Canadian Public Sector Reform: Moving Towards a Neo-Weberian State?

Recent turbulence in governing environments has reinvigorated big questions in the field about the efficacy of various public governance approaches. This article examines the applicability of the Neo Weberian State (NWS) approach to the Canadian case. Our analysis reveals that Canada does not currently meet the NWS requirements. Canada’s decentralized federal system and Indigenous governance dynamics challenge the hierarchy essential to the NWS. As a modest reformer, Canada’s public management reform trajectory has not yielded many of the elements stipulated by the NWS. Canada remains characterized by partial and often asymmetrical incrementalism which we argue points to a hybrid, pragmatic, and negotiated (HPN) approach. Looking at Canada through the lens of NWS raises important questions and considerations for the future directions of Canadian public management, but also identifies further opporutnities to sharpen the NWS approach.