Welfare Hot Buttons: Women, Work, and Social Policy Reform

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

Interweaving data from Canada, the United States, and Britain, Sylvia
Bashevkin provides a comprehensive examination of current social welfare
policy in the Western hemisphere. Through case analyses, she argues that
the Third Way political machinery of Canada’s Jean Chrétien,
America’s Bill Clinton, and Britain’s Tony Blair maintained social
welfare policies similar to those of their respective conservative
predecessors. While maintaining a rhetoric of progressive social
commentary regarding poverty and inequality, Third Way parties have
enacted social welfare policies that are embedded in
responsibility/duty-obsessed orientations. Bashevkin presents case
examples of Third Way policies and attitudes that have been extremely
moralistic and paternalistic toward those most marginalized (e.g., the
homeless, unemployed, poor, single parents).

The reasons why Third Way political parties exchanged their more
progressive platform for neoliberal (pro-market, anti-statist) and
neoconservative (individualistic, return to family values) policies are
left unclear. The author notes that even though Third Way figures are
widely regarded as compassionate and progressive, their social welfare
policies champion paid work (i.e., workfare), a narrowing of social
benefits, and an increasingly taxified system of social policy (rather
than social program expenditures). According to Bashevkin, progressive
ideals such as Jean Chrétien’s electoral promise of more public
daycare were pushed aside by conservative shifts in the political
climate, especially concerning social welfare.

Another way to look at these issues is through the lens of
institutional theory, which suggests that in order to survive in
turbulent environments, actors must adopt the “rules of the game”
that are scripted by more dominant and powerful players. Thus,
Chrétien, Clinton, and Blair carved out particular niches (through the
progressive language of Third Way politics) that, once established,
assumed the language and thinking of center-right politics.
Bashevkin’s thoughtful analysis of Third Way politics, supported
throughout with meaningful case examples, will be welcomed by those
interested in comparative social policy.