Banting, Keith G. 1947- (K.G. Banting, Keith Banting)

PERSONAL:

Born February 7, 1947, in Guelph, Ontario, Canada; son of Elmer Thomas (an engineer) and Evelyn Rhind Banting; married Marilyn McLeod, December 30, 1969; children: Alan, James. Ethnicity: "Anglo-Scottish." Education: Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, B.A. (with honors), 1969; Oxford University, D.Phil., 1973.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Office—School of Policy Studies, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada; fax: 613-533-2135. E-mail—keith.banting@queensu.ca.

CAREER:

House of Commons, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, research officer, 1969-70; University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, began as assistant professor, became associate professor of political science, 1973-86; Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, professor of political science, 1986—, holder of Queen's Research Chair in Policy Studies, 2003—, director of School of Policy Studies, 1992-2003.

MEMBER:

Canadian Political Science Association, American Political Science Association.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Member, Order of Canada, 2004.

WRITINGS:

Poverty, Politics, and Policy: Britain in the 1960s, Macmillan (London, England), 1979.

The Welfare State and Canadian Federalism, McGill-Queen's University Press (Kingston, Ontario, Canada), 1982, 2nd edition, 1987.

(Coauthor) Open Federalism: Interpretations, Significance, Institute of Intergovernmental Relations (Kingston, Ontario, Canada), 2006.

Contributor to books.

EDITOR

(Under name Keith Banting; with R. Simeon) And No One Cheered: Federalism, Democracy, and the Constitution Act, Methuen (New York, NY), 1983.

(With R. Simeon) Redesigning the State: The Politics of Constitutional Change in Industrial Nations, University of Toronto Press (Buffalo, NY), 1985, published as The Politics of Constitutional Change in Industrial Nations, Macmillan (London, England), 1985.

(Under name Keith Banting) State and Society: Canada in Comparative Perspective, University of Toronto Press (Buffalo, NY), 1986.

(Under name Keith Banting) The State and Economic Interests, University of Toronto Press (Buffalo, NY), 1986.

(Under name Keith Banting; with M. Hawes, R. Simeon, and E. Willis) Policy Choices: Political Agendas in Canada and the United States (conference proceedings), School of Policy Studies, Queen's University (Kingston, Ontario, Canada), 1991.

(Member of editorial group) Family Security in Insecure Times, National Forum on Family Security (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada), 1993.

(With Douglas M. Brown and Thomas J. Courchene) The Future of Fiscal Federalism (conference proceedings), School of Policy Studies, Institute of Intergovernmental Relations, John Deutsch Institute for the Study of Economic Policy, Queen's University (Kingston, Ontario, Canada), 1994.

(With K. Battle) A New Social Vision for Canada? Perspectives on the Federal Discussion Paper on Social and Security Reform, School of Policy Studies and Caledon Institute of Social Policy (Kingston, Ontario, Canada), 1994.

(With Charles M. Beach) Labour Market Polarization and Social Policy Reform, School of Policy Studies, Queen's University (Kingston, Ontario, Canada), 1995.

(With G. Hoberg and R. Simeon) Degrees of Freedom: Canada and the United States in a Changing World, McGill-Queen's University Press (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1997.

(With R. Boadway) Reform of Retirement Income Policy: International and Canadian Perspectives, School of Policy Studies, Queen's University (Kingston, Ontario, Canada), 1997.

(And contributor) The Nonprofit Sector in Canada: Roles and Relationships, McGill-Queen's University Press (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 2000.

(Under name Keith Banting; with Andrew Sharpe) The Review of Economic Performance and Social Progress: The Longest Decade: Canada in the 1990s, Centre for the Study of Living Standards (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada), 2001.

(Under name K.G. Banting; with Stan Corbett) Health Policy and Federalism: A Comparative Perspective on Multi-Level Governance, Institute of Intergovernmental Relations, McGill-Queen's University Press (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 2001.

(With A. Sharpe and F. St.-Hilaire) The Review of Economic Performance and Social Well-Being: Towards a Social Understanding of Productivity, Institute for Research on Public Policy (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 2002.

(With Kathy L. Brock and contributor) The Nonprofit Sector in Interesting Times: Case Studies in a Changing Sector, McGill-Queen's University Press (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 2003.

(With Will Kymlicka) Multiculturalism and the Welfare State: Recognition and Redistribution in Contemporary Democracies, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2006.

(Under name Keith Banting; with Thomas Courchene and Leslie Seidle) Belonging? Diversity, Recognition, and Shared Citizenship in Canada, Institute for Research on Public Policy (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 2007.

Several of Banting's edited books have been translated into French.

SIDELIGHTS:

Keith G. Banting's book Poverty, Politics, and Policy: Britain in the 1960s focuses on three case studies of British governmental policy on poverty: education (Educational Priority Areas), family poverty (allowances), and rent control (the 1965 Rent Act). Rudolf Klein, in a Political Quarterly review, found "the result is a celebration of the contribution of intellectuals to social policy-making." "It is, for the most part, a convincing analysis," Klein continued. "Although it is possible to disagree with Banting on points of emphasis in his interpretation of events, this remains a most illuminating and important addition to the … scant literature on policy-making in Britain." Jonathan Bradshaw wrote in Public Administration that the three case studies are "immensely scholarly and interesting," as well as "bright and coherent."

During the 1990s Banting coedited a handful of volumes derived from conferences, including The Future of Fiscal Federalism. This book (edited with Douglas M. Brown and Thomas J. Courchene) collects the proceedings of a conference held at Queen's University in November, 1993. Government Finance Review contributor Kenneth Cousineau predicted that the volume will appeal to people who are "interested in national social policy in Canada or the future of … the universality and the comprehensive nature of [Canadian] social programs." The book "does not answer the question of what will be," he commented, "but merely presents a series of debates that highlight the diversity of viewpoints that exist concerning this important aspect of Canadian society." Cousineau also observed that The Future of Fiscal Federalism "clearly defines how various approaches to sorting out fiscal federalism in Canada will impact local institutions."

Another of Banting's conference books is Reform of Retirement Income Policy: International and Canadian Perspectives (edited with R. Broadway). In a Government Finance Review review, Robert Wayne Gladstone recommended this book "to professionals involved in the pension business, as well as municipal and state/provincial officials." Gladstone described Reform of Retirement Income Policy as an "extremely informative" work that "provide[s] the reader with a broad basis of understanding of the many conflicting issues and solutions facing policy makers in attempting to reform retirement income policy." Reform of Retirement Income Policy gives readers "a general framework applicable to most countries and a reflection on the Canadian case," stated Gladstone.

Banting edited two books dealing with the Canadian nonprofit sector, a sector that has grown substantially in recent years as a response to increasing needs of Canadian citizens and decreasing government resources for addressing these needs. Prior to the growth spurt and in its early years, the nonprofit sector was rarely studied or even well defined, according to Labour/Le Travail contributor John Shields. Banting attempts to remedy that situation in The Nonprofit Sector in Canada: Roles and Relationships and The Nonprofit Sector in Interesting Times: Case Studies in a Changing Sector. In the former, Banting and his contributors tackle issues such as the daunting task of merely defining what constitutes a nonprofit, charitable, or voluntary agency, how the various agencies function, and how they are funded, all the while pointing out that it is difficult even to determine how many such agencies there are across Canada, especially because a large percentage of them are not even formally registered as such. In the latter collection, Banting and coeditor Kathy L. Brock address the various methods that Canadian nonprofit agencies have adopted to deal with their rapidly changing roles, evolving regulatory decisions, funding issues, and the need for increased cooperation among agencies in order to maximize their effectiveness. In both books, Banting stresses the need for more substantive research in a field that is growing rapidly to fill an ever-increasing need. Of The Nonprofit Sector in Interesting Times, Shields commented: "We owe a debt of intellectual gratitude to Brock and Banting for spearheading … a collection that has added to our empirical and analytical knowledge of the sector."

Banting told CA that his "recent research focuses on ethnic diversity, multiculturalism, and the welfare state."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Journal of Comparative Law, spring, 1984, Patrick J. Monahan, review of And No One Cheered: Federalism, Democracy, and the Constitution Act, pp. 393-397.

Canadian Ethnic Studies Journal, spring, 2001, M. Wayne Cunningham, review of The Nonprofit Sector in Canada: Roles and Relationships, p. 142.

Canadian Journal of Sociology, spring, 2000, Michael R. Smith, review of The Nonprofit Sector in Canada, pp. 239-251.

Canadian Public Administration, winter, 1986, Peter H. Russell, review of Redesigning the State: The Politics of Constitutional Change in Industrial Nations, pp. 693-695.

Chronicle of Philanthropy, October 19, 2000, Gwen A. Williamson, review of The Nonprofit Sector in Canada.

Government Finance Review, December, 1995, Kenneth Cousineau, review of The Future of Fiscal Federalism, p. 47; December, 1997, Robert Wayne Gladstone, review of Reform of Retirement Income Policy: International and Canadian Perspectives, p. 52.

Journal of Economic Literature, June, 1998, review of Reform of Retirement Income Policy, pp. 961-963.

Labour/Le Trevail, spring, 2003, Alvin Finkel, review of The Nonprofit Sector in Canada, p. 346; fall, 2005, John Shields, review of The Nonprofit Sector in Interesting Times: Case Studies in a Changing Sector, p. 302.

Political Quarterly, January-March, 1980, Rudolf Klein, review of Poverty, Politics, and Policy: Britain in the 1960s, pp. 102-104.

Public Administration, spring, 1981, Jonathan Bradshaw, review of Poverty, Politics, and Policy, pp. 118-120.