This is the eleventh edition of How Ottawa Spends .Like previous editions, it focusses on particular departments and policy initiatives of the federal government. This year's edition also deals with some of the internal management issues that have emerged as important in the government's quest for efficiency and productivity. Beyond evaluating past actions, the book is intended to offer informed comment on prospects for the future in the areas it explores. This is the second edition since the re-election of a Conservative majority government in November 1988. We now have an opportunity to assess the direction of the second Tory agenda. It seems important to start this assessment by asking some very basic questions: Is there a discernible government agenda? To what extent can we see similarities and differences in the direction of Conservative initiatives when we compare their first and second terms? What accounts for any similarities and differences that emerge? What are the implications of the direction of government initiatives? These questions are given broad treatment in the book's first chapter, which focusses largely on the February 1990 Budget and the federal Estimates for the 1990-91 fiscal year. That analysis is intended to set the stage for the more specific discussions of the federal agenda which follow.

Katherine A.H. Graham is professor of public policy and administration and senior advisor to the provost at Carleton University.Caroline Andrew is director of the Centre on Governance at the University of Ottawa.

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