The "illusion of inclusion"? The role of consultation processes in Canadian sport policy-making

Abstract

This dissertation addresses the role of broad-based consultation processes in sport policy formulation using a primarily neo-institutional framework. Specifically, I examine the three factors influencing participation: contextual, institutional and structural forces on consultation. The contextual factors encourage the State to develop institutional mechanisms, such as consultation. Despite these pressures to be more inclusive, the State retains control of the structural factors and the institutional factors to a lesser extent. In the case of the formulation of the Canadian sport policy, the role of these factors led to a consultation process that had a real but limited impact. This thesis contributes to the literature on two levels: theoretical and empirical. Theoretically, it develops a framework to determine the role of broad-based consultation. Empirically, it generates new knowledge of these processes and sport policy formulation in general. It demonstrates how the governance framework is useful in explaining the contextual factors encouraging the development of consultation processes. In combination with the neo-institutional literature, it outlines additional factors influencing sport policy formulation (intergovernmental relations, institutionalized relations and ideas). The research argues that these have the capacity to constrain/enable participation. Finally, it also argues that while the State is influenced by the contextual forces and institutional factors flowing through policy formation; it retains control of a number of structural factors (such as information, interaction/dialogue, stage in the policy process, and the list of participants) at its disposal enhancing its capacity to influence the process. The research findings indicate that broad-based consultation processes influence sport policy formulation, albeit very incrementally. This led to a real but limited impact. It demonstrates how the federal government was able to use consultation as a tool to obtain buy-in from governmental and non-governmental stakeholders in the sport policy sector. Even though the impact was limited, it was real nonetheless. It also provided a unique opportunity for participants to interact in a setting which included an interesting mix of participants which was quite novel for the sport policy sector.