Retooling the Welfare State: What's Right, What's Wrong, What's to Be Done

Jeffrey Moon is head of the Documents Reference/Data Centre at Queen’s
University.

Retooling the Welfare State provides a pragmatic look at Canada’s
social support system. The author accepts a broad definition of the
“welfare state,” which includes public expenditure on “cash
benefits, health care, education, and food, housing and other welfare
services.”

Richards starts by reviewing “what’s right,” referring to the
welfare state as one of the “major accomplishment[s] of this
century” and using public health care as an example of its success. In
the “what’s wrong” section, he suggests that special-interest
groups now control the “traditional left” agenda and are lobbying
for spending increases that overtaxed citizens are unwilling to sustain.
He discusses the impact of declining “traditional family values”
while acknowledging that the issue is “highly contentious.”

The “what’s to be done” contains “five proposals” for
improving the welfare state: clarify and balance budgets; maintain
accountability (limit each social policy to one level of government);
respect comparative advantage/celebrate competitive federalism (let each
level of government do what they do best); encourage two-parent families
(their success at raising children should be rewarded fiscally); and
emphasize workfare (support “action” on the part of welfare
recipients).

Using federal, provincial, and international examples to support his
arguments, Richards tackles a broad range of theories and misconceptions
about the Canadian welfare state. The “family values” argument,
though just one element of a much larger thesis, may overshadow the
fundamental strengths of his book, which would be unfortunate. Even
dissenting readers will have to concede that the author’s ideas are
logically presented, thoroughly researched, and have something to say to
“both ends and the middle” of the political spectrum. This book
should be a catalyst for debate on the welfare state.