Social Policy in Canada

Elaine G. Porter is an associate professor of sociology at Laurentian
University.

This book begins with the usual cross-national comparisons of government
spending on social programs, but the volume’s last half is a rare find
in books on social policy. It is dedicated to an examination of a wide
variety of tools governments can use for revenue generation. This
attention to both directions of income flows allows the author the
unique opportunity to demonstrate the effect of the hidden
“clawbacks” on recipients of various types of government social
spending. Throughout the book, Lightman, an economist, provides the
rationales for social spending from both the right- and left-of-centre
perspectives, although he tries to tweak liberalism to maximize its
social-welfare output. The chapter on privatization, commercialism, and
welfare pluralism is particularly good because it considers both
ideological preferences and economic considerations. The book does not
provide charts and histories of social programs in Canada, but it does
include a sketchy treatment of theoretical reasons for welfare-state
development and a definition of social policy that merges mainstream
welfare economics with the mainstream social-policy approach based on
Titmuss. Examples of particular social policies are given throughout
Lightman’s discussions of universalism versus selectivity, the case
for and against regulation, and in-kind versus cash-delivery modes for
benefits. He also provides short semi-technical explanations of economic
terms to make them understandable for the noneconomist.

A wide number of revenue-generation sources are considered. These
include regressive and progressive effects of taxation, employment
insurance premiums, user fees, and provincial lottery programs. Tax laws
pertaining to registered charities are evaluated and found to represent
a private use of public money. There is, conversely, very little
analysis of inequities due to consideration of individuals or families
as units of administration, although here and there a discussion of
gender considerations does appear.

Social Policy in Canada would be suitable as an adjunct text for
introductory courses in social welfare and welfare economics. It is
possible to find in its pages allusions to a wide variety of policies
and issues, from workfare to the alternative federal budget; but it is
breadth, not depth, that is the virtue of this book.