social welfare

Social Welfare and Social Philosophy
To some writers, the expansion of the welfare state is a central political focus of SOCIAL DEMOCRACY because of the contribution of welfare state policies and programs to the reduction of inequality, the expansion of freedom, the promotion of fellowship and democracy, and the expression of humanitarianism. In Canada such a view of the welfare state appeared in the LEAGUE FOR SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTION's Social Planning for Canada (1935) and in the reports of social reformers, such as Leonard MARSH's classic, Report on Social Security for Canada (1943), written for the wartime Advisory Committee on Reconstruction. Politically, this view has been expressed in the platforms of the NEW DEMOCRATIC PARTY and its predecessor, the CO-OPERATIVE COMMONWEALTH FEDERATION, and practised most notably by the postwar CCF government in Saskatchewan.

In the contemporary period, social democratic ideas on social welfare continue to find expression in the briefs produced by the Canadian Labour Congress, Canada's largest trade union federation, which since 1961 has been allied with the NDP; in the work of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, which is closely allied to both; and in the pages of Canadian Forum magazine. A popular form of these ideas can be found in the books of investigative journalist Linda McQuaig such as The Wealthy Banker's Wife.

It is the modern liberal, and not the social democratic, conception of the role of the Canadian state in the provision of social welfare that has been dominant. In 20th-century liberalism, as practised in Canada and elsewhere, the responsibility for well-being rests with either the individual or the FAMILY, or with both. Simultaneously, there is a clear acceptance that capitalist economies are not self-regulating but require significant levels of state intervention to achieve stability. In relation to Briggs's definition, there is an emphasis in liberalism on the first 2 of the 3 welfare state activities: minimum income and social insurance.

The necessity to develop a more cautious and residual social welfare state has been the theme of a number of major statements and reports by British writers J.M. Keynes and William Beveridge, and of the Canadian Report of the Royal Commission on Dominion-Provincial Relations (1940), the postwar White Paper on Employment and Income (1945) and the more recent federal Working Paper on Social Security in Canada (1973). It is an approach expressed in Mackenzie KING's Industry and Humanity (1918), Harry Cassidy's Social Security and Reconstruction in Canada (1943), and also in Tom Kent's Social Policy for Canada (1962), which presaged the period of high social reform from 1963 to 1968. In the contemporary period, these ideas continue to find expression in the work of the Institute for Research on Public Policy and its magazine, Policy Options, edited by Tom Kent.

The modern conservative conception of the welfare state is guided by the principles of 19th-century liberalism, ie, less government equals more liberty, from which follows the defence of individual pursuit of self-interest and the unleashing of competitive forces operating through private markets (see CONSERVATISM). The reduction of inequality, often held to be a goal if not a result of the welfare state, is considered antithetical to the pursuit of freedom and to material progress.

Consequently the modern welfare state is criticized from the conservative perspective. In particular, it is often argued that social expenditures have become too heavy a burden for the modern state and that state expenditures on social programs divert resources from private markets, thus hampering economic growth. According to the conservative conception, the welfare state has discouraged people from seeking work and has created a large, centralized, uncontrolled and unproductive bureaucracy. Proponents of this view argue that the welfare state must be cut down and streamlined, and that many of its welfare activities should be turned over to charity and to private corporations. In reference to Briggs' definition of the welfare state, conservatives support only the minimum income activities of the contemporary welfare state.

This view of the welfare state is currently supported in Canada by many members of the Conservative Party and by the Reform Party. The idea of the conservative welfare state had its clearest expression in Charlotte WHITTON's The Dawn of Ampler Life (1943) commissioned by John BRACKEN, then Conservative Party leader, to criticize the social democratic views incorporated in Marsh's Report on Social Security for Canada; it also appeared in the west in the writings of former Alberta Premier E.C. Manning; and, in Québec, in the publications of the Semaines Sociales du Canada. In the contemporary period, this view is prevalent in the books and briefs produced by business-oriented research and lobby organizations such as the FRASER INSTITUTE and the C.D. Howe Institute, and the Business Council on National Issues, a lobby organization representing Canada's largest companies. Social Canada in the Millennium by economist Tom Courchene, published by the C.D. Howe Institute, is representative.

The re-examination of contemporary capitalist societies begun in the 1960s has produced a Marxist interpretation of the welfare state. In this view, in societies such as Canada, which are dominated by private markets, it is the exploitation of labour that supports the ever increasing growth of capital in the hands of private employers. In this context, a major role of the modern state is the provision of an appropriately trained, educated, housed and disciplined labour force available to employers when and where necessary. To accomplish this, the welfare state becomes involved in the regulation of women, children and the family through laws affecting marriage, divorce, contraception, separation, adoption, and child support since the family is the institution directly concerned with the preparation of present and future generations of workers and in provisions for employment, education, housing, and public and private health.

These ideas found expression in Canada in the past in the publications of the COMMUNIST PARTY OF CANADA. They continue to find expression in works by university-based authors and in the pages of magazines such as This Magazine and Canadian Dimension. See, for example, Dickinson and Russell, eds, Family, Economy and State (1986).