Changing Politics of Canadian Social Policy PDF
Preview Changing Politics of Canadian Social Policy
CHANGING POLITICS OF CANADIAN SOCIAL POLICY James ]. Rice and Michael J. Prince No one is content with the state of health and social programs in Canada today. The Right thinks that there is too much government involvement and the Left thinks there is not enough. In Changing Poli- tics of Canadian Social Policy James Rice and Michael Prince track the history of the welfare state from its establishment in the 1940s, through its expansion in the mid 1970s, to the period of deficit crisis and re- straint that followed in the late 1970s and 1980s. Taking a historical perspective, the authors grapple with the politics of social policy in the 1990s. Globalization and the concomitant corpo- rate mobility affect government's ability to regulate the distribution of wealth, while the increasing diversity of the population puts increas- ingly complex demands on an already overstressed system. Yet in the face of these constraints, the system still endures and is far from irrelevant. Some social programs have been dismantled, but others have been reorganized and maintained. Greater democratization of welfare programs and social policy agencies could make the system thrive again. Changing Politics provides the much-needed groundwork for students and policy makers while also proposing real solutions for the future. JAMES j. RICE is Associate Professor at the School of Social Work at McMaster University MICHAEL j. PRINCE is Lansdowne Professor of Social Policy at the University of Victoria. This page intentionally left blank JAMES J. RICE AND MICHAEL J. PRINCE Changing Politics of Canadian Social Policy UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS Toronto Buffalo London www.utppublishing.com © University of Toronto Press Incorporated 2000 Toronto Buffalo London Printed in Canada' Reprinted 2000,2001,2003,2006 ISBN 0-8020-4232-5 (cloth) ISBN 0-8020-8074-X (paper) Printed on acid-free paper Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Rice, James J. Changing politics of Canadian social policy Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8020-4232-5 (bound) ISBN 0-8020-8074-X (pbk.; I. Canada - Social policy. 2. Social security - Canada. 3. Welfare state - Canada. I. Prince, Michael John, 1952- II. Title. HV108.R518 1999 361.6T0971 C99-932102-1 This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of Canada, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council. University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support for its publishing activities of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP). Canada Contents PREFACE IX Introduction 3 A Framework for Understanding the Magnitude of Recent Changes 5 The Challenges 12 Overview 13 1 Changing Politics: Social Policy in a Globalizing and Pluralizing Context 19 Economic Globalization 19 Societal Pluralization 24 Conclusions 32 2 Early Developments in Canadian Social Welfare 34 Colonial Origins of Welfare 34 Growing Country, Growing Community Needs: 1867 to the Early 1900s 36 The Shift to Provincial Responsibility for Income Security Policy: 1914 to 1930s 40 Provincial Responsibility 40 The Federal Government's Expanding Social Policy Role 42 Old Age Pensions: A Brief Case Study 45 The 1930s: The Depression Decade 48 Conclusions 51 vi Contents 3 Envisaging and Establishing a System of Social Security for Canadians 54 Envisaging a Social Security System 54 Establishing a Comprehensive Social Security System/ Implementing an Ordered Series of Measures: 1945 to the early 1970s 66 Conclusions 80 4 The Crisis of the Welfare State: Canadian Perspectives and Critiques 83 Critique from the Left 84 Critique from the Right 90 Feminist Critiques 95 Critiques from the Community 99 Critique from Insiders 103 Conclusions 107 5 Response to the Crisis: Retrenching the Welfare State and Changing Responsibilities for Social Provision 110 Dismantling the Welfare System: Abandoning Policy Goals, Abolishing Programs, and Changing the Context 111 Social Economy of Welfare: Remixing the Provision of Social Care 119 Maintaining the Existing System 123 Changes to Canadian Social Policy 125 Conclusions 128 6 Global Capitalism and the Canadian Welfare State: Impacts of Economic Integration, Fiscal Policy, and Market Liberalism on Social Policy 130 What Are the Responses to Economic Globalization? 133 Three Positions on Globalism: Champions, Competitors, and Challengers 133 The Context for Contemporary Social Policy 135 What Are the Effects of Globalization on the Welfare State and Social Union in Canada? 137 New Challenges for Social Policy 141 Conclusions 155 Contents vii 7 Diversity and Equality in a Pluralist Welfare Community 157 The Dark Side of Welfare: The Use of Social Programs to Exert Control 160 Divisive Debate: Universality versus Selectivity within the Welfare State 164 The Dismantling of Universal Income Security Programs 175 Conclusions 179 8 Gender and Social Policy: His and Her States of Welfare 182 Feminist Perspectives on Social Policy 183 Mainstream Literature and Feminist Thinking 184 Feminist Alternatives 184 Gendered Division of Work and Positions of Power 188 Women, Men, and the Canadian Welfare State 196 Women's and Men's Experiences with Social Programs 200 Conclusions 205 9 Civil Society and Community Capacity: Links between Social Policy and Social Capital 207 Taking Stock of Key Concepts 208 Creating the Policy Context for Community Capacity 211 Local Conditions for Community Capacity 214 The Darker Side of Communities 219 Developing Community Capacity 221 Community Capacity in Action 224 Conclusions 229 10 Creating a New Policy Agenda 232 Changing Politics and Social Policies: Where Have We Come From and Where Are We Now? 233 Social Policy and Politics in the Post-Deficit Era: Salvation by Surplus? 238 Where Do We Go from Here? 240 Rebuilding the Social Role and Capacity of Governments 244 Democratizing the Welfare State, and Beyond 251 NOTES 257 BIBLIOGRAPHY 267 INDEX 289 This page intentionally left blank Preface Changing Politics of Canadian Social Policy examines the current condi- tions affecting the development of social policies in Canada, and offers a sweeping historical examination and contemporary account of the welfare state and social security. As Canadians enter the twenty-first century, they are grappling with the legacy of the fiscal crisis of the state alongside the tensions between the globalization of the economy and the pluralization of the community. After nearly a generation of neo- conservative politics and retrenchment of governments, this book ar- gues for a new balance between the market, the state, and civic society. We maintain that Canada's welfare state and social programs remain relevant and essential precisely because of economic globalism and the growing diversity of community life; and that the role of social policy will increasingly become concerned with the protection of communi- ties and groups against market turmoil, and the recognition of various social and cultural identities within Canadian society. The scope of the book is limited to an analysis of Canadian social policy, but provides examples from other countries. While it focuses primarily on income security, it examines a range of social programs provided by the federal and provincial governments and the nonprofit sector. The structure of the book leads the reader to understand how the political context is restructuring the fundamental ideas of the welfare state to meet the needs of the global economy. Our methods include a review of the changing economic and politi- cal conditions affecting the development of social policies; an analysis of the changing ideologies influencing the way governments think about social policy issues; and a review of the literature to determine how experts believe social policies will evolve in the future.
The list of books you might like
