Download From Welfare State to Social Investment to night watchman: shifting

FROM SOCIAL INVESTMENT
TO THE NIGHT WATCHMAN:
SHIFTING ROLES OF THE
FEDERAL STATE IN CANADA
Presentation at the Annual Conference of the Canadian Political Science Association and of the
Canadian Historical Association
Panel on “Political Realignment and the Restructuring of the Canadian Social Contract”
4th June 2013
Some Questions
 Historically, what has been the social role of the
state in Canada?
 What is the federal state today as a form of
governance and policy making?
 Are we witnessing a paradigm shift in Canadian
social policy?
 What are the characteristics of social investment
and night watchman states?
 What does it mean for federalism and social
citizenship?
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Historical overview
Time period
Social state image
Actors and policies
1860s-1930s
Emergent state welfarism
Asylums, charities, workers’
compensation, federal measures for
veterans, old age, blind persons
1940s-1970s
Keynesian welfare state
Federal social insurance and
universal income programs for
seniors and families; provincial
universal health care and education
1970s-1990s
Neo-liberal state
Markets, public-private partnerships,
revival of charity approaches,
contracting-out of public services
1990s- early 2000s
Social investment state
Child care and family services,
education, and active labour market
measures
2000s-today
Night watchman state
Justice, border security agencies,
correctional services, courts, police
and parole boards
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Social Investment State
 Popularized in 1990s and early 2000s (with roots in
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1940s and 1960s)
Discourse of academics and policy makers in Europe
and North America
Related terms: productive policies, springboard
Reaction to neo-liberal policies and other critiques of
the Keynesian welfare state
Emphasizes “active” aspects of social programs
Spending and services as investments with dividends
in the future
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Night Watchman State
 One of the older conceptions of the modern state,
circa 19th century
 Related terms: nanny state, Leviathan, surveillance or
security state
 Limited discussion to date in policy communities,
more so by some academics
 Unlike social investment state, tends to be viewed
more critically
 Temporal focus is on the here-and-now of social affairs
 Legislation and rules, and state facilities
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State images in context
 Constraints on social investment:
 Vested neo-liberal ideas and interests
 Traditional gender norms and practices
 Path dependency of many KWS programs
 Economic recession and budgetary austerity
 Revival of the night watchman:
 Post-9-11 politics of fear and terrorism
 Defeat of Liberals nationally in 2006
 Harper’s political philosophy of moral fervor, social
conservatism, and open federalism
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The Shift: in priorities or
paradigms?
 Change in political regimes at the national level in
Canada from Liberal to Conservative has resulted in a
notable change in social policy discourse, goals, and
priorities
 Under Harper, criminal law power overshadows the
federal spending power as a preferred policy instrument
for social issues
 However, not every shift in the state’s social role is a
paradigm shift in public policy and practice
 Harper’s government is a hybrid state with elements of
Keynesian, neo-liberal, social investment, joined with
heightened salience of the night watchman
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On Federalism and Social Rights
 Intergovernmental relations under the Harper
government operate on a combination of classical or
“open” federalism, unilateralism by Ottawa, and the
downloading of costs onto provinces
 Decisions and inactions by recent federal governments
have involved redesigning the content of social citizenship
- the bundle of rights and duties based on membership in
the community
 Canadian citizens in most matters of social policy are
increasingly provincial citizens
 Looking at restructuring welfare arrangements or social
contracts can be a form of theorizing the state,
comparing welfare regimes, and doing history
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Thank you
Michael J. Prince
Lansdowne Professor of Social Policy
Faculty of Human and Social Development
University of Victoria
[email protected]
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