Governing from the Centre

'Few people can write a page-turner on public administration, but Savoie has pulled it off... This book will be of great use both for undergraduate and graduate students of public administration, political science, and governance - and for a popular audience, including Ottawa-watchers.' -- Evert Lindquist, Director, School of Public Administration, University of Victoria 'Donald Savoie has fundamentally challenged our understanding of the operations of central agencies and their impact on the exercise of power in Ottawa. He brings an original and disturbing new insight to our understanding of the balance of power in Ottawa. The author, one of Canada's preeminent scholars of public administration, has offered a new and original interpretation of how central agencies have accumulated power.' -- Ken Rasmussen, Faculty of Administration, University of Regina

Agencies and policies instituted to streamline Ottawa’s planning process instead concentrate power in the hands of the Prime Minister, more powerful in Canadian politics than the U.S. President in America. Riveting, startling, and indispensable reading.

Redefined during the past thirty years, the centre of government currently extends itself further than ever before. Central governmental agencies are 'where the rubber meets the road', where public service meets politics, and policy becomes reality. So who's driving this car? Agencies such as the Privy Council Office, the Finance Department, and the Treasury Board exert their influence horizontally, deciding how policy is made and how money gets spent According to Donald Savoie, these organizations, instituted to streamline Ottawa's planning processes, instead telescope power to the Prime Minister and weaken the influence of ministers, the traditional line departments, and even parliament, without contributing to more rational and coherent policy-making.

This is scholarship at its best: rigorous and riveting. The government operates as a combination of known procedures and the more elusive subtleties of human relationships and unspoken codes of behaviour. Donald Savoie's long-time involvement in government affairs allows him to read through the surface of the results of his extensive research-which included several interviews with elites-in order to expose all the levels of power at play. Indispensable reading for students of politics, public policy, and public administration, Ottawa watchers, journalists, lobbyists, and civil servants who want to know what is really going on.