Political Science Public Affairs & Administration
Fields of Authority
Special Purpose Governance in Ontario, 1815-2015
- Publisher
- University of Toronto Press
- Initial publish date
- May 2016
- Category
- Public Affairs & Administration, General, City Planning & Urban Development
-
Hardback
- ISBN
- 9781487500184
- Publish Date
- May 2016
- List Price
- $78.00
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9781487510374
- Publish Date
- Jun 2016
- List Price
- $66.00
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Where to buy it
Description
Everywhere we turn in Canadian local politics – from policing to transit, education to public health, planning to utilities – we encounter a peculiar institutional animal: the special purpose body. These “ABCs” of local government – library boards, school boards, transit authorities, and many others – provide vital public services, spend large sums of public money, and raise important questions about local democratic accountability.
In Fields of Authority, Jack Lucas provides the first systematic exploration of local special purpose bodies in Ontario. Drawing on extensive research in local and provincial archives, Lucas uses a “policy fields” approach to explain how these local bodies in Ontario have developed from the nineteenth century to the present. A lively and accessible study, Fields of Authority will appeal to readers interested in Canadian political history, urban politics, and urban public policy.
About the author
Jack Lucas is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Calgary.