The politics of bureaucratic mobility : historical changes across public service bargains in Canada's provincial governments

This dissertation studies temporal variances in the relationship between political variables and the mobility of administrative elites in Canada’s provincial bureaucracies. Conceptualizing the association between the government and the bureaucracy as a principal-agent relationship, research in public administration has identified how various political dynamics – such as a transition in the governing party – affects the extent to which governments interfere in the staffing of bureaucratic personnel; removing incumbents and replacing them with persons who are believed to be loyal to government’s policy agenda. This dissertation contributes to this literature by identifying the historical contingencies with which political dynamics effect mobility.   Drawing upon Hood and Lodge’s (2006) concept of a Public Service Bargain (PSB), the relationship between political dynamics and mobility is situated within a more precise social-historical context. Rather than approaching political-administrative relationships as universally reflecting the specifications of principal-agent theory – exhibiting a high incidence of goal conflict and information asymmetry – this work claims that the extent to which political dynamics prod governments to strategically dismiss and appoint personnel has varied over time, in tandem with shifts in the contours of political-administrative relationships; specifically, the nature of the bureaucracy’s competency and its loyalty.  Primarily using descriptive statistics and logistic regression the association between political variables and mobility is tested with an original dataset of deputy minister turnover in Canada’s provincial bureaucracies between 1920 and 2013. Overall, the empirical evidence supports the conclusion that the effect that political dynamics have on bureaucratic mobility has varied over time across distinct PSBs.   Prior to the development of the modern professional bureaucracy, where political-administrative relationships reflected a spoils bargain, transitions in the governing party resulted in increased mobility. Such actions are congruent with a PSB where the nature of governance is of a minimal character; there are no specifications concerning the bureaucracy’s competency; and the bureaucracy’s loyalty is of a partisan nature towards the governing party.   Starting in the postwar period and lasting until the 1980s, the association between political dynamics and mobility is significantly reduced. Such is congruent with a Schafferian bargain where governments encourage technical knowledge of policies and a willingness amongst bureaucrats to provide frank counsel to government office holders, regardless of the party in power.  Starting in the 1980s however, political dynamics are once again positively associated with mobility. Yet now, not only transitions in party, but all newly elected heads of government lead to increased mobility. This is consistent with a managerial bargain where appointments are used to encourage loyalty to the government’s policy agenda and competency is understood as the ability to manage personnel and resources to realizing the directives dictated by the government.  Situating the strategic actions of governments within their social-historical context, this work makes original contributions to the fields of public administration and Canadian politics by showing that when it comes to bureaucratic mobility, political dynamics matter; but which dynamics, and the extent of their effects, vary over time across distinct PSBs.

Keyphrases: Executive politics, Control, Appointment, Mobility, Public Service Bargain, Principal-agent theory, Patronage, Politicization, Canada, Provinces, Bureaucratie