History (HIST) 528

Introduction

History 528: Canadian Social Policy: History and Current Trends traces the development of various social policies in Canada. But it is by no means a dry narrative of events, the meanings of which are uncontested. Instead, the course focuses on analyzing various approaches to the study of "welfare state" developments in Canada throughout the country's history and at present. Among the programs studied are social insurance programs, childcare, housing policy, and policies to combat poverty.

This course will examine the making of policy in these areas both in the past and in the present from liberal, Marxist, and feminist perspectives, as well as hybrids of all three. You will become familiar with the various sources of evidence that can be drawn upon to assess not only the details of particular government programs, but also various arguments about why policy in relation to the program has evolved in specific ways and how it has been implemented. You will also become familiar with the struggles within and outside the state that determine the relative importance of social spending and spending on other social priorities.

By the end of the course, you should have the tools to critically examine social policies, particularly from the point of view of the question, in whose interests have particular policies been devised and in whose interests do they appear to be administered? We will look at the recommendations of two recent royal commissions and, on the basis of what we have learned about past patterns of social struggle involving social policies, attempt to assess what is likely to come of these recommendations.

Course Author

Alvin Finkel, who has taught at Athabasca University since 1978, is one of Canada's most prolific historians. He is author, co-author, or co-editor of ten books, and several dozen articles. His two-volume History of the Canadian Peoples, co-written with Margaret Conrad, and originally published in 1993, went into fourth editions in 2005. Among his other works are Business and Social Reform in the Thirties (1979), The Social Credit Phenomenon in Canada (1989), Our Lives: Canada After 1945 (1997) and The Chamberlain-Hitler Collusion (1997), the latter co-written with Clement Leibovitz. An Italian edition of The Chamberlain-Hitler Collusion was published in 2005. Alvin's latest book, Social Policy and Practice in Canada: A History , appears in 2005. Alvin is the current book-review editor of Labour/Le travail and a member of the editorial board of Canadian Historical Review. He is a past editor of Prairie Forum and a past member of the editorial boards of Journal of the Canadian Historical Association and the Canadian Plains Research Centre. He is also a member of the executive of the Alberta Labour History Institute.

Course Structure

History 528: Canadian Social Policy: History and Current Trends consists of four parts.

Part I: Establishing Theoretical and Historical Frameworks for Studying Social Policy-Weeks 1 to 4. In Part I, we will examine diverging theories about the motivations for various types of social policies and about the likely benefactors and losers from particular forms of social intervention. We will also look at the evolution of social policy in the area that forms today's Canada from the period of First Nations civilizations to 1939. The combination of the theoretical and historical work that you do in Part I will provide you with a good grounding in different types of social-policy regimes from non-state organic regimes, to non-state charitable regimes, to different types of state regimes.

Part II: The Establishment of the Welfare State in Canada-Weeks 5 to 10 In Part II, we will apply the theoretical materials that you learn in Part I to a study of the major new social programs that developed in Canada between 1940 and 1975. We will examine the evidence for various interpretations as to why some campaigns for social reform had significant success (for example, unemployment insurance, pensions, and medicare), while others (such as housing, daycare, and anti-poverty policies) enjoyed only marginal success.

Part III: The Neoliberal Period and Counter-Offensives-Weeks 11 to 12. In Part III, we will examine social policy in the recent past from two perspectives. One will be to analyze the degree of success of neoliberals in reshaping social policy after 1975. The other will be to analyze the proposals of those who sought to continue and deepen the social policy victories before 1975. We will examine the fate of the various social policies studied in Part II. Then we examine critically the recommendations for significant social changes of two royal commissions, led by individuals who opposed neoliberal perspectives, and assess the likelihood of their individual and overall recommendations being implemented.

Part IV: Putting It All Together-Weeks 13 to 15. In Part IV, which will begin even while you are still working on Part III, you will take the knowledge that you have gained in this course and apply it to a detailed assessment of the evolution of a particular social policy area, including an assessment of its components today and the likely directions that policy-makers may take in that area in the near future.

Course Objectives

By the end of Canadian Social Policy: History and Current Trends, you should be able to

1. compare liberal, Marxist, and feminist approaches to a variety of social policy issues, using specific social-policy questions to demonstrate similarities and differences among these approaches.
2. assess competing discourses within each of these three traditions.
3. assess the social values that underlie various statements regarding policy options available to policy-makers.
4. analyze the sources available to researchers on social policy, examining the strengths and weaknesses of various types of sources, as well as the gaps that exist in the sources available.
5. demonstrate your knowledge of social-policy debates, both theoretical and empirical, in a critical review of course materials.
6. demonstrate your knowledge of a specific social-policy debate in a research paper.
7. assess recent royal commission recommendations for major social policy changes in terms of the likelihood of their various recommendations being implemented in the near future.

Student Evaluation

To receive credit for this course, you must successfully complete the following activities and assignments.

• Online participation: You must undertake substantial reading and make informed contributions in your own words to at least six of the online discussions.
• Essays 1, 2, and 3: You must complete all of these assignments on time.

More information on the participation activities and assignments, will be provided in the "Assignment File" near the end of the Course Guide.

The following table summarizes the evaluation activities and the credit weights associated with them.