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- Title
Advising for impact: lessons from the Rae review on the use of special-purpose advisory commissions.
- Authors
Clark, Ian D.; Trick, David
- Abstract
Ontario's recent Postsecondary Review, led by former premier Bob Rae, was dramatically more successful than previous reviews by special-purpose advisory commissions on postsecondary education conducted in Ontario. The authors argue that the success of special-purpose advisory commissions — defined as the extent to which a commission's recommendations are implemented in a timely way — is dependent on environmental variables (such as the economy, fiscal situation and political cycle), process variables (such as reporting relationships, characteristics of the commissioners and stakeholder strategies) and the political acuity with which the commission develops recommendations that can command broad public support. The Rae review benefited from political conditions that favoured stronger investments in postsecondary education, despite, a difficult fiscal situation. The report also benefited from a stakeholder community that was able to put aside most internal differences for the sake of a perceived common good. Within this environment, the review created a highly focused process that involved extensive consultation, the support of expert panel members and frequent interaction with decision-makers. The review developed recommendations that were sensitive to long-standing patterns of public opinion, articulated new public goals, recognized the important role to be played by each major stakeholder and proposed a new institution to entrench positive change in the long term. This experience offers lessons for governments, stakeholders and future commissions on how to manage special-purpose advisory commissions in a way that maximizes their Policy impact.
- Subjects
ONTARIO; POSTSECONDARY education; CITIZENS' advisory committees in education; PRACTICAL politics; PUBLIC opinion; RAE, Bob, 1948-
- Publication
Canadian Public Administration, 2006, Vol 49, Issue 2, p180
- ISSN
0008-4840
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/j.1754-7121.2006.tb01978.x