Welcome to the Good Governance Project

In January 2025, we started interviewing senior public servants and political staff in Canada, the UK, Australia and the US to gather insights on how government is working well, where improvements are needed, and how different governments function within their wider public governance ecosystems at a country and international level.

The results of that work culminated in three papers on state capacity which will be published in January 2026 by the CSA Public Policy Centre.

The first paper offers an overview of state capacity, how we define it, how it is measured, and what effective and modern public governance looks like in 2025 in different countries, including Canada.

The second paper is a deep dive on Canada and offers case studies on how the federal machinery is working, where it needs support, and how provinces get things done.

The third paper is on reform pathways and offers some recommendations for Canada and other western democratic systems to consider,

Between now and the release of the papers, this website will do two things: 1) For the curious - I will post country profiles and link these to an interactive comparative map on public governance systems. I am still working on functionality for the map as I'd like to open this tool and dataset up. Please get in touch if you can help or have country / institution insights you think should be profiled. 2) For interviewees and collaborators - You have a log-in to the papers and case studies.

Thanks for reading! Back soon with more.

Anne