The Road to Innovation, Convergence or Inertia: Devolution in Housing Policy in Canada

Barbara Wake Carroll and Ruth J. E. Jones

Canadian Public Policy, 2000, vol. 26, issue 3, 277-293

Abstract: The focus of this paper is on housing policy in Canada since 1945 with a particular emphasis on the period since 1986 when the federal government began its withdrawal from housing policy. The paper applies existing theories of policy change, namely innovation, convergence, policy learning, and policy inheritance to the five phases of housing policy that have occurred in postwar Canada. It also incorporates two surveys of provincial housing policy conducted by the authors in 1994 and 1997 to assess the changes that have occurred since the federal government withdrawal in 1996. The analysis suggests that within a broader model of the policy process which deals with both periods of change and non-change, the theories of change can explain previous periods of activism, but the model can also explain the current period which can best be described by inertia. This inertia is understandable because the preceding conditions for change which existed in the earlier phases of housing policy are largely absent today.

Date: 2000
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0317-0861%2820000 ... RTICO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-R (text/html)
only available to JSTOR subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpp:issued:v:26:y:2000:i:3:p:277-293

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.utpjournals.com/loi/cpp/

Access Statistics for this article

Canadian Public Policy is currently edited by Prof. Mike Veall

More articles in Canadian Public Policy from University of Toronto Press University of Toronto Press Journals Division 5201 Dufferin Street Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3H 5T8.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Iver Chong ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).