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John Myles (University of Toronto) discusses driving forces, outcomes and policy of income inequality in Canada.
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Transforming Redistributive Politics in Canada
Keith Banting, Queens University
John Myles, University of Toronto
The Fading of Redistributive Politics
Organizational Politics
Political parties
Business and Labour
Civil Society Organizations
Institutional Politics
A more decentralized federation
A more centralized bureaucracy
Ideas
Taxation policy
Labour market policy
Organizational Politics: The Combatants
Political Parties
Economic Interests: Business and Labour
Civil Society organizations
Changing party politics
Initial restructuring under the old politics 1993-97: unusual electoral slack
A subsequent realignment of party system? Decline of centre party; left-right polarization
Comparative perspectives Polarization common under majoritarian electoral systems
Polarized party systems tend to be dominated by the right;
conservative governments are three times more likely under such
electoral systems (Iversen and Soskice 2006).
Canada has never been governed (at the federal level) by a party of the left; but neither, uniquely among majoritarian systems, was it dominated by a party of the
right. That part of Canadas electoral history seems to have ended. (Johnston)
Changing group politics
Weakening of voices speaking for economic
interests of low-income Canadians Unions (versus business representation)
Social movements, advocacy organizations
Socially oriented research/think tanks
Patterns of political engagement Lower voter turnout among the poor and unskilled
Protest politics no longer the vehicle of the dispossessed
The Battlefield: Changing Institutional politics
Federalism: decline in federal role Decentralization
Social policy no longer seen as an instrument of territorial
integration
Bureaucratic shifts
From line departments (advocates)
... To central agencies
Provinces and redistribution
Can provinces reinvigorate redistribution? Additional constraint of regional tax competition
Comparative studies of fiscal federalism
Constraint when intergovernmental transfers are low
Redistribution declined more at the provincial than the
federal level (Frenette, Green and Milligan 2009)
Changes in social assistance
Changes in taxation
Gini Coefficients, All Family Units, After Tax Income, Ontario and Quebec, 1976-2009
0.24
0.26
0.28
0.3
0.32
0.34
1976 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008
Ontario
Quebec
Importance of policy coalitions QUEBEC: coalitions among the historic champions of
the welfare state
EUROPE: social policy innovations increasingly
depend on new cross-class coalitions beyond the historic champions of the welfare state (Husermann 2010).
CRITICAL ROLE OF THE MIDDLE CLASS
Choice: tax cuts versus social spending
Does the middle class align with the top or bottom?
SOCIAL POLICY FUTURES
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