Walter Bagehot's classic series of articles in The English Constitution includes a very insightful essay on the theme of "a change of ministry". He was writing about a situation where, as a consequence of a trifle, or an "isolated unadministrative mistake", the "whole executive government changes – at least, all heads of it change in a body". It brings in a fresh group of ministers, "new persons and untried persons to preside over our policy". This phenomenon was, in his view, "the specific peculiarity" of the English constitution.

Bagehot wrote this more than 1½ centuries ago, when changes of ministry within the life of a parliament were frequent. Nowadays, ministries almost invariably change only as a consequence of an election, though a change of party leadership may have, in a mild form, something of the same effect, as does a mid-term ministerial reshuffle.

The feature to which Bagehot was pointing, governmental transitions, is central to the workings of responsible parliamentary government. It has not been neglected in subsequent study of Westminster governance but nor has it attracted the attention that its significance for government and administration warrants. Within the context of continuing competition between government and opposition, it is a central dynamic.

Professor David Zussman's study of government transitions in Canada is thus very welcome. It is a systematic account of Canadian government at the federal level when it is in the election zone, from the time a general election is on the horizon, through campaigning and polling phases, to the processes entailed in settling in during the weeks and months after the result has been determined.

The study draws on history but is essentially an analysis of government at political and public service levels during this critical period in the life of democratic government in and around an election, "one of the most vulnerable and meaningful moments in a constitutional democracy". It will thus be of great use to students of government and politics, given the comparative inattention that these matters receive in textbooks.

But, more than many books, this volume is directed to a readership of professionals and participants in government and administration. Its great value derives, first, from the broad view Zussman takes of "government transitions". He is primarily interested in changes of ministry as a consequence of a general election, when new and mainly untried people take over government. But he realises that much of what he says has relevance to changes in party leadership, and even simple changes of minister. He embraces all situations.

A second important source of illumination derives from his interest in preparing and acting at both the political and the administrative level. And, at the administrative level, his interest is on both central agencies, particularly the cabinet secretary, and departmental officials led by various deputy ministers (as Canadians call department secretaries).

Few people are as well-equipped as Zussman to undertake a project of this character. A doctoral graduate of McGill University, he has been on the faculty of the University of Ottawa for three decades and is now the Jarislowsky professor of public sector management. But he has had a range of other assignments, including president of the Public Policy Forum in Ottawa; and chief operating officer of a public opinion and public policy research firm. Within government, he has been assistant secretary to cabinet for program review and machinery of government in the Privy Council Office; and, more recently, a part-time member of the Public Service Commission of Canada.

Most pertinently, he led the transition team for Liberal Party leader and prime minister Jean Chrétien on three occasions, thus seeing the process from, first, opposition (1993) and then government (1997 and 2000).

He writes of the peculiar world of transition planning. "Political leaders are suspicious of any formal process that prepares them to govern ... They fear being perceived by the public as arrogant if it becomes known that they are overtly preparing to take office. Moreover, they are also sufficiently superstitious about 'challenging the election gods' by appearing to take victory for granted in advance of actually winning the election."

Nevertheless, the need for preparation is increasingly recognised and a certain craft in the business has developed in Ottawa. It has, in turn, been influenced by US practice, where there has been a Presidential Transitions Act since 1963, and also practice in Britain. When John Major was British prime minister, from 1990 to 1997, he authorised the then cabinet secretary, Sir Robin (now Lord) Butler, to meet Labour's transition team leaders, David Miliband (brother of current Labour leader Ed Miliband) and Jonathan Powell, so they might "learn about the Westminster system of government and to test the viability of some elements of their election platform". More recently, as the general election of 2011 approached, with the possibility of a hung parliament, cabinet secretary Sir Gus (now Lord) O'Donnell "organised a series of scenario planning exercises with senior public officials who played the roles of key political players in order to anticipate the consequences that might unfold ... The lesson from the UK experience is 'expect the unexpected'."

This is an important under-stated theme of the book: namely, there are few immutable rules about a government transition; "a generic, off-the-shelf transition will fail". It depends on circumstances, personalities, "leadership style, approach, strengths, and preferences of the prime minister". And these can change with the effluxion of time.

A major feature of preparing for office is secrecy. As one veteran observes: "It's very exciting to be involved in a transition, but it's a little like working in CSIS [Canada's spy agency], given the confidentiality of the work. You simply cannot talk about it to anyone. That makes it hard on the ego ..."

Transition is party business but not only party business. Chretien was "never particularly interested in hiring hyper-partisans to work for him ..." But, according to one observer, Chretien did realise "the transition team must be very credible to the party and to the public service. In the early days of a new government they have to act like ambassadors so their integrity cannot be questioned. They also must be experts, act in a statesman-like manner, have diplomatic skills and exercise good judgment."

Zussman sees transition planning mainly in institutional, organisational and personnel terms. It is about cabinet, machinery of government, ministers and ministerial staffers. But he is firm that it does not include policy development: "This is best left to the campaign team and the leader's office. The development of the platform comes first. Then the transition plan lays the groundwork for a smooth transition of power."

Zussman points out the hurdles officials face in trying to prepare for a new government. If a change is definitely on the cards, it is not necessarily easy to discern the philosophy and direction it might take. There will obviously be some big ticket policies. But the significance of many components of a party platform will be more nuanced. Some will, to use an apt phrase, be concerns but not necessarily priorities (or, as the book expresses it, they will fall into "must do", "should do" and "nice to do").

Jonathan Powell, Tony Blair's principal aide, observed that "the civil servants had parsed every aspect of the manifesto and prepared plans to implement even the craziest ideas floated in the heat of the campaign". "Far from aiming to frustrate the new government's plans, they had to be restrained from taking each component too literally"!

The cabinet secretary at least knows who he will work for should the government change. Department heads are in a much less certain situation. Their own position may even be in doubt and, if not, they may in any case be transferred whether or not the government changes. But, if they remain in situ, they have "three weeks to make it work with a new minister". The essence of a successful transition is one where the relationship "evolves from a 'passionate affair' into one more similar to a loveless, but workable, marriage".

Zussman reports much of interest in the business of composing a cabinet. Apart from the matter of size, and Canadian cabinets are usually numerically larger than Australia's, the crucial question is allocation of portfolios. The hurdle here is, as Bagehot saw it, that "it almost never happens that the ministry-maker can put into his offices exactly whom he would like; a number of placemen are always too proud, too eager, or too obstinate to go just where they should".

It is a mark of Zussman's thoroughness that among the matters he surveys in some detail are a host of protocol questions, and not only those that concern the governor-general. These rarely find a place in a book about government, except perhaps a law book. Zussman himself played an active role in developing what might be called extra-security checks on ministers. These mainly relate to their financial interests and reflect increasingly active sensitivities of an ethical character.

As he draws the volume to an end, Zussman furnishes a useful little checklist about respectful relations between key participants, the importance of personnel selection and recognising the need to plan. He reports a consensus among those he interviewed on "the need for more formal orientation sessions for incoming governments". He is also direct that "the lack of knowledge within the political community about the importance of an independent and professional public service is a barrier to growing the institution, not in numbers, but as an important public institution". "Finding ways to involve ministers and the cabinet in discussions about public service issues is therefore important in ensuring the healthy development of the public service."

He also calls for "greater clarity about the behaviour of the public service during election campaigns". This will come as a considerable consolation to those academics in Australia who have something of an obsession about what are misleadingly called "caretaker conventions". He specifically wants rules and protocols that "prescribe appropriate behaviour of the public service with regard to the opposition parties' transition planning". He speaks with approval of the provisions in cabinet manuals of Britain and Australia. This is one of the few cases in this book where practice in Australia is ahead of that in Canada. It is partly a consequence of a much greater liberality in the Australian Public Service ethic than is found in its Canadian counterpart.

But, for most of the book, Zussman describes and analyses political and governmental practices, which are more formally developed in Canada than in Australia. The extent to which Australia might emulate Canadian practice is, nevertheless, an open question. The position in Australia is hardly well documented in a public way and what is informally well known is probably only a part, even a small part of the story.

Though Australia has had, since before World War I, publicly articulated practices about government once the House of Representatives has been dissolved, there is no comprehensive account. Such an account would cover the sort of territory traversed so clearly by Zussman, but would be enhanced if placed in the general context of government-opposition relations.

The arrival of the Whitlam government is wrapped up in many fairy tales and some of the more obvious simply fail at the first factual post. The Hawke government's arrival in office was exceedingly well planned. There was subsequently a notably smooth transition even though it departed in conspicuous ways from pre-election intention (in particular, adoption of a cabinet/ministry structure for the first time by a Labor government). None of the three subsequent transitions has been at all adequately covered.

Off and Running is a recent addition to the Institute of Public Administration of Canada's series in public management and governance. It is one of many books in that admirable series. The scholarship is laudable and the publishing standards are high. This is a reader-friendly book.

Government administration in Australia would, as a profession, be much enriched by a comparable series here. Though a worthy goal, its realisation is unlikely.

J. R. Nethercote is an adjunct professor at the Australian Catholic University's Canberra campus. john.nethercote@acu.edu.au

Off and Running: The Prospects and Pitfalls of Government Transitions in Canada, by David Zussman, University of Toronto Press/Institute of Public Administration of Canada, 2013.