Brokerage Politics Research Articles

Anatomy of a Tuition Freeze: The Case of Ontario

Using two conceptual frameworks from political science—Kingdon’s (2003) multiple streams model and the advocacy coalition framework (Sabatier & Jenkins-Smith, 1993)—this case study examines the detailed history of a major tuition policy change in Ontario in 2004: a tuition freeze. The paper explores the social, political, and economic factors that influenced policymakers on this particular change to shed light on the broader questions of the dynamics of postsecondary policymaking. The study found that the Liberal Party’s decision to freeze postsecondary tuition fees was a function of stakeholder relations, public opinion, and brokerage politics, designed for electoral success. The policy implementation strategy was intended to facilitate the cooperation and interests of the major institutions. Within the broader policy community, student-organized interest groups and other policy advocates were aligned in a policy preference, a critical component for successful change.

Parties, elections, and the future of Canadian politics

Introduction: Change and Continuity in Canadian Parties and Elections / Amanda Bittner and Royce Koop 1 Has Brokerage Politics Ended? Canadian Parties in the New Century / R. Kenneth Carty 2 Candidate Recruitment in Canada: The Role of Political Parties / William Cross and Lisa Young 3 The Effects of Constantly Campaigning upon the Canadian Parliament / Kelly Blidook and Matthew Byrne 4 Constituency and Personal Determinants of MPs' Positions on Social Conservative Issues in the 37th and 38th Canadian Parliaments / Munroe Eagles 5 City Ministers: The Local Politics of Cabinet Selection / Anthony M. Sayers 6 Women Candidates, Voters, and Legislators: A Gender Perspective on Recent Party and Electoral Politics / Elizabeth Goodyear-Grant 7 Revisiting the Ethnic Vote: Liberal Allegiance and Vote Choice among Racialized Minorities / Allison Harell 8 The Canadian Party System: Trends in Election Campaign Reporting, 1980-2008 / Blake Andrew, Patrick Fournier, and Stuart Soroka 9 Parties, Politics, and Redistribution: The Constitutional and Practical Challenges of Politicized Apportionment / Russell Alan Williams 10 Too Little, Too Soon: State Funding and Electoral District Associations in the Green Party of Canada / Harold Jansen and L.A. (Lisa) Lambert 11 When Partisans Are Attacked: Motivated Reasoning and the New Party System / J. Scott Matthews 12 Coping with Political Flux: The Impact of Information on Voters' Perceptions of the Political Landscape, 1988-2011 / Amanda Bittner 13 Situating the Canadian Case / Richard Johnston 14 Parties and Elections after 2011: The Fifth Canadian Party System? / Royce Koop and Amanda Bittner

Encircling the commons: Neotribal capitalism in New Zealand since 2000

This paper uses a neotribal capitalism approach to theorize the corporate Maori tribes’ economic and political strategies in New Zealand. I trace the current convergence between neoliberalism and the corporate tribe to the alliances and networks established in the inclusive bicultural stage of the 1970s. These alliances were later institutionalized in the exclusive bicultural stage through brokerage processes which, in the brokerage function itself, developed a political relationship between the corporate tribe and the government and established the brokers as self-interest class agents. The consequence of brokerage politics has been the consolidation of a system for the transfer of economic resources from public to tribal ownership and for the devolution of state services into tribal control. This has implications for New Zealand’s liberal democracy.

The Gender Gap and the Changing Woman Voter in Canada

The realignment thesis on gender voting in postindustrial societies argues that traditional voting patterns, where women compared to men were more supportive of center-right parties, are being replaced by a modern gender gap, where women are more likely than men to support parties of the left. Although this transformation is said to be driven by both structural and cultural factors, findings suggest value changes are the more important element. This article explores the realignment thesis in the Canadian context where realignment has been complicated by a multi-party system, brokerage politics, and differences between Quebec and the rest of Canada. Voting patterns from 1965 to 1997 suggest women's realignment from right to left has not been straightforward. However, in the 1990s we find more indication of a modern gender gap in Canada outside Quebec and findings that support the value thesis. In Quebec, gender differences did not conform to the modern gender gap model and overall, variability across elections in the pattern and correlates of gender voting illustrate the contingent character of this phenomenon.

Balancing the Books: Brokerage Politics and the "Ontario Readers Question"

Balancing the Books: Brokerage Politics and the "Ontario Readers Question"

Absent Mandate ’88? Parties and Voters in Canada

Canadian party politics is brokerage politics, but, contrary to what is sometimes suggested, brokerage parties can differ on important questions of public policy, as the Conservatives, Liberals, and New Democrats showed in 1988. Whether or not such differences exist, it will normally be very difficult to justify a clear electoral mandate using public opinion data, as the 1988 election also illustrated. Nonetheless our constitution requires that mandates sometimes be conferred, and the main evidence for one must be a parliamentary majority.

Organizational Change in the Machinery of Canadian Government: From Rational Management to Brokerage Politics

AbstractOrganizational change in the central machinery of government is essentially a function of executive leadership. The major determinants of such change are invariably political and not administrative in character and derive from the leadership paradigms of chief executive officers—their philosophy of government, management style and political objectives. This phenomenon is examined in the recent transformation of the Canadian central executive system from one based upon the Trudeau paradigm of rational management to one structured to fit the Mulroney paradigm of brokerage politics. The organizational instruments of each paradigm are considered and their respective capacities to meet the requirements of executive leadership in our modern administrative state are assessed. It is argued that the two different systems and the changes introduced by them are best explained by the paradigms of these two prime ministers.

Lobbying, legitimacy and brokerage politics in the Tasmanian parliament

Lobbying, legitimacy and brokerage politics in the Tasmanian parliament

Natural Resources Administration and the Public Interest

SIBILITY or clientele, government administrators usually claim that their decisions are in the public interest. This vague concept is often associated with assumed public benefits or needs. But like any other concept, the public interest is subject to opinions, which are based on desires of individuals. Supposedly, public opinion is reflected into the public interest on governmental decisions. But this usually occurs in subjective interpretations of administrators operating through broad legal frameworks. Moreover, public opinion is seldom fully expressed or understood as a determining influence in a given time period. Granted the impact of a vague public opinion and given agency ideology for survival and expansion, there still remains the question of how governmental decisions can best be made for the idealized public interest. Livingston and Thompson state that the central problem of bureaucracy is responsibility to the public interest through the political process of democratic decision making. Yet they note that bureaucracies frequently rely on brokerage politics to solve problems.' By brokerage politics, they mean the process of resolving conflicts in democracy without reference to responsibility through the consent of the governed by elected officials. This process involves bargaining, com-