COVID-19 is likely to force austerity in Canada

Significance The report projects that the federal government’s deficit will rise tenfold to CAD343.2bn (USD255.1bn) in 2020-21. This vast increase raises the question of what exit strategies the government will employ, and whether Canada is facing a round of austerity. Impacts Cuts to the federal bureaucracy are likely, especially for back-office functions. Provinces, already struggling financially, face reduced financial support from Ottawa, raising their default risks. Privatisation is likely if austerity measures are needed, especially under a Conservative government. Canada could face credit rating cuts if the government cannot manage the economy effectively. The Trudeau government’s charity-related payment controversy could lose it support if an election were held soon.

A Female Policy Premium? Agency Context and Women’s Leadership in the U.S. Federal Bureaucracy

Although there are descriptive and substantive benefits associated with women serving in leadership posts in the bureaucracy, we ask whether there is a policy benefit associated with women’s leadership. Simply put, is there a policy premium to having women as bureaucratic leaders? We focus on agency rulemaking, a policymaking activity conducted by nearly all federal agencies. Across three presidential administrations, we find no evidence of an across-the-board premium associated with women’s leadership. However, our results are consistent with a conditional policy premium—wherein women leaders are particularly effective in advancing ambitious rules and in shepherding rules through to finalization—in agencies that have a working environment that is supportive of women and, to some extent, in agencies that focus on women’s issues. One key implication is that, rather than working to tear down “glass walls,” reformers would be better served by improving the workplace climate for women within agencies.

Coerced Removal from the Great Depression through Operation Wetback

This chapter analyzes how and why voluntary departure and anti-immigrant fear campaigns became the dominant mechanisms of expulsion during the middle decades of the twentieth century. It also reviews how and why immigration officials came to target Mexicans through a fine-grained analysis of the repatriations of the 1930s and Operation Wetback of the mid-1950s. It looks into the voluntary departures between 1927 and 1964 that outnumbered formal deportations nearly nine to one, representing more than 90 percent of the nearly 6.4 million expulsions the federal government recorded. The chapter discusses the coercive mechanisms that enabled authorities to unilaterally execute mass expulsions on an unprecedented scale and on a shoestring budget, bolstering institutional legitimacy within the growing federal bureaucracy. It also describes the effective denial of due process rights to citizens and noncitizens and infliction of trauma on individuals, families, and communities.

Decentralization Experience in Pakistan: The 18th Constitutional Amendment

Of all the amendments made to the Constitution of Pakistan, the 18th Amendment passed in April 2010 is arguably the most important amendment with the most far-reaching consequences. It restored the parliamentary character of the Constitution, redefined the Parliament–judiciary relationship by proposing parliamentary oversight on high judicial appointments and devolved several important functions to Provincial Governments. This decentralization of responsibility and authority provided the context in which various institutional actors renegotiated their roles in a contested space during the years since the Amendment. However, implementation has been quite a challenge in the face of covert and overt opposition from the federal bureaucracy, which is characteristically averse to any transfer of resources and authority. This article is a critical examination of the Amendment and its implementation to understand the nature and extent of devolution of authority resulting therefrom.

Party filiation and appointment for positions in the Brazilian federal bureaucracy (1999-2018)

Resumo Quantos são e a quais partidos estão filiados os nomeados para os cargos do alto e médio escalão da burocracia federal brasileira? Há diferenças entre mandatos presidenciais? Para responder essas perguntas, construímos uma base de dados inédita referente aos filiados a partidos políticos em cargos de direção e assessoramento superior (DAS). Nossa análise descritiva aponta que a proporção de filiados aumentou nos governos do Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) e é maior entre nomeados sem vínculo com o setor público. A concentração de poder entre os partidos - principalmente entre o partido presidencial e os demais - variou de modo significativo entre presidentes. O controle partidário sobre os nomeados filiados é mais brando nos cargos de nível intermediário e maior nos níveis superiores. Entretanto, os filiados são minoria, mesmo nos cargos de mais alto poder político-administrativo. Por isso, sugerimos que, possivelmente, as redes de conexão política que definem os quadros da burocracia decisória também se constroem por meios extrapartidários e compreendê-las se mostra decisivo para dimensionar o peso da política partidária na burocracia ministerial e reinterpretar como o Poder Executivo constrói e gerencia a coalizão de governo e seu apoio no Poder Legislativo.