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Political Science Public Affairs & Administration

The Service State

Rhetoric, Reality and Promise

by (author) Patrice Dutil, Cosmo Howard, John Langford & Jeffrey Roy

Publisher
University of Ottawa Press
Initial publish date
Jan 2011
Category
Public Affairs & Administration, General
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780776619156
    Publish Date
    Jan 2011
    List Price
    $9.99
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780776607436
    Publish Date
    Sep 2010
    List Price
    $19.95

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Description

In the past ten years, Canadians have witnessed a renaissance in the delivery of government services. New service organizations are cropping up across the country and accomplishing extraordinary things. Efforts are being made to consult citizens on how to improve and integrate services. Considerable resources are being invested in measuring and showcasing performance improvement.

This book probes the central dimensions of service reform efforts from a variety of perspectives and answers some pressing questions: How can we make better decisions about service delivery? How should we measure service delivery performance? How should we engage users of government services? How can we create a service culture? How can we use the internet more effectively? Approaching service delivery as not merely technical but inherently political and controversial, the authors look beyond the rhetoric to see what has actually been achieved and what obstacles confront further improvements.

About the authors

Patrice Dutil is professor of politics and public administration at Ryerson University. His publications include Canada 1911 and Devilâ??s Advocate. A frequent media commentator on Canadian affairs, he is the president of the Champlain Society and the founder of The Literary Review of Canada. He lives in Toronto.

Patrice Dutil's profile page

Cosmo Howard is assistant professor of public administration at the University of Victoria. He is the editor of Contested Individualization (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).

Cosmo Howard's profile page

John Langford is professor of public administration at the University of Victoria. He is the co-editor of Corruption, Character and Conduct (Oxford University Press, 1994).

John Langford's profile page

Jeffrey Roy is associate professor in the School of Public Administration at Dalhousie University. He is the author of E-Government in Canada: Transformation for the Digital Age (University of Ottawa Press, 2006) and Business and Government in Canada (University of Ottawa Press, 2007).

Jeffrey Roy's profile page

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