POLICY PARADIGMS AND POLICY CHANGES - LESSONS FROM THE OLD AND NEW CANADIAN POLICIES TOWARDS ABORIGINAL PEOPLES

Canadian policy towards Aboriginal Peoples is a complex regime involvi ng property rights, constitutional entitlements, cultural concerns, an d interlocking administrative, social, economic, and political aims an d goals. Recent events related to constitution-making have led investi gators to suggest that an old ''assimilationist'' paradigm established in colonial times is in the process of being replaced by a new policy paradigm of ''self-government'' and ''peaceful coexistence.'' Utilizi ng a model of paradigmatic policy change put forward by Peter Hall, th is paper examines the development of the old and new Canadian policy a nd the reasons for the transition between the two. In so doing, it est ablishes the need to focus more closely on the relationships existing between endogenous and exogenous sources of change in policy subsystem s in understanding the timing and content of policy change.