L. ‘Administration publique

The author starts from the premise of the lack of genuine parliamentary control of public administrators. This deficiency in our political institutions is attributed to three reasons. First, the administrative extension gradually given to the notion of ministerial responsibility is a useless fiction for both government and opposition: partisan debate centres round policy issues, not administrative ones, and the smooth line of authority between a minister and ‘his’ civil servants is purely fictitious. Second, one can define evaluation criteria for public administration and they can be used by Parliament without risk of confusing administrative and policy issues. Under such criteria a refutable presumption of responsibility for public administrators would replace the present general assumption of non‐responsibility. Third, provided adequate procedural safeguards are taken, the conceptual distinction between politicians' and civil servants' responsibility could be maintained in practice

Administration (probate law · Civil servants · Government (linguistics · Opposition (politics · Parliament · Political science · Politics · Premise · Presumption · Healthcare Systems and Practices · Law · Philosophy · Public Administration · Social Policies and Family · Social Sciences and Governance

• Power, Parliament and Public Servants in Canada

  Kenneth Kernaghan•Canadian Public Policy•1979

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• Public administration in the provinces

  Open Access•Marsha A Chandler, Marsha Chandler et al.•Canadian Public Administration•1982

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