GLENN, Ted <br/><br/>
Politics, leadership, and experience in designing Ontario`s cabinet 

 -  2001 
<br/><br/> Why are cabinet decision-making systems designed the way  they are? Traditional approaches to this question stress the importance of representational imperatives (i.e., region,language and gender), the need for managerial capacity and collegiatlity in complex organizations, or a particular government`s fiscal or policy program. While these approaches have merit, they fail to pay sufficient attention to the fact that cabinet decision-making systems are in the first instance very intimate reflections and extensions of the political instincts, personal atitudes, and governing experience of first ministers. The author sets out to understand recent reforms to Ontario cabinet decision-making in precisely this way - how did Premier Michael Harri`s sense of this government`s  mandate, his personal approach to decision -making, and the practical lessons learned over the course of this government`s first mandate influence the design of Ontario`s cabinet decision-making system between 1995 and 1999>? This article begins with a short history of Ontario`s cabinet decision-making system, focusing on the period from 1968 to 1995. It then provides details of reforms introduced between 1995 and 1999 and conclusdes with some throughts on how Pemier Harris` political instincts, personal aptitudes, and governing experience influenced these reforms