Subm'itted in Fartia'l Fulfillment of the Requirements for the 0Egree of Master of Publ Ic Affairs
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TELECOMMUNICATIONS POLICY AND THE MAN I TOBA NEI/ DEMOCRAT I Ë PARTY : PARTY POLITICS AND THE POLICY COMMUNITY Lesl ie C. Carrothers Subm'itted in Fartia'l Fulfillment of the Requirements for the 0egree of Master of publ ic Affairs UNIVERSITY OF WINNIPEG/UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA L-.,,. .., '2;ì'i,i:,__.1 1987 1:'|:.4/ TELECOMMUNICATIONS POLICY AND THE I'ÍANITOBA NEIit DEMOCRATIC PARTy: PARTY POLITICS AND THE POLICY COMMUNITY BY LESLIE C. CARROTHERS A thesis subnlitted to thc Faculty of Graduate Studies of the University of Ma¡ritoba in partial fulfillment of the requirenrents of the degree of MASTER OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS @ t98 7 Permission has been granted to the LIBRARY OF THE UNIVER- SITY OF MANITOBA to lend or sell copies of this thesis. ro the NATIONAL LIBRARY OF CANADA to microfitm this thesis a¡rd to lend or sell copies of the film, and UNIVERSITY MICROFILMS to publish an absrracr of this thesis. The author reserves other publication rights, and neither the thesis nor extensive extracts from it may be printed or other- wise rcproduced without the author's written permission. ABSTRACT Traditional theorìes of pubìic eo'l icy formation in I iberal-democrat ic states that maintain a par I iamentary system of government often cöntain the assumpt ion that e'lected representatives of the governing political partyr part icular ly cabinet miniEtersr play a crucial role in the content of government policv outputs. This assumption is e>:plicit in one of the earliest formal expressionE of pub'l ic policy theoryr termed the "po'l icy/administration dichotomy" ¡ and can often be found in modern par l iamentary debates related to ministerial accountability. HoweVpr¡ recent empir ical studies of eol icy format ion suggest that whi le prescr ipt ive elements of the dichotorny cont inue to "condit ion" inst itut ional arrangements within the canadian pol it ica'l systemr its descr ipt ive elements have lost much of their re'levance. In en ef f ort to determine the eoì'icy roles of elected representat ives in a single provìncial po'l icy sector r this peper studied thê evolut ion of telecommunicat ions pol icy in Manitoba from I g6g-r977. Dur inE this per iod the Province hras governed by the New Democrat ic Party led by Edward Schreyer. Methodoloqv To hypothesize var iab'le re'lat ionshipE among e'lements./ actors act ive in the pol icl process dur ing the per ìod under studyr this case study utilized e modified version of the "poljcy community" model developed by A. Paul ProEs. Elements within the policy community hrere divided into four groups: party based elements (i.e. minister/cabinetr party pol icy) which were assigned independent andr in the case of party pol icy r intervening var iable rolesi non-party based e'lements ( i.e. planners in the civi I servicer MTS management) which were assigned independent variable roleEi contextual elementE (i,e. previous polìcyr the political economy of technological change) which were assigned intervening variable statusi and po'l icy outputs which were treated es the dependent var iab'le. The case study uJas then divided into two sections. The first involved a review of previous po'l icy ( f rom 'l 906 to 1969) to determine the role that contextual elements played in shaping dominant po'l icy paredigms that ex'isted in the po1ìcv community when the NDP took of f ice 'in '! 969. The secsnd sect ian involved ãn ana'lysis of the role of all variable categories in defining the po1 icv behaviour of the Schreyer administ rat ion. The central quest ion asked in the study was: were party based elements./actors crucia'l in the content of telecommunicat ions pol icies establ ished by the Schreyer New Denocrats. Results The most significant finding was that non-Farty based variab'les pìayed a nore important role than party based variables in defining the content of pol icy outputs. However r the behaviour of non-party based actors/agencies differed within the po'l icy cofimunity. The most important group ìn def ining the content of eolìcy changes were civi'l Eervice p'lanners who were motivated to develop netr, policies by the federal government's p'lanning efforts in the 1970's to respond to changes in telecommunications technology. Howeverr another group of nün-party based actorsr led by MTS management and re'lated interest groupsr served to limit the scope of po'l icy change to a relativ'ly narrow range of options. lJhile the MiniEter/ trabinet played an important "gatel<eeper" role in defining protress behaviour in the provincia'l pol'icy communityr this group of actors had 'l itt 1e impact on the actual content of pol icy outputs. In addit ionr perty po'l icy wes f ound to have no impact on the behaviour of actors in the po'l icy community. In concìusionr the f indings of this case study give support to the argument that descriptive e'lements of the po'l icy/administration dichotomy have'l ittle relevance in understanding the evo'lut ion of telecommunicat ions pol icy in Manitoba dur ing the Schreyer administrat ion's term of office. 1 CONTENTS CHAPTER I oliti Dev lo men Po'l icy Analysis and the Pol icy,/Administrat ion Dichotomy.,.9 A Strategy for Analysis: The Developmental Modeì of A, Paul Pr oss, . I I EHAPTER II :Tejecolnmunications Policy in Manitoba: a Framewsrk for Analysis ¡.......32 The CCF-NDP in Manitoba: An Overview,..32 Telecommunicat ions Pol icy and Technological Change. .48 The Framework f or Ana'lys i s. .58 CHAPTER III:The Conte>rt f or Folicy,Forma-tion:'l 906-19F9...68 Pr ivate Enterpr ise vs. Pubì ic Pressure...6g Manitoba Government Te'lephones and the Manitoba Teìephone System...74 Educat iona I Te I ecommun'icat i ons i n Man i t oba. , .103 ËHAPTER IV :Political Chanqe and the Po'licv Commun'itv Party Poììcr Prior to 1969...'l l1 Political Learning and the Po'l icy Community...ll5 Policy Ideas vs Policy Outputs...l36 CHAPÏER V : Pol jcv Community: AnE Jygi-g FJrd_-C_onql.usions. 155 Party Po'l icy and Party Based Actors...'l 55 Conte>rtual Var iab'lesr Ideas r and the Pol icy Community...l70 Conc'lus i on. .'l 76 Footnotes..,l80 ÞlttrlggraPny...¿l.t 11. r4gt-ES, I.i !A.Paul Pross's Policy Hierarchy.,.21 ILi :Manitoba's Telecommunications Policy Hierarchy...65 III.i:The Ro'le of Ear'ly Po'l icy Ideas ìn the 1960's....l07 IV.i iThe CCF./NDP's Pre-Election Telecommunications Po'l icy P'latform...'113 T] I AGRAMS I.i :A.Paul Progs's Conceptual Policy Community.,.23 II. i :l*ley E'lements in the Framework f or Analysis.,,E? III. i iManitoba's Pre-Election Policy Ëommunity,..l0g IV. j :l,lanitoba's Policy Community in t97g...lgS CHAPTER I Po'l i t i cs and Po I i cy Deve ì opment i A Strategy for Ana'lysis In one of the few articles by a Canadian author dedicated to the def init ion of pub'l ic pol icy as an aree of academic inquiry r Richard simeon notes that wìth the in- creasing "fashionabi l ity" of the discipl ine has come in- creased confusion regarding the scope and funct ion of folicy research,(l) This observation has particular rele- vance to the student of pub'l ic co1ìcy embarking on a re- search project. On the one handr the relatively small number of act ive wr ìters in the discip'l ìne and the var ied nature of their areas of specialjzation offers the student a broad vista of unexplored or on'ly part'ly explored "territory" upon which a research specialty can be devel- oped, HoweVÊrr the lack of a strong empirical tradition coup'led with the absence of a dom'inant theoret ica'l "paradigm" forces the researcher to mal.re what ãrê¡ at t imesr difficult decisions regarding the "tools" to be utilized in the seìection of a strategy for analysis. (2) One aspect of the "confusion" surrounding the study of pubì ic poì icy is the quegt ion of defining what publ ic Rol icy is. In a review of this quest ion Robert Adie and Pau'l Thomas note that "def init ions and conceptual izat ions aboundr ãhd when u,e cannot agree on what public policy isr then it should corne as no surprise that there is much 2 controversy over how we should go about studying it."(3) Adie and Thomas argue that a good start ing point in the development of a definition is Thomas Dye's statement that "publ ic pol icy is what governments choose to do or not to do. "(4) They go on to point out that whi le this statement serves to narrow public eolicy to the activities of government institutions it fails to sensitize the reader to the environmentalr culturalr and institutiona'l forces that relate to ìts development. Another example of an attempt at definit ion is t/i I I iam and Marsha Chand'ler's argument that pub'l ic po'l icy can be def ined aE "the outputs or products of a pol i t ica l system and can be thought of as patterns of goal-or ìented actions".(5) HowevÊr¡ this definition is also inco¡nplete on at 'least three counts.