There are two types of budgetary theory, those based on economic rationality and those based on political rationality. In the lineage of the first of these theory types there appeared a few years ago a new management approach and a new decision-making approach, with a view to rationalizing budgetary choices. The article discusses these two approaches as they have been applied in the United States, Canada, and Quebec. The author shows in conclusion that the PPB system is not the miracle solution that it is often considered to be and that it poses a major problem of knowing who ought to define the needs and objectives of a society.

The principle of redistribution in all the provinces is not one man, one vote. But how far from equal population or equal number of voters for all constituencies do the provinces deviate?

If redistribution were based only on the population in the provinces, one would need a measure which would indicate the degree of inequality. There are several measures available. Hayward R. Alker, Jr., and Bruce N. Russett, after comparing different measures of inequality, concluded that the Gini index was an attractive way of summarizing the important parts of an accurate cumulative distribution and that it was sensitive to inequalities present in all parts of a value distribution. Because of these findings, it was decided that the Gini index would be used as a measure of inequality for provincial representation.

When I read Professor Franks' article, “The Dilemma of the Standing Committees of the Canadian House of Commons,” I was most disappointed at his perfunctory dismissal in less than half a sentence of the research services provided by the Library of Parliament. The sentence concerned, which is to be found on page 469, begins as follows: “The library, which prepares bibliographies and other background material, suffers from being ‘so anxious to be neutral that they are often bland.’”