Decentralization and the Welfare State

Much has been written about federalism and the territorial politics of social policy in North America. This roundtable contribution compares and contrasts the changing role of federalism in several policy areas to assess the evolution of both the level of decentralization and the nature of territorial politics across distinct policy areas in Canada and the United States. Because the situation across these two dimensions varies greatly from one policy area to the next within the same country, it is important to compare different policy areas when the time comes to explore the territorial politics of social policy across jurisdictions. Then, and only then, it becomes possible to assess cross-national institutional and political differences, through paired comparisons of specific social policy areas. To illustrate this approach, the contribution focuses on three distinct policy areas: health care, old-age pensions, and parental leaves. This comparison between two countries and three policy areas reveals the existence of contradictory pressures as well as changing patterns of collaboration and conflict between the federal government and sub-national units in each country.