The Politics of Health in the Canadian Welfare State

The Politics of Health in the Canadian Welfare State
Author: Toba Bryant
Publisher: Canadian Scholars’ Press
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2020-08-14
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 177338189X

The first book to discuss the Canadian welfare state through a health-focused lens, The Politics of Health in the Canadian Welfare State argues that the nature of Canada’s liberal welfare state shapes the health care system, the social determinants of health, and the health of all Canadians. Documenting decades of work on the social determinants of health, authors Toba Bryant and Dennis Raphael explore topics such as power and influence in Canadian society, socially and economically marginalized populations, and approaches to promoting health. Each chapter examines different aspects of the links between public policy, health, and the welfare state, investigating how broader societal structures and processes of the country’s economic and political systems shape living and working conditions and, inevitably, the overall health of Canadians. Contextualizing the history and status of Canadian health and health care systems with Canada’s welfare state, this concise and timely text is well suited as a supplementary resource for health studies, sociology of health, and nursing courses in universities across Canada.

The Welfare State in Canada

The Welfare State in Canada
Author: Allan Moscovitch
Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2006-01-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0889206740

The first major reference work of its kind in the social welfare field in Canada, this volume is a selected bibliography of works on Canadian social welfare policy. The entries in Part One treat general aspects of the origins, development, organization, and administration of the welfare state in Canada; included is a section covering basic statistical sources. The entries in Part Two treat particular areas of policy such as unemployment, disabled persons, prisons, child and family welfare, health care, and day care. Also included are an introductory essay reviewing the literature on social welfare policy in Canada, a "User's Guide," several appendices on archival materials, and an extensive chronology of Canadian social welfare legislation both federal and provincial. The volume will increase the accessibility of literature on the welfare state and stimulate increased awareness and further research. It should be of wide interest to students, researchers, librarians, social welfare policy analysts and administrators, and social work practitioners.

Social Policy and Practice in Canada

Social Policy and Practice in Canada
Author: Alvin Finkel
Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press
Total Pages: 398
Release: 2012-05-09
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1554588863

Social Policy and Practice in Canada: A History traces the history of social policy in Canada from the period of First Nations’ control to the present day, exploring the various ways in which residents of the area known today as Canada have organized themselves to deal with (or to ignore) the needs of the ill, the poor, the elderly, and the young. This book is the first synthesis on social policy in Canada to provide a critical perspective on the evolution of social policy in the country. While earlier work has treated each new social program as a major advance, and reacted with shock to neoliberalism’s attack on social programs, Alvin Finkel demonstrates that right-wing and left-wing forces have always battled to shape social policy in Canada. He argues that the notion of a welfare state consensus in the period after 1945 is misleading, and that the social programs developed before the neoliberal counteroffensive were far less radical than they are sometimes depicted. Social Policy and Practice in Canada: A History begins by exploring the non-state mechanisms employed by First Nations to insure the well-being of their members. It then deals with the role of the Church in New France and of voluntary organizations in British North America in helping the unfortunate. After examining why voluntary organizations gradually gave way to state-controlled programs, the book assesses the evolution of social policy in Canada in a variety of areas, including health care, treatment of the elderly, child care, housing, and poverty.

Federalism and the Welfare State

Federalism and the Welfare State
Author: Herbert Obinger
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 381
Release: 2005-06-02
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0521847389

In this unique and provocative contribution to the literatures of political science and social policy, ten leading experts question prevailing views that federalism always inhibits the growth of social solidarity. Their comparative study of the evolution of political institutions and welfare states in the six oldest federal states - Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, the US - reveals that federalism can facilitate and impede social policy development. Development is contingent on several time-dependent factors, including degree of democratization, type of federalism, and the stage of welfare state development and early distribution of social policy responsibility. The reciprocal nature of the federalism-social policy relationship also becomes apparent: the authors identify a set of important bypass structures within federal systems that have resulted from welfare state growth. In an era of retrenchment and unravelling unitary states, this study suggests that federalism may actually protect the welfare state, and welfare states may enhance national integration.

Changing Politics of Canadian Social Policy

Changing Politics of Canadian Social Policy
Author: Michael J. Prince
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 323
Release: 2000-03-18
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1442690801

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 Politics of Canadian Social Policy James Rice and Michael Prince track the history of the welfare state from its establishment in the 1940s, through its development in the mid 1970s, to the period of deficit crisis and restraint 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 corporate mobility affect government's ability to regulate the distribution of wealth, while the increasing diversity of the population puts increasingly 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 the government has organized and maintained others. 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.

Universality and Social Policy in Canada

Universality and Social Policy in Canada
Author: Daniel Béland
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2019-05-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 1442636491

Bringing together top scholars in the field, Universality and Social Policy in Canada provides an overview of the universality principle in social welfare. The contributors survey the many contested meanings of universality in relation to specific social programs, the field of social policy, and the modern welfare state. The book argues that while universality is a core value undergirding certain areas of state intervention--most notably health care and education--the contributory principle of social insurance and the selectivity principle of income assistance are also highly significant precepts in practice.

The Welfare State Revisited

The Welfare State Revisited
Author: José Antonio Ocampo
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 380
Release: 2018-03-27
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0231546165

The welfare state has been under attack for decades, but now more than ever there is a need for strong social protection systems—the best tools we have to combat inequality, support social justice, and even improve economic performance. In this book, José Antonio Ocampo and Joseph E. Stiglitz bring together distinguished contributors to examine the global variations of social programs and make the case for a redesigned twenty-first-century welfare state. The Welfare State Revisited takes on major debates about social well-being, considering the merits of universal versus targeted policies; responses to market failures; integrating welfare and economic development; and how welfare states around the world have changed since the neoliberal turn. Contributors offer prescriptions for how to respond to the demands generated by demographic changes, the changing role of the family, new features of labor markets, the challenges of aging societies, and technological change. They consider how strengthening or weakening social protection programs affects inequality, suggesting ways to facilitate the spread of effective welfare states throughout the world, especially in developing countries. Presenting new insights into the functions the welfare state can fulfill and how to design a more efficient and more equitable system, The Welfare State Revisited is essential reading on the most discussed issues in social welfare today.

Combating Poverty

Combating Poverty
Author: Axel van den Berg
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2017-01-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1487501560

Combating Poverty critically analyses the growing divergence between Quebec and other large Canadian provinces in terms of social and labour market policies and their outcomes over the past several decades. While Canada is routinely classified as a single, homogeneous 'liberal market' regime, social and labour market policy falls within provincial jurisdiction resulting in a considerable divergence in policy mixes and outcomes between provinces. This volume offers a detailed survey of social and labour market policies since the early 2000s in Canada's four largest provinces - Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, and Alberta - showing the full extent to which Canada's major provinces have chosen diverging policy paths. Quebec has succeeded in emulating European and even Nordic social democratic levels of poverty for some groups, while poverty rates and patterns in the other provinces remain close to the high levels characteristic of the North American liberal, market-oriented regime. Combating Poverty provides a unique and timely reflection on the political implications and sustainability of Canada's fragmented welfare state.

Women and the Canadian Welfare State

Women and the Canadian Welfare State
Author: Patricia Marie Evans
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 348
Release: 1997-01-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780802076182

Explains not only how women are affected by changes in policy and programming, but how they can take an active role in shaping these changes.

Canadian Social Welfare Policy

Canadian Social Welfare Policy
Author: Institute of Public Administration of Canada
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 212
Release: 1985
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780773506121

Seven experts, representing a variety of disciplinary perspectives, discuss specific reform efforts in a number of social welfare policy areas and identify the jurisdictional fremework of policy-making in Canada's federal system as a factor of significantly affects these efforts.