The Rise of the Welfare State

Dr. Ann Curry-Stevens

Our focus… we intertwine…

 Historic events
 Key economic events
 Key public policies
 Influential politicians/parties
 Social movements
 Social work’s response

 … in other words, a combination of history, economics, public

policy and social movements in one lesson!
What are the key public policies that people depend on?

 Health care
 Public education
 Pensions
 Unemployment Insurance
 Welfare (supports for low-income people)
 Public housing
What do we know about the origins of health care?

 People used to go broke paying for health care, even having a

baby in a hospital often led to bankruptcy
 Saskatchewan 1962; Medicare 1966; all provinces 1971
 Feds pay for 50% of all health costs (under Pearson’s minority
government)
 Paid for under the Canada Assistance Plan (CAP)
Pensions

 First federal support by 1927

 OAS (old age security) federally in 1951
 CPP/QPP 1965; GIS in 1967
 RRSPs – 1957 for self-employed and expanded to 1973 for all
Unemployment Insurance

 UI Act 1940 with 42% of Canadians covered

 Expanded to 70% in 1955
 To 96% in 1971, getting 75% of pay in benefits.
 Expanded to include sick leave and maternity support
Supports for low income people
 Begins back in 1600s in England
 In Canada, created through churches on charity model
 Benefits depend on geography – affluent church or not?
 Churches decide who gets how much support
 Charity Organization Society – first social service – 1869
England and into North America by 1880s
 Indoor relief – workhouses
 Outdoor relief – people’s homes… tried to restrict this severely to
deserving poor (by Poor Law Guardians)
 Institutionalized by federal government in 1966 under CAP
Characteristics of early welfare
 Separation between deserving and undeserving poor
 Deserving = widows, children, disabled (given $ to support selves)
 Undeserving = unemployed men (get indoor relief)
 Residual approach
 Local responses where needs exist (instead of institutional with wide
eligibility)
 Faith-based, charity-based
 If not working, presumed to be voluntarily idle, and this was an offense to God
 Principle of lesser eligibility (1834)
 Those on welfare always are supported at levels less than the lowest income
earners
▪ Because then there is no incentive to work!
An aside… let’s challenge these characteristics
 Deserving/undeserving
 People who don’t work reflect a failure in the market (rather than a personal failure)
 Can anyone really be undeserving? Who should judge this? How should it be judged?
 And everyone needs money to survive – basic financial supports to ensure someone is housed, clothed, fed,
warmed, and able to engage in society
 Lesser eligibility
 Lots of reasons why people want to work
▪ Dignity, social engagement, defeating self-deprecation, potential for better job once one has some experience (future
earnings)
 Residual (last resort, charity, local) /institutional
 You shouldn’t have to tap all family, charities or cash in all your assets before you are able to get support,
and what if you don’t have family?
 Where you live shouldn’t influence the supports you receive
 Concerns that institutional supports will make people forever dependent on the government are unfounded
▪ People want to work for lots of reasons
▪ And newer research on a guaranteed annual income show people use extra resources to help them get healthy and well
prepared to work
Public Education

 Public schools in 19th century

 1871 – first free and required school in Ontario, with standards for
instruction developed nationally
 Exceptions – Quebec and Catholic schools in Ontario and Quebec (and
provinces keep jurisdiction over education as per Constitution Act of
1867)
Post-Secondary Education

 Enrollment doubles in 1945/46 due to returning veterans

 1951 – Ontario begins structure to oversee higher education
sector
 $150 grant for each veteran enrolled in a university, and paid
tuition for veteran students
 Canada Student Loan Program – 1964
 Laurier created in 1911
 UofT 1827 (non secular in 1850)
 1957-67 CMHC loans universities to build student residences
Public Housing

 1946 Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation to help

returning veterans, and expanded to assist housing for all via
loan guarantees, direct housing creation, funds for
improvements. Focus on affordable housing development.
 1949-63 feds pay 75% of cost (1500 units/year)
 1964-73 feds pay 90% to build (although 50% to operate)
(16,300/year)
What is the “welfare state”?

 = Concept of government
 The government plays a key role in the protection and promotion of the
economic and social well-being of its residents/citizens
 Typically described by the types of income support and social programs
that are in place for its residents
 Envisioned by the Marsh Report in 1943 that designs social
insurance system – children’s allowance, health care, minimum
wage, safety net
 Led by Leonard Marsh, social worker
 Involved numerous social workers: Bessie Touzel, George Davidson,
What can we say about its development pattern?

 Health – 1962-71
 Pensions – 1951-73
 Unemployment Insurance – 1940-71
 Welfare – federal coverage by 1966
 Public education – before 1900
 Post-secondary education – 1951-64
 Public housing – 1947-64
Now… what do you notice about the
creation of the welfare state?
Source: Image created by Dr. Curry-Stevens. Used with permission.
Pattern?

 With the exception of public schools (K-12), they were created

in a very narrow timeframe
 Our next exploration is to try to understand why
 But first a small (or not so small) note…
Policies framework was inadequate
 Lots of people not well served by income supports, pensions
or unemployment insurance
 Youth and newcomers not here long enough to be eligible
 Ineligibility for sponsored immigrants for welfare or subsidized
housing for 3 years
 Racialized people often excluded from supports for veterans
 And some core supports never enacted
 Childcare (although newly in 2022 it occurs)
 Pharmacare (although NDP expecting Liberal action soon)
 Dental care (early starts in 2023)
What questions might help answer why welfare
state was created?
 What were the catalysts for governments to initiate locally,
and then move to national requirements?
 What and who were governments responding to, in order to
shoulder responsibility for wide range of programs?
Think first about historic events

 Here are some eclectic responses

 1939 is end of Great Depression (1929-39)
 WWII – 1939-45
 After WWII, USA and Canada have roles in rebuilding Europe
 After WWII, most programs are developed
 Fall of Berlin Wall – 1989
 Soviet Union eliminated in 1991
▪ Pres. Bush (1992) says “By the grace of God, America won the Cold War”
Why after WWII? And Great Depression?
 Indebtedness to returning veterans
 And these veterans had exposure to much stronger European welfare state,
education, housing and stability
 And they held potential to oppose governments if they didn’t like what was
happening… they are used to fighting with guns!
 Risk of return to depression
 Living memory of Great Depression … social policy infrastructure will be there
to help if this happens
 General belief of vulnerability to an economic downturn
▪ “There but for the grace of god, go I” was a common perspective
▪ People felt lucky if they escaped poverty and devastation
▪ NOTE… is it today? No… generally affluent people think they will survive on their own
merits or wealth if the economy deteriorates
But politicians create policy… why did they act?

 1945-57 – Liberals majority and minority

 1957-63 – Progressive Conservatives – majority and minority
 Tommy Douglas in Saskatchewan 1944-64… socialist/social democrat – 5
majority governments
 1961 to 1971 – Douglas moves federal and NDP (started in 1961) is
sometimes official opposition during minority era)… Douglas is in office
1969-79 federally
 Named “greatest Canadian” in 2004 survey
 1963-68 – Pearson – Liberal minority government
 1968 -79 – Liberal majority (sometimes minority) under Trudeau
Political dynamics

 Increases chances of re-election

 Stealing good ideas from opponents at provincial levels
▪ Explains development of health care into national policy
 Build popularity at federal levels
▪ Response to provincial initiatives by upscaling them to national level
 Build popularity at all levels
 Social programs are vastly popular… increases family security, and
creates broad safety net to lessen risks of economic downfall
Social movement pressures… Union movement

 Starts in late 1900s… gains child labour laws, weekend, overtime

pay, 8-hour workday, minimum wage, workplace safety, working
conditions and social unionism to broaden support for welfare state
 Led to mass prosperity of the middle class – promoting living
standards through high expectations on employers
 Workers highly organized – 38% unionized in 1981 (today is 29%)
 Exerting pressures for better working conditions and benefits
 Social unionism – exerting pressures for broader social benefits, including
the major features of the welfare state
▪ Especially unemployment insurance, pensions, broader health benefit, and labour
laws
Civil Rights movements
 Founding of United Nations 1945
 1948 – UN Declaration of Human Rights
 1948 – Japanese and Asian Canadians get right to vote
 1948 – Adapt voting law to not discriminate on basis of race (overturns people of colour
being kept out of Canada in immigration policy)
 1951 – Indian Act revised to remove some repressive features
 1960 – Canadian Bill of Rights introduced… equality of all citizens (Diefenbaker,
conservative, spurred by Tommy Douglas with Saskatchewan rights preceding)
 1962 – First Nations gain right to vote
 Multiculturalism – 1971 in Canada, that moves beyond biculturalism and opposes
assimilation and supports “mosaic”
 1977 – Feds set up Human Rights Commission
 1982 – Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms created, with Canadian Constitution
owned by Canada… includes focus on preserving multicultural heritage AND establishes
Additional movement achievements
 Feminism
 First wave – post-1867 to get the vote – white women not considered
persons, and election law says “no woman, idiot, lunatic or criminal
shall vote”… achieved in 1918
 Second wave – women’s liberation in 1970s… equality rights to gain
divorce rights, employment rights, equal wages, child care, violence
against women
 LGB
 1969 – Same-sex sexual activity becomes lawful
 Environment
 1999 – Environmental Protect Act
Worldwide revolutions
 = the populace supports a major rethinking of the role of government, private
wealth and the ability to demand greater equity, and is prepared to risk lives to
achieve it (because these changes are resisted)
 These are mostly a rejection of capitalism to be replaced with communism and/or other forms
of socialism... some also are independence movements
 Scope of the revolutions (listed on next page) shows the very real risk of ending
capitalism
 Most often when socialist or communist revolutions occur, private businesses are socialized,
and no longer owned privately
 Sometimes the assets of wealthy people and businesses are seized by the government as well
 AS A RESULT – capital wants to ensure capitalism is not overthrown
 How real is this risk?
 Anti-capitalist revolutions & Independence
movements (mostly)
 On to Ottawa Trek – 1935
 Communist Manifesto under Karl Marx –  Men from BC’s workcamp to get Feds to increase jobs
1848  Got to Regina where the Mounties attacked them –
 Paris Commune (not French revolution of some died
1789) in 1871 for 2 months  Indian independence 1948
 Russian revolution 1917  Chinese revolution 1949
 Winnipeg General Strike – 6 weeks in 1919
 Viet Nam 1954
 Cuban Revolution 1959
with 3 deaths. Inspired by Russian  1960s African independence uprisings
Revolution  Indonesia 1965-66
 German Revolution – 1918-19  Mozambique 1964-75
 Hungarian Revolution 1919 (failed)  Chile 1970 (mostly peaceful via elections)
 Bavaria 1919 – failed after 1 month –  Laos 1975
defeated by fascist Freikorps  Angola 1975-2002
 England’s general strike 1926 – 9 days
 Ethiopia 1977-1991
 Afghanistan 1978-1992
 Nicaragua 1979-90
The threat of revolutions are real…

 … during the post-WWII era

 Capital (private business owners and leaders) are thus
supportive of a welfare state in order to:
 Improve living standards for everyone
 Lower the chance of uprising against capital
The influence of corporations

 Corporations support the welfare state

 Prepares the workforce (education)
 Shoulders costs that are often theirs (health care, pensions)
 Creates places where they want to live (houses people, and provides
income supports… better cities)
 Gives people money to buy their products (welfare, pensions)
 AND (as said already), lessen the chance of an uprising
Corporate alignment formalized

 Called “tripartite agreement”

 Three parties – labour, capital and governments – align with
the creation of the welfare state
What is happening in social work during this era?
 Early days
 Work in charities
 Faith-based voluntary work
▪ Became organized, hired staff (friendly visitors), did case work referrals for supports… later led
to “social casework” and reliance on Mary Richmond
 1880s-1920s - Settlement Houses – Jane Addams (Chicago’s Hull House) … social
reform movement
▪ Volunteer middle class live with poor – educate and acculturate residents
▪ Saw poverty as cause of distress – and provide food, shelter and education ($ from wealthy
donors)
 UofT – social work’s first program – began as a settlement house in 1911
(called University Settlement)

Mid-20th century social work

 With Great Depression, institutional approaches to social

welfare were supported
 Significant involvement in Marsh Report that builds support for
institutional development of the welfare state
 Post WWII
 Significant expansion of training of social workers and social services
 Debate on tensions between individual psychodynamic
approach and structural approaches strong prior to WWII –
but then fades for a while as structural approaches and social
change are foregrounded
What is happening economically?

 Golden Age of Capitalism… lots of dollars around, and quality

of life improving widely
 Children have better futures than their parents
 Easier to pay for the welfare state, especially when it isn’t
drawn upon too heavily
 This is also a time of low unemployment and rising standards of living
Conclusion

 Creation of the welfare state

 Origins
 Characteristics
 Importance of politics, social movements, historic events, economic
cycles, corporate alignment, and revolutionary threats