POLI 1119 Lecture : Privy Council Office.docx
Document Summary
Career civil servants, headed by chief clerk of the privy. Counsel to the clerk, economic and regional development. Gives the advice of what"s going to happen, electoral consequences; they look at the next election etc. Not political, influence policy by giving sound policy advice; not partisan the same way the pmo is. They have access to information that the public will never have; they operate with the most information. Orders in council important; executive power; the pm doesn"t just say i want to do x and it happens, there is a procedure formal agreement. They collect information for the government, they are not creating new knowledge; we already know 90% of the information because of media, university think tanks etc. Bureaucracy cannot have political agenda; they are discreet. The key here is one exception: they have the right to resign if they fundamentally disagree with what they government did and can make this public (powerful tool that the bureaucrat has)