Université d’Ottawa | University of Ottawa The Center on Governance | Governance Innovation Lecture Series
Getting to North American Governance: Practice, Practice, Practice
Inaugural Conference by Stephen Blank
2012 Fulbright Research Chair in Governance and Public Administration at the University of Ottawa
Tuesday, September 25th 2012 2:00 to 4:00 pm University of Ottawa Campus, 120 University (FFS 4004)
This is a free public conference.
Places are limited, Please RSVP by email at ceg-cog@uOttawa.ca by Friday September 21st
This event will be presented in English.
Abstract
Thirty years ago, North America was com-posed of three separate national econo-mies, moving in inward looking and pro-tectionist directions. Today, key sectors of our economies and societies have become deeply integrated continental systems. There is a North American Reality.
Governments created the framework for these developments – lowering many trade barriers and reversing much of the interventionist and protectionist policies that characterized the 1970s. But compa-nies provided the motor force – a bottom up movement that dramatically altered corporate structures and strategies in North America.
North American developments in no way resemble the European experience. Political goals that frame European integration and the political apparatus constructed to achieve them are entirely absent here. The North American situation is characte-rized by dense crossborder and continent-wide networks and high levels of interdependence on one hand and by weak, frag-mented governance arrangements on the other. Until the past decade, this was not viewed as a problem for North America. Indeed, many felt that limited govern-ment involvement was a positive factor in encouraging innovation and entrepreneurialism.
Until now, this North American system has been remarkably resilient – not-withstanding the lack of institutional development, economic recessions and the events of 9-11 and the thickening of our internal borders.
But now, bottom-up incrementalist ap-proaches no long suffice to prepare us to confront very large and urgent matters that are continental in scope and demand continental responses – developing North American policies on climate change, laying out an optimum North American energy mix, building a transportation infrastructure system that will support North American com-petitiveness, dealing with demographic change and population movements and collaborating on security.
Past efforts at building acceptable North American governance arrange-ments have all failed. Some (Super-NAFTA) were too grand, some (SPP) too stealthy. The fear of ‘North American Union’ remains toxic. What is possible? The answer may be a series of separate but linked steps to create North American “solutions” to the critical issues we confront. We must de-demonize the idea of North America and create go-vernance arrangements that build legiti-macy for continental approaches. Practice is key.
Stephen Blank’s bio
Stephen Blank is this year`s Fulbright Research Chair in Governance and Public Administration at the University of Ottawa. Educated at Dart-mouth, Cambridge and Harvard, he has enjoyed a long career in the academic, business and not-for-profit worlds. Dr. Blank taught in the University of Pittsburgh’s Political Science Department (1967-74) and Pace University’s Lubin School of Business (1986-2006). He has been a visiting professor at Yale, Dartmouth, the University of Toronto, Dalhousie, UBC, the International University of Japan, Columbia University, the University of Montreal, HEC-Montreal and Western Washington University. He served as Executive Director of the Council for European Studies, headed The Conference Board`s Multinational Corporate Conduct Project and International Political and Social Analysis Program and was Managing Director of the PanAmerican Partnership for Business Education. He was a founding partner of Multinational Strategies, Inc., an international management consultancy and of Stephen Blank Associates. Blank has authored and co-authored many publications. He is best known for his work on North American integration – looking in particular at corporate strategies, infrastructure and transporta-tion. He was a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow and a scholar in residence at the Villa Serbeloni in Bellagio, Italy; Claude Bissell Visiting Professor of US-Canada Relations at the University of Toronto and Fulbright Distinguished Professor at the University of Montreal. In 2008-2010, he was the Ross Distinguished Visiting Professor of Canada-U.S. Business and Economic Relations at Western Washington University. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. In 2002, was awarded L’Ordre National du Quebec by the Government of Quebec. In June 2009, he was granted the first North American Citizen award by the North American Center for Transborder Studies at Arizona State University and in November, the first North America Works award by North America Works in Kansas City, Missouri.
La Cycle de conférence Innovations en gouvernance est une initia-tive du Centre d’Études en gouvernance de la Faculté des sciences sociales de l’Université d’Ottawa. Elle a pour but de créer un es-pace de réflexion sur les solutions novatrices, originales et même parfois avant-gardistes pour faire face aux grands défis et pro-blèmes contemporains auxquels les gouvernements sont confron-tés. Les professionnels en résidence, les chercheurs invités, les universitaires associés au Centre d’Études en gouvernance sont les premiers sollicités. Le caractère appliqué, concret et ciblé de la série vise à favoriser le dialogue entre le milieu universitaire et celui des intervenants gouvernementaux et non-gouvernementaux. Les innovations proposées portent sur la gou-vernance publique, la gestion publique, les politiques publiques, les rapports entre les acteurs gouvernementaux et non-gouvernementaux (secteur privé et société civile) dans le dévelop-pement de politiques ou la production de services publics. Le public cible se compose de la communauté universitaire, des interve-nants du secteur public et communautaire et du grand public.
Responsables de la série : Eric Champagne (echampagne@uottawa.ca) Caroline Andrew (candrew@uottawa.ca)
The Governance Innovation Lecture Series
Le cycle de conférences : Innovations en gouvernance
The Center on Governance | Governance Innovation Lecture Series
The Governance Innovation Lecture Series is an initiative from the University of Ottawa’s Centre on Governance, Faculty of Social Sciences. The main objective of the series is to create a space for thinking about innovative solutions to address contemporary pro-blems and challenges faced by governments. Senior Fellows, visi-ting researchers and faculty associated with the Centre on Go-vernance will be the first asked to contribute to the series. The series focus on applied, concrete and targeted innovations and will aim at fostering dialogue between the academic, the government and the non-governmental sectors. The selected governance inno-vations should focus on public governance, public management, and public policy along with relationships between the govern-ment, the private sector and civil society in public policy design and public service delivery. The target audience is the academic community, civil servants, public and non-profit actors and the general public.
People in charge of the series:
Eric Champagne (echampagne@uottawa.ca) Caroline Andrew (candrew@uottawa.ca)
http://www.sciencessociales.uottawa.ca/governance/
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