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Article
From Integrity Agency to Accountability Network: The Political Economy of Public Sector Oversight in Canada
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
  • Jamie Baxter, Dalhousie University Schulich School of Law
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2015
Keywords
  • Administrative Justice,
  • Independence,
  • Delegation,
  • Principal-Agent,
  • Integrity Agencies,
  • Officers of Parliament
Abstract

The federal integrity agencies that are delegated collective responsibility for public sector oversight in Canada face a common challenge to stabilize their ongoing independence from political control. While Parliament has delegated to these agencies key oversight functions that demand some degree of structural independence, they remain vulnerable to shifting political preferences and to an increasingly partisan national politics. This Article uses a political economy framework to theorize the objectives that shape political preferences for agency independence in Canada, and to suggest that structural innovations in the form of 'accountability networks' may provide one strategy to help stabilize those preferences over the long run.

Comments

This is an author's manuscript of an article published in the Ottawa Law Review. Published PDF forthcoming.

Creative Commons License
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International
Publication Abbreviation
Ottawa L Rev
Citation Information
Jamie Baxter, "From Integrity Agency to Accountability Network: The Political Economy of Public Sector Oversight in Canada" (2015) 46:2 Ottawa L Rev 1.