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Inequality and the Fading of Redistributive Politics

Inequality and the Fading of Redistributive Politics

Edited by Keith Banting and John Myles

Published by: University of British Columbia Press

Imprint: UBC Press

425 Pages, 152.00 × 229.00 mm, 45 graphs, 25 tables

Paperback
9780774826006
Published: January 2014

£28.99

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Hardcover
9780774825993
Published: September 2013

£79.00

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Description
Contents
Authors

All advanced democracies have faced the pressures of globalization, technological change, and new family forms, which have generated higher levels of inequality in market incomes. But countries have responded differently, reflecting differences in their domestic politics. The politics of who gets what and why is at the core of this volume, the first to examine this question in an explicitly Canadian context.

In Inequality and the Fading of Redistributive Politics, leading political scientists, sociologists, and economists point to the failure of public policy to contain surging income inequality. Government programs are no longer offsetting the growth in inequality generated by the market, and Canadian society has become more unequal. The redistributive state is fading due to powerful forces that have reshaped the politics of social policy, including global economic pressures, ideological change, shifts in the influence of business and labour, changes in the party system, and the decline of equality-seeking civil society organizations.

This volume demonstrates conclusively that action and inaction -- policy change and policy drift -- are at the heart of growing inequality, calling into question Canada's record as a kinder, gentler nation.

1 Introduction: Inequality and the Fading of Redistributive Politics / Keith Banting and John Myles

Part 1: Politics

2 Historical Transformations of Canada's Social Architecture: Institutions, Instruments, and Ideas / Jane Jenson

3 Drivers of Increasing Market Income Inequality: Structural Change and Policy / David A. Green and James Townsend

4 Business, Labour, and Redistributive Politics / William D. Coleman

5 Restructuring Civil Society: Muting the Politics of Redistribution / Susan D. Phillips

6 Public Opinion on Social Spending, 1980-2005 / Robert Andersen and Josh Curtis

7 Multicultural Diversity and Redistribution / Keith Banting, Stuart Soroka, and Edward Koning

8 The Party System, Elections, and Social Policy / Richard Johnston

9 The New Bureaucratic Politics of Redistribution / David A. Good

10 Territorial Politics and the New Politics of Redistribution / Gerard W. Boychuk

11 Quebec's New Politics of Redistribution / Alain Noël

Part 2: Policy

12 Health Care Policy after Universality: Canada in Comparative Perspective / Carolyn Hughes Tuohy

13 Income Security for Seniors: System Maintenance and Policy Drift / John Myles

14 The Recent Evolution of Tax-Transfer Policies / Robin Boadway and Katherine Cuff

15 Childcare, New Social Risks, and the New Politics of Redistribution in Ontario / Rianne Mahon

16 Labour Market Income Transfers and Redistribution: National Themes and Provincial Variations / Rodney Haddow

Part 3: Conclusion

17 Canadian Social Futures: Concluding Reflections / Keith Banting and John Myles

Index

Keith Banting is a professor in the School of Policy Studies and the Department of Political Studies at Queen's University and holds the Queen's Research Chair in Public Policy. John Myles is a professor emeritus of sociology and currently senior fellow in the School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Toronto.

Contributors: Robert Andersen, Robin Boadway, Gerard W. Boychuk, William D. Coleman, Katherine Cuff, Josh Curtis, David A. Good, David A. Green, Rodney Haddow, Jane Jenson, Richard Johnston, Edward Koning, Rianne Mahon, Alain Noël, Susan D. Phillips, Stuart Soroka, James Townsend, Carolyn Hughes Tuohy