Donald J. Savoie

Donald J. Savoie was born in 1947 in Saint-Maurice, near Bouctouche, New Brunswick. The family moved to Moncton when he was young.

Savoie founded the Canadian Institute for Research on Regional Development at l'Université de Moncton in 1983 where he also teaches public administration. The institute was renamed the Donald J. Savoie Institute in 2015. He has advised governments in Canada and abroad, including governments in Russia, China, Brazil, Hungary and Bosnia Herzegovina. He currently holds the Canada Research Chair in Public Administration and Governance (Tier 1) at the University of Moncton.

Savoie has published forty-seven books and over 200 articles in journals and edited collections during his career. Among the most important are Federal-Provincial Collaboration, Breaking the Bargain: Public Servants, Ministers, and Parliament, Governing from the Centre: The Concentration of Power in Canadian Politics (shortlisted for the Donner Prize) and Thatcher, Reagan, Mulroney: In Search of a New Bureaucracy,[1] What Is Government Good At? A Canadian Answer, the 2015 Donner Prize winner and Visiting Grandchildren: Economic Development in the Maritimes (shortlisted for the Donner Prize). His 2013 book, Whatever Happened to the Music Teacher? How Government Decides and Why was shortlisted for the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing and Democracy in Canada: The Desintegration of Our Institutions. His biography Harrison McCain: Single-Minded Purpose and Looking for Bootstraps: Economic Development in the Maritimes were both shortlisted for the National Business Book Award (2014 and 2018).[2] His Politics of Public Spending in Canada was the inaugural recipient of the Smiley prize (1992). He has also been awarded several other prizes and awards for his work in Canada, Europe and the United States. His work has been translated in several languages including Mandarin, Russian and Bosnian.

His articles have been published in leading national and international journals of political science, public administration and public policy including the British Journal of Politics and International Relations, Canadian Journal of Political Science, Canadian Public Policy, Canadian Public Administration, Journal of Canadian Studies, Canadian Journal of Development Studies, Canadian Journal of Regional Science, Public Budgeting and Finance, Politiques et Management Public, Journal of Rural Studies, Government and Policy, International Journal of Public Sector Management, Revue française d’administration publique and Public Administration Review. His work has been reviewed in leading peer reviewed journals of political science, public policy and public administration and some of the world's leading newspapers including The Sunday Times (UK), Financial Times (UK), The Daily Telegraph (UK), The Times of India, the Globe and Mail (Canada) and several leading American newspapers. He has published op.eds in the Globe and Mail, National Post, Le Devoir, La Presse, The Guardian (UK) and Time Magazine.

He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1993,[3] a member of the Order of New Brunswick in 2011 and elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1992. He obtained a D.Phil. from Oxford University in 1979. In 2000, he became one of only a few individuals from North America to receive a D.Litt. from Oxford University. He has also been awarded eight honorary doctorates by Canadian universities (University of Ottawa, Dalhousie, Mount Allison, Acadia, St. Francis Xavier, Saint Mary's, Université Sainte-Anne and University of New Brunswick). He was awarded the Vanier Gold Medal (1999), the Trudeau Fellowships Prize (2004) and the Sun Life Public Service Citation Award (2004). He is the inaugural winner (2018) of the Yvan Allaire Medal (Royal Society of Canada). He was appointed one of Canada's 150 Ambassadors to celebrate Canada's 150th anniversary. He was also awarded the Canada 150 Medal in 2017, the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012), the Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal (2003) and the Canada 125 Medal (1992). He was elected a Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford in 2006 and named Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics in 2007. He was also a Senior Fulbright Scholar at Harvard University in 2001-02. He was elected President of the Canadian Political Science Association in 1998. He has served as a member of boards of directors for both private and public sector organizations.

Donald Savoie was awarded the 2015 Killam Prize in Social Sciences. He was the first scholar at an Atlantic Canadian university to receive this award.[4]

• Federal-Provincial Collaboration, Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1981
• An overview of the importance of federal-provincial relations on regional development: the restructuring of 1982, Moncton: Canadian Institute for Research on Regional Development, 1984 (ISBN 0-88659-003-5)
• Regional Economic Development: Canada’s Search for Solutions, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1986, reprinted 1987.
• La lutte pour le développement: le cas du Nord Est, Québec, Les presses de l’Université du Québec, 1988.
• Regional Policy in a Changing World, New York: Plenum Press, 1990.
• The Politics of Public Spending in Canada, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990, reprinted 1990 and 1991.
• The Politics of Language, Kingston: Institute of Intergovernmental Relations, Queen's University, 1991, 23 p. ( ISBN 0-88911-586-9 )
• Regional Economic Development: Canada's Search for Solutions, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992, 341 p.
• Globalization and Governance, Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Management Development, 1993, 37 p. ( ISBN 0-662-98781-0 )
• Thatcher, Reagan, Mulroney: In Search of a New Bureaucracy, Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1994, reprinted 1994, 1995.
• Rethinking Canada's regional development policy: a view of the Atlantic, Moncton: Canadian Institute for Research on Regional Development, 1997, 67 p.
• Governing from the Centre: The Concentration of Power in Canadian Politics'', Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999, reprinted 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004 and 2006 (Review).
• Community Economic Development in Atlantic Canada: False Hope or Panacea, Moncton: Canadian Institute for Research on Regional Development, 2000, 131 p.
• Aboriginal Economic Development in New Brunswick, Moncton: Canadian Institute for Research on Regional Development, 2000, 143 p.
• Pulling Against Gravity: Economic Development in New Brunswick During the McKenna Years, Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2001
• Breaking the Bargain: Public Servants, Ministers, and Parliament, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003, reprinted 2003, 2004, 336 p.
• Visiting Grandchildren: Economic Development in the Maritimes, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006, reprinted 2006 (Review)
• Court Government and the Collapse of Accountability in Canada and the United Kingdom, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008, reprinted 2008.
• I'm From Bouctouche, Me, Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2009, 316 p. (A memoir.)
• Power: Where Is It?, Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2010, reprinted 2010, 302 p. (Review)
• Whatever Happened to the Music Teacher? How Government Decides How and Why, Montreal, McGill-Queen's University Press, 2013, reprinted 2014, 336 p.
• Harrison McCain: Single-Minded Purpose, Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2013, 336 p.
• What Is Government Good At?: A Canadian Answer, Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2015, reprinted 2016, 388 p.
• Looking for Bootstraps: Economic Development in the Maritimes, Halifax: Nimbus Publishing, 2017, 440 p.
• Democracy in Canada: The Disintegration of Our Institutions Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2019, 504 p.