POLI 301: Governance, the Public Sector and Corporate Power Report a Broken Link

This course explores the changing roles and relations between the state, civil society, and business in contemporary Canada. It examines a number of transformations in Canadian society and reflects upon the future of the public sector in Canada.

Required Readings


Unit 1


Krahmann, Elke. 2004. “National, Regional, and Global Governance: One Phenomenon or Many?” Global Governance 9.3: 323–346.
Shields, John, and B. Mitchell Evans. 1998. “Chapter 1: Public Sector Change and the Crisis of Governance.” Shrinking the State: Globalization and Public Administration “Reform.” Halifax, NS: Fernwood.

Unit 2


McBride, Stephen. 2001. Paradigm Shift: Globalization and the Canadian State. Halifax, NS: Fernwood.

Please read

  • Chapter 2: Canada: An (Always) Global Nation
  • Chapter 3: Canadian Capitalism and the Politics of Neo-Liberal Globalization
Roy, Jeffrey. 2007. “Introduction.” Business and Government in Canada. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press.

Unit 3


Gill, Stephen. 2005. “The Contradictions of US Supremacy.” Socialist Register 2005: The Empire Reloaded. Eds. Leo Panitch and Colin Leys. London: Merlin Press.
Rosenau, James N. 2005. “Global Governance as Disaggregated Complexity.” Contending Perspectives on Global Governance: Coherence, Contestation and World Order. Eds. Alice Ba and Matthew Hoffman. New York: Routledge.

Unit 4


Harvey, David. 2005. Chapter 3: “The Neoliberal State.” A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Unit 5


Gurevitch, Michael, Stephen Coleman, and Jay Blumler. 2009. “Political Communication—Old and New Media Relationships.” Annals of the Academy of American Political and Social Science 625.1: 164–181.
Winseck, Dwayne. 2008. “The State of Media Ownership and Media Markets: Competition or Concentration and Why Should We Care?” Sociology Compass 2.1: 34–47.
Small, Tamara. 2011. “WHAT THE HASHTAG? A Content Analysis of Canadian Politics on Twitter.” Information, Communication & Society 14.6: 872–895.

Unit 6


Bourgon, Jocelyne. 2007 “Responsive, Responsible and Respected Government: Toward a New Public Administration Theory.” International Review of Administrative Sciences 73.1: 7–26.
Ilcan, Suzan. 2009. “Privatizing Responsibility: Public Sector Reform Under Neoliberal Government.” Canadian Review of Sociology 46.3: 207–234.
Clark, David. 2002. “Neoliberalism and Public Service Reform: Canada in Comparative Perspective.” Canadian Journal of Political Science 35:4: 771–793.

Unit 7


Evans, B. Mitchell, and John Shields. 2005. “The Third Sector: Neo-Liberal Restructuring, Governance, and the Remaking of State-Civil Society Relationships.” CERIS Policy Matters 18: 1–10.