such, a critical space that is worthy of examination is the consultation process because the duty to consult is legally mandated and is one of the few spaces in which the two “ways of knowing” the land come into contact. Accordingly, the research questions which guided my analysis include an examination of how the different ontological perspectives come into conflict when they make contact within the consultation process and what is required for meaningful consultations to take place that accommodate both ontological perspectives. Finding a way to identify and provide solutions to issues of land is of particular importance to contemporary society, as both Indigenous and settler-colonial people draw important connections between the land and their distinct identity and heritage, and neither are going to cede quietly to the other. Further, the need for cooperation is vital in a world where issues of land will become increasingly relevant because of climate change and scarcity of natural resources. In this way anthropology is demonstrably contributing to social issues in society, as the discipline that cultivates the ability to accommodate for, and critically examine, numerous and conflicting worldviews
Finland: Identities on the periphery
No full textThe troubled histories of nations are built from the bones of a million damaged children. But what about the nations and children who are stuck in the periphery between troubled and happy, between damaged and healthy? These are the settings that anthropology can thrive in: nations that have both suffered and benefited from colonialism, oppressed groups discriminating against others, and other ambiguous cultural dynamics. In this paper, I want to focus on Finland as a specific nation that serves as a good example of how collective trauma and ambiguous histories can be contested. These contestations are most commonly expressed through minute inequalities between the two main cultural groups in Finland: Finnish and Swedish-speaking Finns. Modern inequalities between different cultural and linguistic groups in and around Finland are expressed through stereotypes and expressions of identity. These stereotypes and identities are often mixed with ambivalent feelings, especially in regard to Finns' relationship with Sweden: the state and people, both historically and in the present. These relationships are based on the hegemonic and non-hegemonic views that Finnish speakers, Fennoswedes, and Swedes hold of each other. Hegemonically, quiet admiration and casual disapproval are common, hence the ambiguity. Non-hegemonically, extreme emotions and fixations are commonly perceived as strange and distasteful; everything must be just right, or lagom in Swedish. In this paper, I focus the discussion on Finnish issues of cultural and linguistic identity while keeping their relationship with the Swedish state and people in mind. Hence, my goal is to answer these questions: How has discrimination shaped Finnish identities? Has it shaped Finnish-speaking versus Swedish-speaking Finnish identities differently? How does a collective memory of oppression affect Finnish peoples' perceptions of others? However, what I ultimately want to answer is what is the source of Finland’s ambiguous historical identity: were Finns victims of ethnic discrimination or is this a narrative produced by historical revisionism
A Question They Can't Refuse? Canadian Reference Questions and Judicial Independence
No full textThis paper addresses one aspect of the very important but understudied Canadian reference power. More specifically, it examines the frequency at which Canadian appellate courts refuse to answer all questions submitted in a reference case and under what conditions courts refuse to answer through analysis of an original dataset of all Canadian appellate court reference cases from 1949 to 2017. Addressing this question of how often and under what conditions courts refuse to answer reference questions is central to understanding how reference power operates, as the statutory foundation for the power does not provide courts any discretion to refuse questions submitted by the executive. This lack of discretion and the reference power itself, raise several concerns for judicial independence. This paper considers the implications for judicial independence brought on by the reference power. This paper argues that courts should have the power to refuse to answer questions that are considered inappropriate to safeguard the independence of the judiciary when participating in the extrajudicial function of reference cases
The importance of policy design fit for effectiveness: a qualitative comparative analysis of policy integration in regional transport planning
Full text linkPolicy design has returned as a central topic in public policy research. An important areaof policy design study deals with effectively attaining desired policy outcomes by aligninggoals and means to achieve policy design fit. So far, only a few empirical studies haveexplored the relationship between policy design fit and effectiveness. In this paper, weadopt the multilevel framework for policy design to determine which conditions of policydesign fit—i.e., goal coherence, means consistency, and congruence of goals and meansacross policy levels—are necessary and/or sufficient for policy design effectiveness in thecontext of policy integration. To this end, we performed a qualitative comparative analysisof Dutch regional transport planning including all twelve provinces. Outcomes show nocondition is necessary and two combinations of conditions are sufficient for effectiveness.The first sufficient combination confirms what the literature suggests, namely that policydesign fit results in policy design effectiveness. The second indicates that the combinationgoal incoherence and incongruence of goals and means is sufficient for policy design effectiveness.An in-depth interpretation of this counterintuitive result leads to the conclusionthat for achieving policy integration the supportive relationship between policy design fitand policy design effectiveness is less straightforward as theory suggests. Instead, resultsindicate there are varying degrees of coherence, consistency, and congruence that affecteffectiveness in different ways. Furthermore, outcomes reveal that under specific circumstancesa policy design may be effective in promoting desired policy integration even if it isincoherent, inconsistent, and/or incongruent
Tools for Tragedy: Procedures for Assessing Historic Redress Claims
Full text linkPrograms providing monetary redress for historical injustices are oftenheralded as praiseworthy acts of national accountability. However, criticstend to judge their implementation harshly. Those unfavorable judgmentsrespond, at least in part, to trade-offs between important values that are“hard-wired” into the basic tools of assessment. Exposing those tradeoffscan help observers understand the compromises inherent in programdesign and, hopefully, support policy makers in creating more rationalprograms
The Effect of Trudeau’s New Senate Selection Process in Perspective: The Senate’s Review of Commons Bills, 1997-2019
Full text linkThis article examines the Senate's role in the legislative process, traditionally described as providing sober second thought. Data on the Senate's treatment of bills already approved by the House of Commons were compiled and studied for the period 1997 to 2015 to reveal: how many Commons bill were amended by the Senate; how many were not passed by the Senate; how long it took for the Senate to consider Commons legislation; and whether the Senate takes a more activist approach to bills that were subject to time allocation in the Commons. The results of this analysis provide several insights for suggestions to improve the Senate’s role in reviewing bills passed by the lower house. Important differences are found between the treatment of government-sponsored bills and private members’ bills, with the latter far less likely to make it through the Senate before the end of a session. Possible bottlenecks in the Senate’s committee stage are also highlighted as an area which needs to be addressed
The 2016 Saskatchewan Provincial Election: The Solidification of an Uncompetitive Two-Party Leader-Focused System or Movement to a One-Party Predominant System?
Full text linkThis article closely examines campaign dynamics and voter behavior in the 2016 Saskatchewan provincial election. Using a qualitative assessment of the events leading up to election day and data from an online vote compass gathered during the campaign period, it argues that the popularity of the incumbent Premier, Brad Wall, was the decisive factor explaining the Saskatchewan Party’s success