The Institutionalisation of the Ombudsman Idea: The Case of New Brunswick's Ombudsman

This paper is about an organisation- the office of ombudsman- and how this organisation has become an institution. Although the ombudsman concept received extensive coverage when it was first adopted in Canada during the late1960s, it has since received limited attention in public administration periodicals and textbooks. Yet, curiously, the ombudsman has quietly become a cornerstone of the administrative state in Canada, so much so that its merits are taken for granted and cited by rote, with few if any detractors to be found. As an independent officer of the legislature who is appointed to handle citizen complaints of decisions made by public servants, the office of ombudsman may be viewed as a direct form of political participation intended to ensure democratic accountability of the administrative state. But what has been the actual performance record of the office of ombudsman? That is, following its adoption, how has the office of ombudsman nestled into the democratic administrative state as a fixed institution? There is more to this research objective, however, than what might first meet the eye. Across the country at this time, there is considerable attention being devoted to the analysis of the so-called democratic deficit, or the public’s disillusionment with an