Funded by a SSHRC Insight Development Grant
Public Servants’ Role Project
Our research explores the position, function, and value of public servants in Canadian democracy.
Why the role of civil servants must evolve to ensure public trust
by Brendan Boyd
What’s the way forward for public servants? Is there a model whereby unelected government officials can engage freely outside bureaucratic hierarchies and have public profiles but still be viewed by politicians and the public as impartial? To do so, trust is critical. It’s the capital that public servants must accumulate and the currency they must trade in.
Read our most recent publication:
The Private World of Public Officials: Evidence about the political activities of public servants in Canada
by Brendan Boyd and Andrea Rounce
Our Publications
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The public, the pandemic, and the public service: The case of Alberta
Jared Wesley and Savannah Ribeiro, Canadian Public Administration
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Seen but not partisan: Changing expectations of public servants in Westminster systems
Brendan Boyd, International Review of Administrative Sciences
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The public servant's role in democracy
Brendan Boyd, Jared Wesley, Andrea Rounce, Karine Levasseur, Isabelle Caron, Canadian Public Administration
Project Summary
What role do public servants play in Canada’s 21st century democracy? Public administration and political science scholars have debated whether or not the public servants’ roles need to change to reflect the reality in which they work to better meet the demands of citizens and elected officials. This project engages with public servants, the general public, and elected officials to better understand perceptions and expectations of public servants’ roles.
This study uses three surveys to assess perceptions of public servants’ roles in early 2021. The Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC) sent the survey for public servants to federal, provincial, and municipal public servants. Questions for this survey were developed from the World Values Survey in consultation with IPAC. C-DEM surveyed the general public in March 2021. The Samara Institute surveyed members of parliament in early 2021.
Research to Date
Research Briefs
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Views on Public Servants' Roles
This Brief examines the results of three (3) surveys about public servants’ roles in democracy: one involving politicians, one involving the public, and one involving public servants, themselves.
Research Team
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Dr. Brendan Boyd
Principal Investigator
Assistant Professor, Anthropology, Economics and Political Science, Grant MacEwan University
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Dr. Isabelle Caron
Co-Investigator
Assistant Professor, Public Administration, Dalhousie University
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Dr. Karine Levasseur
Co-Investigator
Associate Professor, Political Studies, University of Manitoba
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Dr. Andrea Rounce
Co-Investigator
Associate Professor, Political Studies, University of Manitoba
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Dr. Jared Wesley
Co-Investigator
Professor, Political Science, University of Alberta
Collaborators
Dr. Zachary Spicer, Associate Professor, Public Policy and Administration, York University
Dr. Laura Stephenson, Professor, Political Science, The University of Western Ontario
Dr. Paul Thomas, Adjunct Research Professor, Director of the Parliamentary Internship Programme, Carleton University
Partners
Institute for Public Administration of Canada