Opening the Government of Canada presents a compelling case for a more open model of governance in the digital age – but a model that also continues to uphold democratic principles at the heart of the Westminster system. Amanda Clarke details the untold story of the federal bureaucracy’s efforts to adapt to digital-age pressures from the mid-2000s onward. This book reveals the mismatch between the bureaucracy’s closed government traditions and evolving citizen expectations and digital tools. Striking a balance between reform and tradition, lays out a roadmap for building a democratically robust, digital-era federal government.

Amanda Clarke's profile page

Amanda Clarke is an assistant professor and Public Affairs Research Excellence Chair at Carleton University’s School of Public Policy and Administration. Prior to joining Carleton, Clarke completed a doctorate at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, as a Pierre Elliott Trudeau scholar, a Clarendon Press scholar, and as a fellow of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. She is published in Canadian Public Administration, Governance and Policy and Internet and is co-editor of Issues in Canadian Governance. You can find her work at www.aclarke.ca and on Twitter @ae_clarke.

The more I read, the more I learned and the more I enjoyed going on a journey inside the public service as it responded to digital demands.

The Hill Times

Amanda Clarke’s Opening the Government of Canada provides an exceptional study of how the Canadian government has responded to external and internal pressures to integrate digital into its governing practices and structures.

Canadian Journal of Political Science