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ABSTRACTThis paper discusses the measurement, the causes and the implication of public indebtedness. Several indicators of indebtedness, solvency and fiscal prudence are also reviewed. Having presented a descriptive and comparative analysis of public indebtedness of the various levels of government in Canada and elsewhere, we assess the solvency of governments in Canada. Finally, we construct indicators of fiscal prudence for the Federal and the Quebec governments that reveal to which extent the fiscal policies that were followed were unsustainable.

Since the end of the dictatorships in Spain and Chile, increasing importance has been placed on equality policies, in particular toward action by women's and feminist movements, which have produced new means of analyzing the social reality. In this context, violence against women has been conceptualized as a public problem, and the fight against it has gradually transformed into one of the primary means of public action in terms of gender equality. The two states studied have dealt with this issue through a series of negotiations involving various political stakeholders, resulting in two laws that reflect two different perspectives on the phenomenon, represented by the expressions “gender violence” (violencia de género) and “intra-family violence” (violencia intrafamiliale). This article analyses the contexts that have influenced how the problem of violence against women is understood in Spain and Chile, investigates the two approaches used by these countries—“gender violence” and “intra-family violence”—and examines the impacts of these choices.

Keywords: politiques publiques, femmes, violence, conjugale, Chili, Espagne, public policy, women, domestic violence, Chile, Spain

This paper investigates a current tendency among democracies to appeal to highly competent independent institutions in order to constrain and amend the potential deficiencies of elected and representative democratic bodies. According to some democratic theorists, these counter-majoritarian institutions enjoy democratic legitimacy because they allow the contestation of ill-devised or unjust collective decisions, and hence contribute to the global improvement of democratic results. Based on a reading of Philip Pettit's work on contestatory democracy and of David Estlund's epistemic approach, the paper questions the democratic nature of these institutional forms of contestation and shows that, as long as they are not subjected to tighter democratic control, these institutions can be interpreted as ways of contesting democracy rather than as implements for its improvement.

ABSTRACTPublic policies developed in the past few years in Belgium to "fight exclusion" differ from traditional means of intervention by the welfare state in that they are based on a principle of partnership and participation under the aegis of local authorities. The article seeks to describe and analyze how this new form of public policy implementation, while encouraging the emergence of new informal practices, has not radically changed relationships between political "decision makers" and local "operators," thus explaining the diversity and resistance of the informal sector.

AbstractSince 1970 the publications on political parties in Quebec have been various and numerous, but their cumulative nature is rather restricted. Few authors have worked with the models or conclusions of some other authors. Generally speaking young political scientists were not inclined during this period to have parties as their main field of research and theoretical constructions have remained scarce. The situation is about the same in United States and elsewhere in the world.

Keywords: savoirs climatiques autochtones, politiques climatiques, peuples autochtones, Afrique centrale

Made a national priority in the government’s 2016-2020 development plan, the social and solidarity economy (SSE) is embarking on a period of great experimentation in Tunisia. The sector has real advantages : well established throughout the country, a large supply of voluntary work, an intimate knowledge of the terrain, and a potential for creating jobs, wealth and social utility. These advantages are however counter-balanced by significant weaknesses : overly specialised in certain sectors, marginal economic importance, small-scale organisations, unskilled workers, governance issues, and limited access to finance. This article tries to identify the conditions needed to make the SSE a full-fledged third sector, halfway between the state and the market.

As in many other African countries, the indigent population in Burkina Faso has no access to health services, and this despite the institution of public policies that had, among other objectives, an improvement in the circumstances of the indigent. A proposed explanation for the lack of attention to equity by policy-makers and other actors involved in the implementation of these policies is that the situation of the indigent is not defined as a public problem in need of solution. This article seeks to confirm this explanation, using a socio-anthropological field inquiry and a public policy analytical framework. Empirical data were collected during fieldwork in Burkina Faso. The data are organised according to nine elements which provide a conceptual tool for understanding the manner in which such a situation could come to be defined as a public problem.

Since the late 1980s, “new private foundations” that have shown a distinct desire to innovate in the area of philanthropy have been established. The product of a market culture, they are part of an active process of redefining corporate governance and the respective responsibilities of the market, the State and the organizations of civil society. Taking a Quebec example, the author develops the idea that the emergence of these new foundations signals an ongoing transition from an “institutional regime” characteristic of a “coordinated market economy” to one typical of a “liberal market economy,” or at least an economy that many elites would like to see liberalized, even if this does not seem to be something most people want.