Opening the Government of Canada presents a compelling case for the importance of a more open model of governance in the digital age - but a model that also continues to uphold democratic principles at the heart of the Westminster system. Drawing on interviews with public officials and extensive analysis of government documents and social media accounts, Clarke details the untold story of the Canadian federal bureaucracy's efforts to adapt to new digital pressures from the mid-2000s onward. This book argues that the bureaucracy's tradition of closed government, fuelled by today's antagonistic political communications culture, is at odds with evolving citizen expectations and new digital policy tools, including social media, crowdsourcing, and open data. Striking a balance between reform and tradition, Opening the Government of Canada concludes with a series of pragmatic recommendations that lay out a roadmap for building a democratically robust, digital-era federal government.

Opening the Government of Canada provides a vivid and compelling account of the central challenge facing governments in the digital age: abandoning their "Closed Government" traditions to become more open, networked, and collaborative.

About the Author
Amanda Clarke is an assistant professor and Public Affairs Research Excellence Chair at Carleton University's School of Public Policy and Administration. Prior to joining Carleton, Clarke completed a doctorate at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, as a Pierre Elliott Trudeau scholar, a Clarendon Press scholar, and as a fellow of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. She is published in Canadian Public Administration, Governance and Policy and Internet and is co-editor of Issues in Canadian Governance. You can find her work at www.aclarke.ca and on Twitter @ae_clarke.

Reviews

Amanda Clarke's Opening the Government of Canada provides an exceptional study of how the Canadian government has responded to external and internal pressures to integrate digital into its governing practices and structures.

-- Andrea Rounce * Canadian Journal of Political Science *

The more I read, the more I learned and the more I enjoyed going on a journey inside the public service as it responded to digital demands.

-- Alex Marland * The Hill Times *



Book Information
ISBN 9780774836937
Author Amanda Clarke
Format Paperback
Page Count 312
Imprint University of British Columbia Press
Publisher University of British Columbia Press
Weight(grams) 450g