This article focuses on Canada’s liberal welfare state and the COVID-19 pandemic, offering an overview of some of the unequal health and social effects of the crisis. It argues that the policy response to the pandemic should be situated within a broader pattern of welfare restructuring and organization that serves to instrumentalize economic insecurity and extend labor discipline. Without making firm predictions about the future, we argue that this is likely to reproduce increasingly unequal patterns of welfare access, providing benefits to some constituents while disciplining vulnerable groups to facilitate competitive gains.
MilibandR.The State in Capitalist Society.
London, England:
Merlin Press; 2009.
2.
JessopB.Cultural political economy and critical policy studies. Crit Policy Stud2010;
3(3–4): 336–356.
3.
Esping-AndersenG.The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism.
Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press; 1990.
4.
BryantTRaphaelD.The Politics of Health in the Canadian Welfare State.
Toronto, ON:
Canadian Scholars; 2020.
5.
PowellMYörükEBarguA.Thirty years of the Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism: a review of reviews. Soc Policy Admin. 2020;
54(1):60–87.
6.
ArtsWAGelissenJ.Models of the welfare state. In: CastlesFGLeibfriedSLewisJObingerHPiersonC, eds. The Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State.
2010: 569–585.
7.
GlynA.Capitalism Unleashed: Finance, Globalization, and Welfare.
New York, NY:
Oxford University Press; 2006.
8.
BambraC.Health inequalities and welfare state regimes: theoretical insights on a public health puzzle. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2011;
65:740–745.
9.
NiedzwiedzCLKatikireddiSVPellJPMitchellR.Socioeconomic innequalities inn the quality of life of older Europoeans in different welfare regimes. Eur J Public Health. 2014;
24(3):364–370.
10.
KenworthyLPontussonJ.Rising Inequality and the Politics of Redistribution in Affluent Countries.
Ithaca:
Cornell University Press; 2004.
11.
HuberEStephensJ.The social democratic welfare state. In GlynA., ed.Social Democracy in Neoliberal Times: The Left and Economic Policy Since 1980.
Oxford, England:
Oxford University Press; 2001:276–311.
CoatesD.Models of Capitalism: Growth and Stagnation in the Modern Era.
Cambridge:
Polity Press; 2000.
14.
BruffI.What about the elephant in the room? Varieties of capitalism, varieties in capitalism. New Polit Econ. 2011;
16(4):481–500.
15.
PontussonJ.Varieties and commonalities of capitalism. In: CoatesD, ed.Varieties of Capitalism, Varieties of Approaches.
London, England:
Palgrave; 2005:163–188.
16.
StreeckW. E Pluribus Unum? Varieties and Commonalities of Capitalism. MPifG Discussion Paper; 2010.
17.
HeyesJLewisP,
Clark, I. Varieties of capitlalism, neoliberalism and the ecoonmic crisis of 2008?Ind Relat J. 2012;
43(3):222–241.
18.
AgliettaM.A Theory of Capitalist Regulation: The US Experience.
New York:
Verso; 1979.
19.
AlboGFastT. Varieties of Neoliberalism: Trajectories of Workfare in the Advanced Capitalist Countries. Paper presented at the Annual Meetings of the Canadian Political Science Association Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia; May 30, 2003.
20.
PanitchL.Dependency and class in Canadian political economy. Stud Polit Econ. 1981;
81(6):7–33.
21.
MilibandR.Class Power and State Power.
London, England:
Verso Press; 1983.
22.
PoulantzasN.Political Power and Social Classes.
London, England:
New Left Books; 1979.
23.
CreavenS.Marxism and Critical Realism: A Materialistic Application of Realism in the Social Sciences.
New York, NY:
Routledge; 2000.
24.
ArcherM.Realist Social Theory: The Morphogenetic Approach.
New York, NY:
Cambridge University Press; 1995.
25.
CollierA.Critical Realism: An Introduction to Roy Bhaskar’s Philosophy.
New York, NY:
Verso; 1994.
26.
MaherSAquannoSM.Conceptualizing neoliberalism: foundations of an institutional Marxist theory of capitalism. New Polit Sci. 2018;
40(1):33–50.
27.
KahlerMLakeD.Politics in the New Hard Times.
Ithaca:
Cornell University Press; 2013.
28.
EvansBRichmondTShieldsJ.Structuring neoliberal governance: the nonprofit sector, emerging new modes of control and the marketisation of service delivery. Policy Soc. 2005;
2(1):73–97.
29.
EikasMSelleP.A contract culture even in Scandinavia. In: AscoliURanciC, eds. Dilemmas of the Welfare Mix: The New Structures of Welfare in an Era of Privatization.
New York, NY:
Kluwer Academic Plenum; 2002:44–75.
30.
DeemingC.The lost and the new ‘liberal world’ of welfare capitalism: a critical assessment of Gosta Esping-Andersen’s the three worlds of welfare capitalism a quarter century later. Soc Policy Soc. 2017;
16(3):405–422.
31.
ClaytonRPontussonJ.Welfare state retrenchment revisited. World Polit. 1998;
51(1):67–98.
32.
TeepleG.BC labour relations in an era of neoliberal reform. In: LachariteJRSummervilleT, eds. The Campbell Revolution: Power, Politics and Policy in British Columbia.
Kingston, QC:McGill-Queen’s University Press; 2018:125–149.
33.
CohenMG. Response to the Recession: Rescue the economy, protect people and plan for the future. Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. May 1, 2009.
34.
AlboG.FanelliC.Austerity against democracy: an authoritarian phase of neoliberalism?Centre Soc Just. 2014
35.
RuedaD.The state of the welfare state: unemployment, labor market policy, and inequality in the age off workfare. Comparat Polit. 2015;
47(3):296–314.
36.
BrochmannGHagelundA.Migrants in the Scandinavian welfare state. Nordic J Migrat Res. 2011;
1(1):13–24.
37.
KingD.Actively Seeking Work.
Chicago, IL:
University of Chicago Press; 1995.
38.
ChanW.Canada: punishing the undeserving poor. Open Democr. 1995.
39.
BrownW.Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s Stealth Revolution.
New York, NY:
Zone Books; 2015.
40.
BullockHE.From the front lines of welfare reform: an analysis of social worker and welfare recipient attitudes. J Soc Psychol. 2004;
144(6):571–590.
41.
HerdDLightmanEMitchellA.Searching for local solutions: making welfare policy on the ground in Ontario. J Progress Hum Serv. 2009;
20(2):129–151.
42.
GingrichJHausermannS.The decline of the working-class vote, the reconfiguration of the welfare support coalition and consequences for the welfare state. J Eur Soc Policy. 2009;
25(1):50–75.
43.
McBrideSWhitesideH.Austerity for whom?Soc Stud. 2011;
7(1/2):42–64.
44.
BlockS.GalabuziGE.Canada’s Coded Labour Market: The Gap for Racialized Workers.
Toronto, ON:
Wellesley Institute, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives; 2011.
45.
CreeseGStrong-BoagV.Downsizing equality, 2001-2011: the best place on earth for whom? In: LachariteJRSummervilleT (eds). The Campbell Revolution: Power, Politics and Policy in British Columbia.
Kingston, QC:
McGill-Queen’s University Press; 2017:165–176.
46.
BantingKKymlickW, eds. Multiculturalism and the Welfare State: Recognition and Redistribution in Contemporary Democracies.
Oxford, England:
Oxford University Press; 2006.
47.
O’ConnorJSOrloffAShaverS.States, Markets, Families: Gender, Liberalism and Social Policy in Australia, Canada, Great Britain and the United States.
Cambridge, England:
Cambridge University Press; 1999.
48.
HurrelmannK.RathmannK.RichterM.Health inequalities and welfare state regimes. A research note. J Public Health2010;
19(1):3–13.
49.
DahlEFritzellJLahelmaE.Welfare state regimes and health inequalities. In SiegristJMarmotM, eds. Social inequalities in health.
Oxford, England:
Oxford University Press; 2006:193–222.
50.
NavarroVShiLY.The political context of social inequalities and health. Int J Health Serv. 2001;
31(1):1–21.
51.
NavarroV.The Political Economy of Social Inequalities: Consequences for Health and Quality of Life.
New York, NY:
Baywood Publishing; 2002.
52.
Bambra C.
Health inequalities and welfare state regimes: theoretical insights on a public health puzzle. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2011;
65:740–745.
53.
EikemoTABambraCJoyceKDahlE.Welfare state regimes and income-related health inequalities: a comparison of 23 European countries. Eur J Public Health. 2008;
18(6):593–599.
54.
BambraCReiblingNMcNamaraC.States of health: welfare regimes, health and healthcare. In: GreveB, ed. Routledge Handbook of the Welfare State. 2nd ed.
New York, NY:
Routledge; 2019:254–266.
55.
BambraCRiordanRFordJMatthewsF.The COVID-19 pandemic and health inequalities. J Epidemiol Community Health2020;
74(11): 964–968.
56.
TherbornG.The Killing Fields of Inequality.
New York, NY:
Polity Press; 2013.
Migrant Workers Alliance for Change. Unheeded Warnings: COVID-19 and Migrant Workers in Canada.
Toronto, ON:
Migrant Workers Alliance for Change; 2020.
CarlinoGA.Did the fiscal stimulus work? Econ Insights, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. 2017;
2(1):6–16.
75.
AlboG.Divided province: democracy and the politics of state restructuring in Ontario. In: AlboGEvansB, eds. Divided Province: Ontario in the Age of Neoliberlaism.
Montreal, QC:
McGill-Queens Univesity Press; 2018:3–42.
76.
WhitesideH.BC’s recurrent austerity: victory unfettered from success. In: EvansBFanelliC, eds. The Public Sector in an Age of Austerity: Perspective From Canada’s Provinces and Territories.
Kingston, QC:
McGill-Queens University Press; 2018:23–47.
77.
GordonL.The welfare state: towards a socialist-feminist perspective. In: MilibandRPanitchL, eds. Socialist Register.
London, England:
Merlin Press; 1990:171–200.
78.
VoskoL, ed. Precarious Employent: Understanding Labour Market Insecurity in Canada.
Montreal, QC:
McGill-Queen’s University Press; 2006.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
