Tribunals and Guidelines: Exploring the Relationships between Fairness and Legitimacy in Administrative Decision-Making
The objective of this paper is to address two questions: why do administrative tribunals such as the Immigration Refugee Board resort to developing guidelines, and what are the principles and values which legitimize these initiatives? The role of tribunals in policy-making and/or policy-implementing raises important questions. For example, to whom are tribunals accountable for the development and application of guidelines where the functions of a tribunal - especially the adjudicative functions - are intended to be independent of government?The authors seek to understand better the dynamics of tribunals’ role in the policy process. They propose a classification of guidelines based on the function they perform in administrative proceedings and provide an analysis of the normative framework underlying guidelines. The authors explore how a legal analysis of guidelines might shed on the theory and practice of public administration. The authors conclude that in the absence of a nuanced understanding of the legal status of guidelines, the relationship between administrative practice and the rule of law remains uncertain and unstable.
Social License to Operate: Legitimacy by Another Name?
Social license to operate is an increasingly used but seldom defined concept. In this article, we draw from academic, popular, and industry literature to identify and synthesize three models of social license to operate. Building on our review, we investigate the linkages between social license to operate and legitimacy and consider how the two concepts differ from and interrelate with one another. Then, we review the various methods that have been used to measure social license to operate. We conclude by discussing the implications for stakeholder engagement, evolving models of regulation, and potential avenues for future research.
Administrative devolution and accountability: the case of the non‐profit housing program
: The problem of bureaucratic accountability has received considerable attention in the literature of public administration, but few studies have considered the extent to which extra-governmental agencies are held accountable to governments or legislatures. This paper examines administrative devolution and the problem of accountability, using the non-profit housing program as an example. It argues that devolution of programs, without adjusting for the resulting loss of bureaucratic control, leaves governments with little information about, or control over, the people who make decisions about large expenditures of public funds. It concludes that if the advantages of using the voluntary sector for social service delivery are to outweigh the problems of reduced accountability, forms of control -such as incentives for compliance and internal professional standards - which do not limit the autonomy of these groups, but which can enhance pre-audit accountability, need to be developed. 
 
 
 
Sommaire: Si le probleme de la responsabilite bureaucratique a fait I'objet de nombreuses etudes dans les textes de I'administration publique, peu d'entre elles, en revanche, ont pris en consideration la mesure dans laquelle les organismes paragouvernementaux sont tenus de rendre des comptes aux gouvernements ou legislatures. Cet article examine la decentralisation administrative et les problemes de responsabilites, en utilisant comme exemple le programme de logement a but non lucratif. Il suggere que la decentralisation des programmes, sans ajustement qui tienne compte de la perte de controle bureaucratique en resultant, laisse les gouvernements avec peu de renseignements ou de controle sur les personnes qui prennent des decisions concernant d'importantes depenses de fonds public. En conclusion, I'auteure dit que, si les avantages resultant de I'utilisation du secteur benevole pour fournir les services sociaux doivent I'emporter sur les problemes de diminution de la responsabilite, il faut mettre en place certaines mesures de controle (tels les encouragements a se conformer a des normes professionnelles internes), qui ne restreindraient par I'autonomie de ces groupes, mais pourraient accroitre la responsabilite avant le controle.