Bureaucratic Influence and Policymaking

Abstract

This chapter examines the influence that senior career officials in the bureaucracy have on the policy decisions that politicians make. It argues that institutional differences tend to facilitate more bureaucratic influence in Canada than in the United States (U.S.). Furthermore, it contends that the greater the influence of these career bureaucrats on the policy formulation process, the more carefully policy alternatives are considered—and, ultimately, the better the selected policy tends to perform overall. The chapter illustrates these arguments with a pair of historical vignettes concerning Canadian and American defense and environmental policymaking, as well as examples drawn from the Obama and Trump administrations and the Harper and Trudeau governments. It concludes with a discussion of the growing cross-national trend toward the politicization of the career bureaucracy.