IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envirc/v28y2010i3p420-434.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does Nationalism Trigger Welfare-State Disintegration? Social Policy and Territorial Mobilization in Belgium and Canada

Author

Listed:
  • Daniel Béland

    (School of Public Policy, University of Saskatchewan, 101 Diefenbaker Place, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada S7N 5B8)

  • André Lecours

    (School of Political Studies, University of Ottawa, 55 Laurier Avenue East, Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5, Canada)

Abstract

Since the late 1990s a growing number of scholars have explored the relationship between decentralization, nationalism, and social policy development. In this paper we explore the impact of substate nationalism on the territorial integration or disintegration of the welfare state in Belgium and Canada. As argued, although substate nationalist mobilization is intuitively associated with welfare-state disintegration, there is little evidence to support this claim. In Belgium, despite Flemish nationalist pressures, francophone opposition and major constitutional obstacles have prevented the decentralization of the federal social insurance system. In Canada competitive nation building between the federal and Quebec governments has not led to the erosion of social protection. Instead, this logic has favored the creation of a decentralized and asymmetrical welfare state while exacerbating pressures for social policy expansion. In order to explain such contrasted outcomes we draw on the existing scholarship on the role of ideas and of institutions in policy development.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Béland & André Lecours, 2010. "Does Nationalism Trigger Welfare-State Disintegration? Social Policy and Territorial Mobilization in Belgium and Canada," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 28(3), pages 420-434, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:28:y:2010:i:3:p:420-434
    DOI: 10.1068/c0956r
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/c0956r
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/c0956r?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. Bruno Théret, 1999. "Regionalism and Federalism: a Comparative Analysis of the Regulation of Economic Tensions between Regions by Canadian and American Federal Intergovernmental Transfer Programmes," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(3), pages 479-512, September.
    2. Breton, Albert & Fraschini, Angela, 2003. "Vertical Competition in Unitary States: The Case of Italy," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 114(1-2), pages 57-77, January.
    3. Schmidt, Vivien A., 2002. "The Futures of European Capitalism," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199253685, Decembrie.
    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. Kristina Babich & Daniel Béland, 2007. "Creating the Canada/Quebec Pension Plans: An Historical and Political Analysis," Social and Economic Dimensions of an Aging Population Research Papers 223, McMaster University.
    2. , Stone Center & Ranaldi, Marco, 2020. "Distributional Aspects of Economic Systems," SocArXiv n7wj4, Center for Open Science.
    3. Pierre Salmon, 2006. "Horizontal Competition Among Governments," Chapters, in: Ehtisham Ahmad & Giorgio Brosio (ed.), Handbook of Fiscal Federalism, chapter 2, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Sander Meijerink & Sabina Stiller, 2013. "What Kind of Leadership Do We Need for Climate Adaptation? A Framework for Analyzing Leadership Objectives, Functions, and Tasks in Climate Change Adaptation," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 31(2), pages 240-256, April.
    5. Breton, Albert & Fraschini, Angela, 2016. "Is Italy a Federal or even a Quasi-Federal State?," POLIS Working Papers 186, Institute of Public Policy and Public Choice - POLIS.
    6. Hubert Buch‐Hansen, 2012. "The political economy of regulatory change: The case of British merger control," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 6(1), pages 101-118, March.
    7. Peter Humphreys & Seamus Simpson, 2008. "Globalization, the 'Competition' State and the Rise of the 'Regulatory' State in European Telecommunications," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46, pages 849-874, September.
    8. Marta Espasa & Alejandro Esteller-Moré & Toni Mora, 2017. "Is Decentralization Really Welfare Enhancing? Empirical Evidence from Survey Data (1994-2011)," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 70(2), pages 189-219, May.
    9. Albert Breton & Angela Fraschini, 2003. "The Independence of the Italian Constitutional Court," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 319-333, December.
    10. Bruno Amable & Elvire Guillaud & Stefano Palombarini, 2011. "The political economy of neo-liberalism in Italy and France," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 11051, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    11. Patrick Kaczmarczyk, 2020. "Growth Models and the Footprint of Transnational Capital," Working Papers hal-03471320, HAL.
    12. Kevin Featherstone, 2008. "‘Varieties of Capitalism’ and the Greek case: explaining the constraints on domestic reform?," GreeSE – Hellenic Observatory Papers on Greece and Southeast Europe 11, Hellenic Observatory, LSE.
    13. Featherstone, Kevin, 2008. ""Varieties of capitalism" and the Greek case: explaining the constraints on domestic reform?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 5608, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    14. Kathleen Thelen, 2009. "Institutional Change in Advanced Political Economies," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 47(3), pages 471-498, September.
    15. Ray Hudson, 2005. "Rethinking Change in Old Industrial Regions: Reflecting on the Experiences of North East England," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 37(4), pages 581-596, April.
    16. Roy Trivedi, Smita, 2011. "The growing dichotomy between real and financial sectors," MPRA Paper 41421, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Vladimir Stojanovski, 2022. "Policy Processes in the Institutionalisation of Private Forestry in the Republic of North Macedonia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-20, March.
    18. James Buckley & David Howarth, 2010. "Internal Market: Gesture Politics? Explaining the EU's Response to the Financial Crisis," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(s1), pages 119-141, September.
    19. Uwe Becker, 2013. "Measuring Change of Capitalist Varieties: Reflections on Method, Illustrations from the BRICs," New Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(4), pages 503-532, August.
    20. Cerami, Alfio, 2006. "The Politics of Reforms in Bismarckian Welfare Systems: The Cases of Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia," MPRA Paper 92271, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    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:sae:envirc:v:28:y:2010:i:3:p:420-434. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.