ABSTRACT
In order to understand the range of policy responses adopted by different countries to sports issues it is necessary to have some appreciation of the structure of government, the development and organisation of sport and the dominant pattern of policy-making. In the discussions that follow it will become clear that while the five countries possess many similarities derived from a common cultural and political tradition they also vary significantly. For example, the federal systems of Canada, Australia and the United States obviously require a degree of policy bargaining between levels of government, but as will be seen each federal system is embedded in a different set of constitutional expectations, practices and experiences and is also affected by differences in history and political culture such that generalisations about federal systems and sport policy would need to be made with great care. In a similar fashion a review of the history of the emergence of organised sport in the five countries highlights that beneath a superficial correspondence there lies a unique pattern of influences drawn from, for example, educational structures, evolving national and regional identities, commercial development, and geographic and cultural isolation.
