Minority government and senior government officials: the case of the Canadian federal government

Bourgault, Jacques

doi:10.1080/14662043.2011.615170

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…However, research demonstrates that these relationships are not as consistent as we might expect and are very much dependent on the government in power. For example, Bourgault (2011) shows that the Conservative Harper minority governments in Canada were not more tentative in their legislative agendas than majority governments. In this analysis, we predict that governments with less electoral support will spend more money on these three issues areas because they are more likely to try to shape public opinion through funding interest groups (Bourgault, 2011).…”

Section: Predicting Government Funding Over Timementioning

confidence: 99%

Concentrating or Sprinkling? Federal Funding for Indigenous, Women’s, and Environmental NGOs in Canada, 1972-2014

Corrigall‐Brown

2017

American Behavioral Scientist

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Governments have a long history of funding nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and their programs. While there is much work describing this funding, there has been little research systematically examining how the political and economic context shapes the level and type of funding NGOs receive. This article examines the factors that predict levels of government funding for NGOs over time, focusing on spending for interest groups in three areas, Indigenous, women, and the environment. We use data collected from the Canadian Public Accounts, which lists all grants to groups by the federal government from 1972 until 2014. We use these data to assess how federal funding has changed over this period, how funding across issue areas is related, and the role of political and economic factors in shaping rising and declining funding over time. We find that the factors that predict funding vary across issue areas. Our analysis also shows government’s tendency to sprinkle funding across a larger number of groups or concentrate it in a smaller number of organizations is strongly related to the party in power and the issue area.

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Section: Predicting Government Funding Over Timementioning

confidence: 99%

Concentrating or Sprinkling? Federal Funding for Indigenous, Women’s, and Environmental NGOs in Canada, 1972-2014

Corrigall‐Brown

2017

American Behavioral Scientist

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“…But, constituencies of other parties still command some leverage, especially in situations where the governing party retains only a plurality of seats in the legislature (as is the case for the current minority government in Canada). In such cases, the governing party tends to be especially sensitive to public opinion and criticisms leveled by the opposition parties (Bourgault 2011). Furthermore, there is evidence that representatives in party-centered systems may work to change the views of fellow party members when those views are in opposition with the preferences communicated by constituents (Öhberg and Naurin 2016).…”

Section: Implications Of the Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Can citizen pressure influence politicians’ communication about climate change? Results from a field experiment

2021

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Urgent reductions in greenhouse gas emissions depend on governments implementing and enforcing rigorous climate policy. Individuals in democracies seeking to persuade government officials to reduce greenhouse gas emissions can take steps such as voting, protesting, and contacting officials directly, but it is unclear how effective each of these actions is in changing the behavior of elected officials. Here we take advantage of the public nature of social media to evaluate the actual efficacy of climate campaign emails using an original, real-world experiment where 335 Members of Canadian Parliament were asked by constituents to post a pro-climate message to their Twitter account. Only one Member of Parliament posted the exact text suggested by the campaign. After scraping and coding 18,776 tweets, we first find no evidence that a public health messaging frame is more effective than a standard environmental frame in eliciting proclimate posts. Furthermore, we find only a marginally significant relationship between volume of constituent contact and increased pro-climate tweeting from Members of Parliament. Follow-up interviews with political staffers suggest that analog alternatives may be more effective than campaign emails in some cases. Interview findings also reveal that some offices receive low levels of constituent communication on climate change, indicating that increased pressure from constituents could still be consequential.

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“…However, research demonstrates that these predictions are not as consistent as one might expect and they may also depend on the government in power. For example, Bourgault () shows that the Conservative Harper minority governments were not more tentative in their legislative agendas than majority governments. In this analysis, we predict that governments with less electoral support will spend more money on the three issue areas we have identified because they are more likely to try to win public opinion by funding interest groups (Bourgault ).…”

Section: Predicting Government Funding Over Timementioning

confidence: 99%

Does Talk Lead to Action? An Examination of the Relationship between Debate and Funding for NGOs in Canada

Corrigall‐Brown

2019

Canadian Review of Sociology

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All organizations, including nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), need funding to survive and fulfill their mandates. What is the best strategy for securing that funding? Should groups work to attract government attention and be a focus of government debate or should they avoid this type of scrutiny? This article uses innovative data to systematically examine how being the subject of debate in parliament is related to NGO funding for Indigenous, women, and environmental groups. We also examine if the relationship between debate and funding is dependent on the political party in power. We use data collected from Canadian Public Accounts, which lists all grants to groups by the federal government, and the index of Hansard, a full record of parliamentary debates at the federal level in Canada. Our findings demonstrate that the relationship between debate and funding is dependent on the issue area. While debate is positively associated with funding in all areas, it is a stronger predictor of funding for environmental and Indigenous groups than for organizations focusing on women. In addition, the party in power is critical for shaping how debate is related to funding. Debate has a much stronger effect on environmental funding when Liberals are in power than it does when Conservatives control the Prime Minister's office. This research shows that NGOs must be strategic when garnering attention to their cause as more debate does not necessarily lead to more funding across issue areas and contexts.

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Minority government and senior government officials: the case of the Canadian federal government

Cited by 4 publications

References 8 publications

Concentrating or Sprinkling? Federal Funding for Indigenous, Women’s, and Environmental NGOs in Canada, 1972-2014

Concentrating or Sprinkling? Federal Funding for Indigenous, Women’s, and Environmental NGOs in Canada, 1972-2014

Can citizen pressure influence politicians’ communication about climate change? Results from a field experiment

Does Talk Lead to Action? An Examination of the Relationship between Debate and Funding for NGOs in Canada

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