Business and Government in Canada

Jeffrey Roy

Publication Year: 2007

Boundaries between business and government are increasingly fluid and often transcended. Yet it remains important to acknowledge and make appropriate use of the fundamental differences between these sectors. Five areas that offer the most critical challenges to business and government in Canada today are corporate governance, lobbying and influence, security and privacy, public-private partnerships, and geography and development. This book is an exploration of the systemic dynamics of the inter-sectoral governance that shape the collective performance of Canada's national jurisdiction. Three perspectives of the relational dynamics between business and government, drawn from leading Canadian scholars, are adopted in order to frame the examination of independence, influence, and interdependence. This book makes a case for the advancement of “virtuous hybrids,” while pointing out the challenges that remain in terms of the formation and successful performance of such hybrids in Canada, a challenge that calls for political leadership as well as social learning. An informed and engaged public, wearing multiple hats (i.e. as voter, shareholder, employee, activist etc.) would be the ultimate arbiter of sectoral and collective performance.

Published by: University of Ottawa Press

Contents
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pp. v-

Preface

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pp. vii-viii

The purpose of this short book is to engage students in a dialogue on the importance of interactions and interrelations between government and business. Although most countries in the world now embrace "good governance" as a central tenet of development and prosperity, many tensions and choices ...

Introduction

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pp. 1-22

This book examines five of the most critical thematic challenges confronting business and government in Canada, both separately and collectively, in today's increasingly networked governance environment. The five challenges, explained more fully below, are corporate governance, lobbying and influence, security ...

Chapter One: Corporate Governance

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pp. 23-46

This chapter introduces the topic of corporate governance as increasingly uniting rather than separating business and government in terms of their organization and conduct. Typically thought of in the realm of a private company, corporate governance denotes the mechanisms for accountability and ...

Chapter Two: Lobbying

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pp. 47-72

The previous chapter examined the emergence of corporate governance as a unique but also increasingly shared set of themes across business and government with respect to how organizations are held to account in terms of both conformance and performance. Beyond the converging challenge of ...

Chapter Three: Procurement and Partnering

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pp. 73-96

This chapter examines the expanding scope of partnerships involving the public and private sectors and the opportunities and pitfalls of explicit efforts to effectively align public and private interests. Many public sector scandals in recent years involving private sector lobbying have been driven by procurement—where the government purchases goods and ...

Chapter Four: Security and Privacy

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pp. 97-128

Since September 11, 2001, many national governments have been emboldened to undertake aggressive, preventive strategies aimed at public safety and the circumventing of terrorism. As a result, new technologies viewed during the 1990s as primarily a platform for electronic commerce are now front and centre in ...

Chapter Five: Innovation and Development

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pp. 129-158

The previous chapter concluded by examining how the security challenge transcends any single country despite the predominance of national systems in many aspects of governance (particularly that of the public sector). This chapter begins by extending this transnational lens to the realm of innovation, since the ...

Conclusion

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pp. 159-174

Despite the emergence of a more socially, technologically, and organizationally networked world, the messages put forth by Jacobs, Stanbury, and Paquet with respect to sectoral relations remain useful guideposts. Business and government continue to be fundamentally different in both purpose and structure, ...

E-ISBN-13: 9780776617480
E-ISBN-10: 0776617486
Print-ISBN-13: 9780776606583
Print-ISBN-10: 0776606581

Page Count: 208
Publication Year: 2007

Series Title: Governance Series