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L'analyse cybernétique des politiques gouvernementales

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2009

Réjean Landry  and
Vincent Lemieux
Réjean Landry
Affiliation:
Université Laval
Vincent Lemieux
Affiliation:
Université Laval
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Abstract

Cybernetic analysis is part of the systems approach and has been used by several authors to study governmental policies or public decisions. Nevertheless, the way in which it is used in this article is different from preceding attempts. Regulation by feedback is considered as being complex rather than simple; positive feedback seems neither exceptional nor pathological, and great emphasis is placed on power relations in the phenomena of regulation by feedback through which government policies are formed.

The presentation of different sub-systems of the cybernetic model and of different types of regulation by feedback are illustrated by examples touching on the adjustment of electoral boundaries. In the last part of the article, the first results of research bearing on the sector of social affairs and on that of energy serve to underline three characteristics of the cybernetic analysis of government policies as proposed in this article: the key role that it gives regulation by feedback, its particular attention to the unexpected consequences of action, and its insistence on the phenomena of communication as essential to action.

Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 11 , Issue 3 , September 1978 , pp. 529 - 544
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association (l'Association canadienne de science politique) and/et la Société québécoise de science politique 1978

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References

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