The Decline of the Canadian Welfare State

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The Decline of the Canadian Welfare State

• Policies and Implications of Retrenchment

Presented By Nav Chohan
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Outline of Presentation

• Introduction
• Summary of Reading
• My Analysis
• Interactive Game
• Class Discussion
• Concluding Remarks
• Questions

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Introduction

• What does Welfare State mean?
• A capitalist society in which the state has
  intervened in form of social policies, programs,
  standards, and regulations, in order to mitigate
  class conflict and accommodate certain social
  needs
• Welfarism is an institutionalized response to the
  negative effects of capitalism and the needs of
  the new working class

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Summary of Reading Main Points

• What is the authors main argument?
• The decline of the welfare state has led to the
  erosion of social rights and the denial of
  rightful and universal entitlements that come
  with being a citizen
• The new ideas brought forth by neo-liberalism
  seek to limit the amount of protection offered to
  the needy by both the public and private spheres
  thus resulting in increased poverty, and lowering
  national standards.

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Conditions that Gave Rise to the Welfare State

• Creation of a capitalist labour market and
  working class, and the freeing of this class from
  the means of production
• A need to defend the working class against the
  exploitative nature of the capitalist class
• Rise of industrial capitalism
• Protecting the working class against unemployment
  and suffering from the business cycles economic
  ups and downs

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John Maynard Keynes
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The Keynesian Welfare State Goals of the KWS

• The goal of the KWS was to prevent a repeat of
  the 1930s depression and social unrest
  experienced in the industrialized world
• To assist war-torn economies of Europe in
  developing new infrastructures
• To contain socialism
• To stabilize the economy and maintain full
  employment levels

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The Keynesian Welfare StateProvisions

• For the state to provide social reforms and
  funding for programs
• Rationale For the state to assume a watch-dog
  role in regulating and overseeing class relations
  btw capitalists and the working class
• Redistribution of the social wage
• Social citizenship decommodification

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How the Welfare State Worked in Canada

• The golden of the KWS in Canada was from the 1940
  to about Mid 1970s
• A patchwork of programs and policies extending
  across the 3 political jurisdictions
• Maintaining high national standards and equality
  across the provinces
• Types of programs universal, social insurance
  programs, and social assistance programs.
• The state intervened by introducing regulations,
  codes, and acts that mitigate the class conflict
  btw unions/workers vs. employers
• Institutionalizing the costs of workers

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Decline of the Welfare State

• Stagnation high economic growth coupled with
  rising inflation
• Higher wages were needed to support the KWS, and
  businesses could not keep up
• Increase in trade union suits
• Withdrawal of federal funding in social programs
  (decline in federal transfers to provinces)
• An attempt to get workers back into the labour
  force by diminishing rights of unions (inability
  to strike)
• Toughening the qualifying criteria for social
  programs
• Change in political ideologies of the state
• Erosion of social rights, national identity, and
  democracy

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• ANALYSIS

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Weaknesses of the Reading

• Only one view taken into consideration
• Does not address weaknesses of the KWS
• Lack of compelling evidence
• Does not evaluate practicality of charities
• No actual solutions/recommendations proposed

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Comparison With Other Similar Readings
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The Hypocrisy of Neo-Liberalism

• The chapter fails to address and discuss the
  evident hypocrisy of neo-liberalism
• Idea of double standards
• Classic Example Human rights
• Study done by the Poverty and Human Rights Centre
  of British Columbia
• Supreme Court of Canada Case Gosselin v. Quebec
  (Attorney General)

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The Hypocrisy of Neo-liberalism Continued...

• Decline of Democracy pg. 457 of text
• Inadequate form of regulation and accountability
  of the private sphere
• ?
• Leads to diminishing use of the rule of law
• Charter not applicable to private domain ? again
  leads to diminishing use of the rule of law

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Interactive Discussion
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Interactive Game Scenario

• The year is 1975 and the Keynesian Welfare State
  in Canada is on the verge of collapse. The
  economy is in a state of high inflation,
  unemployment levels are high, and businesses are
  criticizing the KWS heavily. To proceed with this
  dilemma democratically, our government has
  decided to hold a national referendum on whether
  we should work to maintain the KWS or move
  forward with a new political agenda from the
  perspective of neo-liberalism.

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Instructions

• Your task
• Organize yourselves into small groups of 3-4
  individuals.
• You will be assigned 1 of 6 potential characters
• Based on your assigned character, construct a
  detailed response as to which way you will vote
  in the poll, backing your argument up with the
  appropriate reasons.
• Your choices in the poll are to either stick with
  the KWS and publicly funded social programs, OR
  challenge it by supporting privatization, and
  diminishing the role of the state in social
  services/programs through neo-liberal policies.
• It would also be wise to explain what
  difficulties you may encounter and your reasoning
  for opposing the choice you do not pick.

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Discussion Questions

• The sovereignty of the nation-state is
  diminishing with neo-liberal policies that
  emphasize the growth and predominance of the
  private sector over the public. Do you agree that
  national sovereignty, both domestically and
  internationally, is diminishing? Why or why not?
• While the public domain of society can be
  regulated via the Canadian charter, it is much
  harder for the state to regulate the actions of
  the private arena. Do you think our charter and
  laws, and the role of our judiciary should be
  extended to apply to the private domain,
  considering its growing role of the private
  sector in managing what was once under the public
  domain? Why or why not?

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Conclusions

• Summary of chapter reading decline of the
  welfare state
• Summary of analysis
• The Hypocrisy of Neo-Liberalism idea of double
  standardization
• Interactive Game-

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• QUESTIONS?