A Subtle Balance critically reflects on major trends and enduring challenges over the last four decades of public policy and governance. During this time, a tension has existed between two aims for public decisions: that they be based on the best available evidence and analysis, and that they be fully democratic. This period has seen a continuing drive for more direct citizen engagement in decision-making and governments trying to address major policy issues through novel consultative and collaborative processes. In essays that offer detailed and novel insights into the recent history of specific issues in social policy, environmental policy, and processes of policy advice and decision-making, contributors elaborate on how these trends have played out in diverse areas of practice, what their consequences have been, and how specific institutional reforms could reset the requisite balance between expertise, evidence, and democracy in Canadian public policy. Inspired by the wide-ranging contributions to scholarship and practice of A.R. (Rod) Dobell, A Subtle Balance draws on the influences of distinguished scholars and sophisticated practitioners of public policy to assess recent changes in governance. Contributors include Martin Bunton, Barry Carin, Ian Clark, Rachel Culley, Rod Dobell, Lia Ernst, Jill Horwitz, John Langford, Justin Longo, Michael Prince, Harry Swain, Charles Ungerleider, Josee van Eijndhoven, Michael Wolfson, and David Zussman.

Edward A. Parson is Associate Professor of Public Policy in the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and is also Faculty Research Associate at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

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“This book is of great significance as the role of evidence in our democracy and to some extent in others is currently in decline, if not under attack. It is a contribution not just to the analysis of the role of evidence, but a contribution to the historical record of policy development in the federal government. Several of the contributors were key personages in that history – their insights and reflections are very valuable and will be cited for some time by analysts of the policy process.” Mel Cappe, University of Toronto