The Strategic Planning Component in the Policymaking Process for Municipalities in Canada
Canadian municipalities are the products of precedent and the statute law of their respective provinces. Their nonpartisan politics have focussed on the servicing and enhancement of the interests, largely related to property, of a long-dominant commercial elite. Contrary priorities have been subverted by provincial conditional grant programs and other administrative guidance. Even in the largest cities, the realities of fiscal austerity beginning in the 1980s encountered structures and practices unable to manage imaginatively under conditions of stress.
Electoral Reform in Local Government: The Case of Winnipeg
La réforme électorale au niveau municipal: le cas de Winnipeg La recherche en politique urbaine au Canada s'est peu intéressée à l'analyse comparative des systèmes électoraux locaux. Ceci s'explique en partie à cause du désir d'objectivité des analystes et de la prééminence de la non-partisannerie comme idéologie politique municipale au Canada. Mais lorsque la communauté urbaine est fortement divisée socialement et politiquement, il est impossible de découvrir la déformation partisane à l'oeuvre dans le système électoral, en particulier dans le découpage des circonscriptions. Cette étude du cas de Winnipeg, inspirée par les initiatives du gouvernement provincial néo-démocrate en matière de réformes urbaines entreprises en 1971 (Unicity), analyse la rationalité qui sous-tend l'organisation des élections municipales à trois moments différents: avant et après la grève générale de 1919, et à la suite des changements de 1971. Chacun des trois systèmes est analysé en relation avec l'idéologie de la classe politiquement dominante. En conclusion, l'auteur fait une évaluation des résultats de 1971 dans les petites circonscriptions à partir de l'analyse du succès politique des candidats locaux dans la première élection sous le régime de l'Unicity.
Socially responsible enterprise in Cuba: a positive role model for Corporate Social Responsibility?’
This article examines the unique institutional environment of socialist Cuba, where currently a process of controlled marketization and expansion of private enterprise is taking place. The article investigates business behaviour in Cuba with particular reference to implicit assumptions relating to socially responsible enterprise, or Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as the term is understood in Western Liberal Democracies. It draws upon a series of interviews with business practitioners and business commentators (both Cuban and non-Cuban residents on the island). The interviews focused on the participants’ awareness of business ethics and socially responsible enterprise, and the cultural differences in assumptions and expectations relating to the concept of CSR between the Cuban and non-Cuban interviewees. We find that Cuba at this early stage of tentative marketization presents a positive role model of socially responsible enterprise. Both the highly regulated State economy and the embedded norms and values of social equity that have emerged as a consequence of Cuba’s socialist revolution facilitate business social responsibility. The relevance of this research to current debates in relation to CSR is discussed and it is argued that capitalist economies may similarly benefit from tighter regulatory control and by cultivating more pro-social business norms that prioritise ethical over economic concerns.