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The Canadian Regulatory System and Corporatism: Empirical Findings and Analytical Implications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2014

David Johnson
David Johnson
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Brock University
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Abstract

This article directs attention to the regulatory system in Canada and highlights certain important organizational developments that have been largely ignored by political scientists and legal academics in their studies of this system. Most analysts assessing the nature and functioning of the regulatory system in this country have used pluralist approaches to understand the political and legal phenomena in question, and have explicitly or implicitly rejected the validity of corporatist approaches to this task. This is unwise. Evidence from various regulatory agencies in this country indicates that meso corporatist forms of organization are present in this country's regulatory system. The presence of these forms thus calls for recognition and analysis. The author argues that while a modest degree of corporatism does not invalidate the general worth of pluralist interpretative approaches, our understanding of the regulatory system can only be enhanced through an appreciation of how and why meso corporatist forms of organization arise in particular regulatory agencies and how these developments pose a challenge to agency accountability

Résumé

Cet article se penche sur I'appareil administratif canadien et souligne certains développements organisationnels importants qui ont été largement ignorés par les politicologues et les juristes dans leur étude de celui-ci. La plupart des analystes ont utilisé, dans l'évaluation de la nature et du fonctionnement de l'appareil administratif canadien, des approches pluralistes pour expliquer ce phénomène politique et juridique et ont, explicitement ou implicitement, rejeté la validité des approches corporatistes. Cette manière de faire n'est pas des plus judicieuses. De nombreux signes émanant de divers organismes administratifs canadiens témoignent de la présence de formes meso-corporatistes d'organisation au sein de l'appareil administratif. La présence de ces formes commande donc leur reconnaissance et leur analyse. Tel qu'argumenté ci-dessous, quoiqu'un degré modeste de corporatisme n'invalide pas la valeur générale des approches interprétatives pluralistes, notre compréhension de l'appareil administratif ne peut être accrue par l'analyse de l'apparition des formes meso-corporatistes d'organisation au coeur d'organismes administratifs donnés, des raisons qui ont été à l'origine de leur apparition ainsi que du défi qu'elles posent en termes de responsabilité ministérielle ou gouvernementale.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Law and Society / La Revue Canadienne Droit et Société , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , Spring/printemps 1993 , pp. 95 - 120
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Law and Society Association 1993

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References

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