The Canadian biotechnology regulatory regime: The role of participation

In this article, we ask the question: how important is the participation element in the creation and reproduction of the Canadian biotechnology policy regime? We find that within the quasi-promotional regime currently in place in Canada, participation plays an interesting role (close to Hirschman’s ‘voice’ option), but not a core one in setting or modifying policy structure. It depends largely on the institutional setting within which the policy regime was originally constituted. We expect that in Canada, participation will make few inroads in changing the policy regime unless some core elements of the latter change.