French Canada and the ‘bureaucratic phenomenon’ Saskatchewan

Abstract

Abstract. The Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism (1969) noted in its report that French Canadians, compared with English Canadians, do not have the same way of seeing, settling or discussing problems. How are they different? What is the impact of French‐Canadian values on such variables as patterns of bureaucratic behaviour, organizational structures and styles of policy‐making? These questions were not really dealt with by the Royal Commission in its discussion of the public service.In this paper an attempt is made to identify so‐called unique French‐Canadian characteristics and to ask whether they do in fact have an impact on patterns of bureaucratic behaviour and bureaucratic structures. Usage is made of a model, developed by the French sociologist Michel Crozier, on the nature of authority relations among civil servants in France. Crozier has argued that French civil servants avoid face‐to‐face authority relations as much as possible, the result being bureaucratic structures which tend to be extremely centralized. Historical and contemporary evidence on French Canada is examined to test for the validity of the model. The model can be only partially confirmed with regard to the behaviour of French‐Canadian civil servants. Nevertheless, the findings are interesting enough to allow one to speculate on what impact French‐Canadian values have on the nature of bureaucratic authority and policy‐making.