Workfare: Why Good Social Policy Ideas Go Bad

Ashley Thomson is a full librarian at Laurentian University and co-editor or co-author of nine books, most recently Margaret Atwood: A Reference Guide, 1988-2005.

“Workfare” is a term usually associated with conservative regimes.
The general aim of workfare programs is to reduce the number of welfare
recipients by moving them into paying jobs. Quaid, a professor
affiliated with the Administrative Studies Program at Ontario’s Trent
University, profiles workfare programs in California under Reagan,
Wisconsin under Thompson, New York City under Giuliani, Alberta under
Klein, Ontario under Harris, and New Brunswick under McKenna. Her main
purpose, though, is not to tell the story of workfare, but rather to
develop a model outlining the hazards governments must avoid as they
attempt to implement new programs in other areas of social policy
(health, education, unemployment insurance, etc.).

The validity of Quaid’s model is undermined by the strong possibility
that the success (or failure) of the workfare programs she discusses was
more dependent on varying rates of unemployment than on the factors she
identifies. That said, her book is well written and informative.