Social Economy in the co-construction of public policy By Yves Vaillancourt In this paper, we will be talking a great deal about the democratization of public policy in Canada. But we will be doing so with the intent of establishing bridges to the theme of democratization of public policy in Latin America. While our deliberations on public policy certainly build on the expertise we have developed concerning historical trends and recent reforms in social policy in Canada and Quebec, these deliberations are enriched by the fact that, for the past 15 years or so, to analyse the changes in the state and in public policy in our country more accurately, we have felt the need to monitor closely similar changes that are under way in a number of European and Latin American countries. In that context, we have made several study trips to Latin America and have been closely following developments in the Latin American literature on the democratization of the state and public policy, paying close attention to similarities and differences between societies of the North and those of the South. All this, while not making us a Latin American specialist, has nevertheless made us a specialist in public policy changes in the North who is interested in the North while being influenced by numerous discussions with stakeholders and researchers from the South who share similar research issues on the democratization of the state, the economy and society.

• Social Economy in the co-construction of public policy Yves Vaillancourt CSEHub Occasional Paper 3 - July 2008 English and French PDF, 1 MB 74 pages