Politics and Transformation

1. Politics and Transformation Welfare State Restructuring in Canada

2. Introduction • General Characteristics of Welfare States • Locating the Canadian Welfare State in Comparative Context

3. Welfare State • Characteristics of government policy designed to protect against particular risks shared by broad segments of society • Protection against loss of earnings due to unemployment, sickness, disability, or old age • Guaranteed access to healthcare, social services- childcare, eldercare, etc. (Pierson, 2001, p.420).

4. Gøsta Esping-Anderson’s“3 Worlds of Welfare Capitalism” • LIBERAL- Canada, the United States, Australia • CORPORATIST OR CONSERVATIVE (CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATIC)- Austria, France, Germany, Italy • SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC- Scandinavian countries such as Denmark, Norway, and Sweden

5. The Implementation and Restructuring of Income Security Programs in the Canadian Context • The 1840s - early 1990s • The 1900s -Great Depression Years of the 1930s • The 1940s - 1970s The creation of universal benefits and services.

6. Family-Wage or Breadwinner Model • The assumption that men would be the primary sources of income and that women in the home would continue to be in charge of household tasks such as raising children, cooking, cleaning, etc.

7. Social Reproduction • Refers to the social processes & labour that go into the daily & generational maintenance of the working population. • Social Reproduction is intimately tied to the gender division of labour.

8. Public/ private separation • The Double Day of work for women

9. State-Family-Market Nexus • 3 components were central to the welfare state: • THE STATE’S ROLES combined with • VERY GENDERED FAMILY NORMS which • SUPPORTED THE FUNCTIONINGS OF THE MARKET

10. Dual Welfare Model Thesis • Men’s income maintenance determined through claims as earners • Women’s claims made on the basis of domestic work & rely more heavily on public assistance & means and income-tested programs

11. Gender refers to, “the social processes through which cultural meanings come to be associated with sexual difference and the ways in which sexual difference forms the basis for social exclusions and constitutes inequalities in power, authority, rights, and privileges” (Fudge and Vosko, 2003, p.185).

12. Racialization: The particular structural position that people of colour & particularly new immigrants to Canada occupy in society & the labour market & which makes them more vulnerable to adverse effects or marginalization

13. How are Women More Affected by Welfare Policy Restructuring? • Women comprise over ½ of all people living below the poverty line. They have a higher incidence of low income than men, especially among single mothers, elderly, & unattached women. • Compared to men, women receive a larger part of their total income from income security programs. Women are more dependent on social welfare spending & public programs & are those most affected by restructuring.

14. Privatization & welfare cuts means that social services are shifted from the paid work of women in the public sector to the unpaid work of women in the domestic sphere. • Shifts in the labour market produce few good jobs for men, women, and new immigrants to Canada

15. Women are disproportionately assigned to low-wage, contingent work & have a greater burden of unpaid care & domestic work • There have been serious reductions in childcare, education, and retraining programs & policy shifts work against the possibility of women obtaining autonomy or independence from exploitative situations

16. 3 Components of Welfare Policy & Their Gendered Impacts: • Shifts in Income Security Related to Unemployment Insurance • Shifting Employment Norms • Changes to Child Benefits & Childcare Policies & • A Brief History of Migrant Domestic Work in Canada as it Relates to Childcare

17. The Transformation of the Welfare State

18. Post-1979 Shifts: • Targeted Social Assistance • Challenges to Collective Bargaining • A Move to Employment Flexibility • Reduction in the Coverage and Value of Welfare State Benefits • Abandonment of a Full Employment Policy • Privatization of State Owned Industries

19. Changes since the late 1970s have posed a serious challenge to the theory of universality or, the principle of collective social responsibility.

20. The Restructuring of The Welfare State • Motivation and Justification for Social Assistance Restructuring • Underlying Ideology – Neo-Liberalism • Neo-Liberalism vs. The Welfare State

21. Motivation and Justification • Economic downturn of the 1970’s and early 1980’s as demonstrating the ineffectiveness of the Keynesian Welfare State. • A reassertion of the dominance of capital interests and the idea of ‘individual’ liberty.

22. Stagflation http://www.uri.edu/artsci/newecn/Classes/Art/INT1/Mac/1980s/1980sA.html

23. Ideological Justification • Welfare State Restructuring premised on the precepts of Neo-Liberalism, • “The process of consolidating Neo-liberalism as a hegemonic paradigm has involved both the construction of a new governing consensus, involving the replacement of notions of social solidarity with the ideals of global competitiveness and individual responsibility, and the creation of conditions that make it increasingly difficult to mount an effective challenge.” -- McKeen and Porter

24. Wendy Brown Definition: “Neo-Liberalism… 1. Depicts free markets, free trade and entrepreneurial rationality as achieved and normative, as promulgated through law and through social and economic policy… 2. Political and social spheres as appropriately dominated by market concerns…[and] 3. Produces governance criteria along the same lines, that is, criteria of productivity and profitability.” - American Nightmare: Neo-Liberalism, Neo-Conservatism, and De-Democratization.

25. Neo-Liberalism as different from Classical Liberalism in that in presents markets as normative and achieved, as opposed to natural. • Depoliticizing Nature – decisions dictated by cost-benefit rationale, not popular will. • All encompassing nature makes it difficult to offer meaningful resistance. • e.g. the behavior of NDP over the past 15 years, the advent of the ‘third-way.’

26. Ideological Comparison The Welfare State Neo-Liberalism Individuation of Risk/Gain Commodification of all goods and services in order to assign true values and allocate appropriate amounts of resources Belief in the efficiency of market allocation and value assignment. Decreased Government expenditure • Collectivization of Risk/Gain • Maintenance of Individual purchasing power, through government spending, in order to sustain economic development and growth. • Belief in partial market failures/inability of markets to assign true costs. • Increased government expenditure

27. Effects of Restructuring • “Increase in poverty, inequality, and hardship, particularly among certain groups.” • Individuation of interaction with the marketplace. • ‘Two Tiered’ social services – Restricted Eligibility. • Targeted programs resulting in increased social stigma. • Human Cost.

28. Film Clip Street Nurse (2002)

29. Positive Effects of Restructuring • Opening up of new markets. • Reduction in Barriers to Capital Mobility. • Increased Development in Under-Developed Countries. • Continued Economic Growth – Production Maximization. • Increased Freedom – ‘Meritocracy.’

30. Critique of Restructuring • Productivity and Profitability criteria result in the attempt to commodify the intangible. • Increased concentration of capital, coupled with decreased regulatory ability. • Continued decline in real wages. • Further practical barriers to equality. • De-legitimation of democratic governance.

31. Welfare vs. Workfare

32. Comparative index of Welfare State vs. Workfare

33. Musical Interlude Billy Bragg Which Side Are You On? It Says Here (alternate version)

34. Discussion • False Creek Urgent Care Centre • Clinic Owner Dr. Mark Godley has argued that, “The Constitution trumps everything and this is about a person’s personal rights to be able to gain access to timely health care and this is about providing people with choice”

35. This Statement outlines an individuated view of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. • Is this an accurate interpretation of the Charter? • If so, are there alternate legitimate interpretations? • If not, what is a legitimate interpretation of the Charter with regard to healthcare? Is there one? • Arguably, this statement is indicative of the trend toward marketization of (formerly) social services? • Is healthcare something that should be subject to marketization? Why/Why Not? • Are there any services which constitute a basic need and should be administered by the state?