IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cog/socinc/v8y2020i1p124-132.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Understanding Universality within a Liberal Welfare Regime: The Case of Universal Social Programs in Canada

Author

Listed:
  • Daniel Béland

    (McGill Institute for the Study of Canada, McGill University, Canada)

  • Gregory P. Marchildon

    (Institute of Health Policy, Management & Evaluation, University of Toronto, Canada / Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto, Canada)

  • Michael J. Prince

    (Faculty of Human & Social Development, University of Victoria, Canada)

Abstract

Although Canada is known as a liberal welfare regime, universality is a key issue in that country, as several major social programs are universal in both their core principles and coverage rules. The objective of this article is to discuss the meaning of universality and related concepts before exploring the development of individual universal social programs in Canada, with a particular focus on health care and old-age pensions. More generally, the article shows how universality can exist and become resilient within a predominantly liberal welfare regime due to the complex and fragmented nature of modern social policy systems, in which policy types vary from policy area to policy area, and even from program to program within the same policy area. The broader analysis of health care and old-age pensions as policy areas illustrates this general claim. This analysis looks at the historical development and the politics of provincial universal health coverage since the late 1950s and at the evolution of the federal Old Age Security program since its creation in the early 1950s. The main argument of this article is that universality as a set of principles remains stronger in health care than in pensions yet key challenges remain in each of these policy areas. Another contention is that there are multiple and contested universalisms in social policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Béland & Gregory P. Marchildon & Michael J. Prince, 2020. "Understanding Universality within a Liberal Welfare Regime: The Case of Universal Social Programs in Canada," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(1), pages 124-132.
  • Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v8:y:2020:i:1:p:124-132
    DOI: 10.17645/si.v8i1.2445
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/2445
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.17645/si.v8i1.2445?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Weaver, R. Kent, 1986. "The Politics of Blame Avoidance," Journal of Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 6(4), pages 371-398, October.
    2. Flood, Colleen M. & Thomas, Bryan, 2018. "A successful Charter challenge to medicare? Policy options for Canadian provincial governments," Health Economics, Policy and Law, Cambridge University Press, vol. 13(3-4), pages 433-449, July.
    3. Michael Bliss, 2010. "Critical Condition: A Historian's Prognosis on Canada's Aging Healthcare System," Benefactors Lecture 2010, C.D. Howe Institute.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Daniel Béland & Gregory P. Marchildon & Michael J. Prince, 2020. "Understanding Universality within a Liberal Welfare Regime: The Case of Universal Social Programs in Canada," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(1), pages 124-132.
    2. Anders Gustafsson, 2019. "Busy doing nothing: why politicians implement inefficient policies," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 282-299, September.
    3. Henrik Serup Christensen & Lauri Rapeli, 2021. "Immediate rewards or delayed gratification? A conjoint survey experiment of the public’s policy preferences," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 54(1), pages 63-94, March.
    4. Sofia Vasilopoulou & Daphne Halikiopoulou & Theofanis Exadaktylos, 2014. "Greece in Crisis: Austerity, Populism and the Politics of Blame," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(2), pages 388-402, March.
    5. Floriana Cerniglia & Riccarda Longaretti & Alberto Zanardi, 2024. "Dangerous liaisons across levels of government in an emergency," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 41(3), pages 771-791, October.
    6. Sten Hansson, 2018. "The discursive micro-politics of blame avoidance: unpacking the language of government blame games," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 51(4), pages 545-564, December.
    7. Zohlnhöfer, Reimut, 1999. "Der lange Schatten der schönen Illusion: Finanzpolitik nach der deutschen Einheit, 1990 - 1998," Working papers of the ZeS 09/1999, University of Bremen, Centre for Social Policy Research (ZeS).
    8. Argenton, Cédric & Potters, Jan & Yang, Yadi, 2023. "Receiving credit: On delegation and responsibility," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    9. Céline Bourbousson, 2017. "Institutionalisation of a participatory instrument : An explanatory model drawing on the theory of institutional logics," Post-Print hal-01896800, HAL.
    10. Kang, Minah & Reich, Michael R., 2014. "Between credit claiming and blame avoidance: The changing politics of priority-setting for Korea's National Health Insurance System," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 115(1), pages 9-17.
    11. Daugbjerg, Carsten & Svendsen, Gert Tinggaard, 2001. "Designing green taxes in a political context: From optimal to feasible environmental regulation," Working Papers 01-17, University of Aarhus, Aarhus School of Business, Department of Economics.
    12. Andong, Sandrine & Ongolo, Symphorien, 2020. "From global forest governance to domestic politics: The European forest policy reforms in Cameroon," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    13. Salvatore Barbaro & Reyn van Ewijk & Julia M. Rode, 2025. "Autonomy and Accountability: Strategic Behavior of German State Leaders During the COVID-19 Pandemic," Working Papers 2503, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz.
    14. Gelvez, Juan David, 2025. "Weathering the Ballot Box: Retrospective Voting and Climate Disasters in Colombia," OSF Preprints nfgmd_v1, Center for Open Science.
    15. Adolph, Christopher & Greer, Scott L. & Massard da Fonseca, Elize, 2012. "Allocation of authority in European health policy," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(9), pages 1595-1603.
    16. Kathrin Hartmann & Georg Wenzelburger, 2021. "Uncertainty, risk and the use of algorithms in policy decisions: a case study on criminal justice in the USA," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 54(2), pages 269-287, June.
    17. Carlos Seixas & Diogo Lourenço, 2024. "On the optimality of policy choices in the face of biased beliefs, retrospective voting and the down-up problem," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 63(2), pages 299-321, September.
    18. Adam Hannah, 2021. "Procedural tools and pension reform in the long run: the case of Sweden [The new politics of the welfare state? A case study of extra-parliamentary party politics in Norway]," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 40(3), pages 362-378.
    19. Stéphane Lavertu, 2015. "For fear of popular politics? Public attention and the delegation of authority to the United States executive branch," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 9(2), pages 160-177, June.
    20. Tim Heinkelmann-Wild & Lisa Kriegmair & Berthold Rittberger, 2020. "The EU Multi-Level System and the Europeanization of Domestic Blame Games," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(1), pages 85-94.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v8:y:2020:i:1:p:124-132. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: António Vieira or IT Department (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cogitatiopress.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.