The Politics of the Welfare State: Canada, Sweden, and the United States

Jeff Karabanow is an assistant professor in the Maritime School of
Social Work at Dalhousie University in Halifax.

This book provides a thoughtful and comprehensive comparative analysis
of the unique welfare systems developed in Canada, Sweden, and the
United States.

The author argues that Sweden’s elaborate and institutionalized
welfare system, together with the country’s socialist underpinning,
has served to protect the values of universality and egalitarianism
within the present globalized neoliberal onslaught. The United States,
on the other hand, has intentionally created a patchwork of
market-driven and private social services, as well as a very limited,
means-tested public welfare enterprise based primarily in fiscal/tax
maneuvers. If Sweden is a “welfare leader,” the United States is a
“welfare laggard.” Canada, with its unique liberal social democracy,
falls somewhere between “leader” and “laggard” in that it
incorporates both universal social programs (notably health care) and
specifically targeted, and quite limited, service provisions (e.g.,
employment insurance).

The book’s strength lies in Olsen’s discussion (and eloquent
critique) of four theoretical frameworks employed to explain welfare
systems: functionalist thought, which provides for the symbiotic
relationship between various systems that make up the operation of the
whole; cultural/ideological perspectives, which introduce the organic
display of a nation’s character, shared beliefs, and philosophy; an
analysis of “societal actors” that allows for the agency of
significant “players” and the strength of organizations within both
elite and grassroots settings; and neo-institutionalism, which
acknowledges the power of organizational structures such as bureaucratic
government entities, voting procedures, and political party development.
Taken together, the four theories allow for a more complete
interpretation of how a country’s welfare structures develop and
survive.

Olsen concludes on a hopeful note. While global integration of trade,
production, and capital has ravished and dismantled many welfare states,
there is evidence that nations can protect and expand social programs.
Governments and citizens have not simply been driven by global markets
and the forces of neoliberalism; they have also shaped alternative and
people-centred social policies. The Politics of the Welfare State is an
important read for students of social policy and international
development/politics.