Unit 6
Understanding the Importance of Ideas

Unit 6 helps students appreciate the place of ideas in our understandings and explanations of policy and policy change. The importance of ideas to public policy may seem obvious to some—that is, policies and programs are simply ideas put into practice. This unit aims to take students beyond this simple perspective to consider how ideas provide the ‘discursive framework’ within which we understand policy problems and consider the relative legitimacy of competing policy solutions.

The assigned reading by Bradford supplies a theoretically rich perspective on the role of ideas in public policy, examining the shift from the once dominant Keynesian approach to economic policy to the now dominant neo-liberal governing paradigm. Michael Prince is less explicit about the place of ideas in his theoretical framework, but he examines a parallel ‘paradigm shift’ in Canadian social policy. Building on what we have learned about social policy in previous units of Governance 403/Global Studies 403, Prince provides considerable insight into the evolution of social policy from 1980 to 2000. In the third reading, Ronald Manzer looks at ideas in education policy reform.

Learning Objectives

When you have completed Unit 6 you should be able to achieve the following learning objectives.

1. Explain the two main ways ideas effect public policy.
2. Distinguish between policy change in normal times and paradigmatic policy change.
3. Discuss the character of national governing paradigms and identify the three broad governing paradigms that have existed in Canada since the 19th century.
4. Recognize the subtle ideological power of hegemonic ideas.
5. Appreciate the significance of the ‘paradigm shift’ that took Canadians from the era of the Keynesian welfare state to the neo-liberal governing paradigm.