Browsing by Author "Béland, Daniel"
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- ItemOpen AccessDoes Labor Matter? Institutions, Labor Unions and Pension Reform in France and the United States(Cambridge University Press, 2001) Béland, Daniel
- ItemOpen AccessExamining the World Health Organization's governance and response to noncommunicable diseases: A Foucauldian analysis(2020-04-29) Chaisson, Kristen G. E.; Ducey, Ariel M.; Langford, Tom; Béland, Daniel; Adorjan, Michael C.; Upshur, Ross E. G.The World Health Organization (WHO) is a key actor leading international cooperation to address global health problems. This dissertation focuses on how the WHO mobilizes discourse to construct and inform the international response to global health problems in its guideline and technical documents. The theoretical framework of governmentality is used as a lens to examine the WHO as a global institution that governs while unable to impose policies on sovereign Member States; thus, the WHO’s mobilizations of the discourse and evidence in its documents and document review procedures are critical for its governance. This project explores the extent to which the WHO is neoliberal and mobilizes biopolitical techniques of power. Through an in-depth, Foucauldian discourse analysis of 29 WHO guideline and technical documents from 1992-2016 and five WHO key informant interviews, this dissertation more specifically examines the WHO’s approach to noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). The dissertation shows that the WHO depicts NCDs as undermining economic and social development throughout the world, threatening the achievement of internationally agreed-upon development goals, and increasing inequalities between countries and populations. In WHO documents, NCDs are attributed to a few behaviours considered modifiable, such as dietary choices and tobacco use, although many scholars argue that this focus is ineffective in decreasing NCDs. At times, the WHO attributes the economic burden of NCDs to irresponsible individual behaviours, suggesting a neoliberal governmentality. To measure this economic burden, the WHO employs a biopolitical technique in service of neoliberalism in the form of epidemiological statistics of premature deaths. The WHO experiences several tensions in this current, neoliberal political climate as it negotiates how to protect global health and attempts to govern the global population; these tensions involve the tobacco and food industries, evidence review, and political and financial support. Furthermore, in the creation of WHO documents, the WHO’s epistemology is evidence-informed decision-making which results in systematically favouring medical evidence and excluding social science literature. I question the extent to which WHO documents are useful due to their assumptions and limitations in construction – given the need for the WHO as a global partner, and the tensions experienced by the organization.
- ItemOpen AccessA Long Financial March: Pension Reform in China(Cambridge University Press, 2004) Béland, Daniel; Yu, Ka Man
- ItemOpen AccessNationalism and social policy in Canada and Quebec(Routledge, 2005) Béland, Daniel; Lecours, André
- ItemOpen AccessNationalism, Public Policy, and Institutional Development: Social Security in Belgium(Cambridge University Press, 2005) Béland, Daniel; Lecours, André
- ItemOpen AccessPublic Policy Making and Policy Change: Ghana’s Local Governance, Education and Health Policies in Perspective(2023-01-05) Adu Gyamfi, Benjamin; Ray, Donald; Hiebert, Maureen; Franceschet, Susan; Kreitzer, Linda; Stapleton, Timothy; Béland, DanielThis thesis, with the multiple streams framework (MSF) and the new institutionalism (NI) as theoretical lenses, seeks to understand the factors that shape policy making and policy change in post-independence Ghana. More specifically, it seeks to provide a better understanding of the factors that have led Ghana after independence to achieve remarkable, path-departing, substantive change in its health and local governance policies but marginal or incremental changes in its education policy. I argue that policy entrepreneurs and government political will in the form of demonstrated credible intent and commitment of the government culminating in partisan decisions greatly shaped the different policy outcomes and differing magnitude of change in Ghana’s local governance, health, and education policies at specific moments in time. Institutions affect the efforts of policy entrepreneurs and the government to carry out a proposed policy change. Understanding public policy making and policy change is of vital importance because public policies involve who gets what in politics. Thus, there is the need to examine the determinants of public policies and the drivers of policy change. Yet, the analysis of policy making and policy change in Africa, particularly Ghana, has been a neglected area of study. Hence, policy making and policy change in Africa has not been sufficiently explored. Besides, comparative understanding of policy making and policy change in Ghana is under researched. The study, therefore, helps to fill this gap by comparatively analysing how political will and commitment of the government and policy entrepreneurs interact differently to drive policy making and policy change at specific moments in time in Ghana. Relying on the MSF, while paying attention to the impact of differing institutions on the streams, helps to provide a deeper understanding of the policy making process and policy change. Methodologically, the comparative case study method helps in identifying variations, patterns and commonalities in health, education, and local governance policy making and policy change in Ghana. Theoretically, the study aims first, to extend the applicability of the MSF in examining policy making to Ghana and second, to provide a deeper understanding by combining the MSF and the NI.
- ItemOpen AccessStasis amidst change: Canadian pension reform in an age of retrenchment(Edward Elgar Publishing, 2005) Béland, Daniel; Myles, John