Search results

Immunization is a public health area in which the intergovernmental challenges of formulating a national policy are evident. It is also an area in which harmonization of policy across Canada is particularly critical. The National Immunization Strategy was a F/P/T initiative designed to achieve this policy goal. The combination of national guidelines and flexible federal funding via a trust has, to date, been effective in improving equality of access to vaccines in provincial/territorial programmes with limited intergovernmental discord. The long-term success of the initiative will, however, largely depend on ongoing federal financial support and provincial/territorial views on national guidelines. This approach to immunization is a model that would lend itself well to other public health areas in which there is large variability in provincial/territorial programmes, where uniformity of programmes is particularly important and where there is a reluctance or inability of the federal government to legislatively mandate the harmonization of programmes.

A comparative analysis of the influence of global & regional integration upon institutional arrangements, political identities, & political stability in federal political systems is performed. Scrutiny of the impact of global & regional integration upon federal institutional arrangements in Australia, Canada, the European Union, Germany, India, South Africa, Switzerland, & the US revealed that only the European Union experienced substantial formal reform & that Australia, Germany, & India underwent minor formal & informal reform. It is subsequently revealed that only the federalist political system of the European Union produced new transnational identities. Moreover, it is asserted that the political equilibrium within the aforementioned nations has been relatively stable & that there is no common trend toward centralization or decentralization within those countries. A framework constructed upon two axes -- the concentration of global power & the expansion of existing regulations -- is then introduced to comprehend the future effects of global & regional integration upon federal political systems. 1 Figure, 21 References. J. W. Parker