Amanda Clarke
Assistant Professor, School of Public Policy and Administration,
Carleton University

In the digital age, governments face increasing pressures to “do more with less”, to keep pace with evolving citizen expectations for service delivery, and to adapt to a society shaped by rapid information flows. In response, policymakers have attempted to integrate a range of new innovative policy instruments into their toolkits, including open data, big data, social media, behavioural insights and design thinking. Yet, facing a dearth of dedicated resources and talent, intense public scrutiny, the legacies of entrenched corporate policies and cultures, and in some cases, hindered by entirely legitimate legislative and ethical barriers, the pursuit of digital era policy innovation has in most cases resulted less in actual innovative policy, and instead, in the realization that the public service of today is ill-equipped to keep pace with the challenges and opportunities that accompany the digital age. Focusing on the Government of Canada, this presentation will identify the drivers of policy innovation agendas and the barriers that policy innovation efforts meet upon implementation. Looking forward, the presentation will point to both public management and democratic reforms required to build capacity for policy innovation in the public sector.