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The current political climate is characterized by an alarming pattern of global democratic regression driven by authoritarian populist leaders who deploy vast misinformation campaigns. These offensives are successful when the majority of the population lack skills that would allow them to think critically about information in the political sphere, to identify misinformation, and therefore to fully exercise democratic citizenship. Political science has theorized the link between information and power and information professionals understand the cognitive decision-making process involved in processing information, but these two literatures rarely intersect. This paper interrogates the links between information literacy (IL) and the rise of authoritarian populism in order to advance the development of a new transtheoretical model that links political science (which studies power), information science, and critical pedagogy to suggest new paths for teaching and research. We call for a collaborative research and teaching agenda, grounded in a holistic understanding of information as power, that will contribute to achieving a more informed citizenship and promoting a more inclusive democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence-based practice has advanced in public administration, with increasing reliance on social research and population sampling in decision making. Yet the evidence-based turn risks marginalizing the value of strategic foresight and futures competencies in informing policy and planning. Where evidence enables policymakers to select the best near-term course of action, future outcomes are inferred and projected, and not determined by past evidence. Foresight provides a necessary competency for defining and investing in the right direction of future policy and action, by articulating future problematics with multiple foresight methods. While social and technological futures cannot be precisely predicted, future scenarios and prospectuses can be designed to inform options and trajectories for intervention and new policy. The emerging area of digital-era governance is examined, where complex scenarios for future policies are based on present evidence (such as trends) and informed speculation to formulate policies and options in dynamically changing societal contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses experimental research in public administration in Canada. Topics include methodology in public administration research, the need for evidence-based decision-making in public administration, and cooperation between social scientists and public administrators. The need for graduate students to be trained in experimental work is noted.

Given the importance of higher education in social and economic development, governments need to build a strong higher education data and policy research infrastructure to support informed decision-making, provide policy advice, and offer a critical assessment of key trends and issues. The author discusses the decline of higher education policy research capacity in Canada and reviews the importance of strong national data systems in addressing issues of access and student mobility, and in understanding the implications of the increasing fragmentation of academic work. An international comparative study of national arrangements could illuminate useful strategies and approaches for strengthening this important policy research infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since previous research has shown that nation-states take the acts of other states in consideration when making decisions about their policies, this article focuses on analyzing national decision-making in actual practice by studying the justifications used in debating new legislation. The data comprises second readings of bills from Canada and the UK and House debates of US bills from 2001 to 2011. The total amount of bills analyzed is 208. The results show that the acts of governments and other agents in the global system are an essential part of the factors to which actors refer in their argumentation. The analysis also shows that the US political culture is less receptive to considering cross-national differences or policies adopted in other states as justification for domestic reforms than the other two countries, whereas Canadians are most sensitive to the international community and their position and reputation among the nations. From these differences in national political cultures we cannot deduce, however, that the United States is immune to external factors or the center of a unilateral system. Although decisions are less often justified by policies adopted in other countries, the global community and economic competition are an essential part of the environment to which US politicians place themselves as decision makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interest groups have much to offer citizen engagement activities, yet their contributions have been marginalized in recent years with the focus on more deliberative approaches for 'ordinary citizens.' It seems that an either/or situation exists between citizen and interest group engagement. This article transcends this debate by delineating a methodology to inform the design of engagement processes that would include both citizens and groups in productive dialogue. Based on past interest group collaboration patterns, a collaborative method is outlined, which offers a way to identify and select interest groups for inclusion in engagement processes with citizens. The method is then applied to a case study of two water issues confronting the City of Hamilton in Ontario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses data from an online voting experiment to examine the impact of institutional socialization on the vote decision process. More specifically, we examine how Canadian and American voters differ in their vote decision processes in two- and four-party elections. Our expectation is that Canadian voters, who are more familiar with multiparty electoral context, will adjust to the increased complexity of the four-party competition by engaging in a more detailed decision process. Alternatively, we expect US voters, who are less familiar with multiparty competitions, will not undertake such an adjustment, perhaps even engaging in a less detailed vote calculus under more complex conditions. Results lend support to our expectations, offering insight into how institutional design and socialization can affect voter decision processes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Evidence-based policy-making represents a contemporary effort to reform or re-structure policy processes in order to prioritize evidentiary or data-based decision-making. Like earlier efforts in the “policy analysis movement,” its aim is to avoid or minimize policy failures caused by a mismatch between government expectations and actual, on-the-ground conditions through the provision of greater amounts of policy-relevant information. A significant factor affecting the ability of policy-makers to engage in evidence-based policy-making pertains to both governmental and non-governmental “policy analytical capacity.” That is, governments require a reasonably high level of policy analytical capacity to perform the tasks associated with managing the policy process in order to implement evidence-based policy-making and avoid several of the most common sources of policy failures. Recent studies, however, suggest that, even in advanced countries such as Canada, the level of policy analytical capacity found in many governments and non-governmental actors is low, potentially contributing to both a failure of evidence-based policy-making as well as effectively dealing with many complex contemporary policy challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explores the reaction of voters when faced with a fundamental political choice using data from a survey of voting intentions conducted prior to the 1995 referendum on sovereignty in Quebec. Influence of indirect political choice on attitude towards risk-taking; Factors affecting voters' decisions on unknown futures.

The article identifies a variety of issues interfering with effective governance in the Canadian public sector. The article concludes that in order to maximize the contribution of the branches in achieving the departmental mission and vision, there is a need to enhance the effectiveness and expediency of decision making through a more effective governance regime at the branch and departmental levels.