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Ideas and Welfare Reform in Saskatchewan: Entitlement, Workfare or Activation?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 April 2015

Pierre-Marc Daigneault
Pierre-Marc Daigneault*
Affiliation:
École nationale d'administration publique
*
École nationale d'administration publique, Bureau 3314, 555 Boulevard Charest Est, Québec QC, CanadaG1K 9E5, email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Many provinces have enacted substantial reforms of their social assistance regime in the 1990s. However, we know surprisingly little about the ideas that underlie welfare reform in Canada. In particular, few empirical studies have directly examined the ideas of policy actors. This article presents a retrospective case study of a major policy initiative, namely Saskatchewan's Building Independence (BI), and examines its alignment with three paradigms of social assistance. Data come primarily from interviews with policy actors. This study concludes that the policy ideas informing BI align closely with the activation paradigm but also share some similarities with the entitlement and workfare paradigms. The significance of this finding is then discussed in light of three issues: 1) Aboriginal people, 2) the perspective of social assistance clients, and 3) “Third Way” ideology. This article concludes with a research agenda on ideas and policy change.

Résumé

Plusieurs provinces canadiennes ont mis en œuvre des réformes substantielles de leur régime d'aide sociale dans les années 1990. Or, nos connaissances à propos des idées qui sous-tendent ces réformes sont étonnamment limitées. En particulier, peu d'études empiriques ont directement examiné les idées des acteurs de politique. Cet article présente une étude de cas rétrospective d'une initiative saskatchewanaise majeure, soit la réforme Building Independence (BI), et examine sa congruence avec trois paradigmes d'aide sociale. Les données proviennent d'entrevues avec des acteurs de politique. Cette étude conclut que les idées sous-jacentes à BI sont étroitement alignées avec le paradigme de l'activation, mais présentent certaines similitudes avec les paradigmes du droit social (entitlement) et du workfare. Ce résultat est ensuite discuté à la lumière de trois enjeux : 1) les autochtones, 2) la perspective des prestataires d'aide sociale, et 3) l'idéologie de la Troisième voie. Des pistes de recherche sur les idées et le changement de politique viennent conclure cet article.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 48 , Issue 1 , March 2015 , pp. 147 - 171
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association (l'Association canadienne de science politique) and/et la Société québécoise de science politique 2015 

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