Full Description
The Social Origins of the Welfare State traces the evolution of the first universal laws for Québec families, passed during the Second World War. In this translation of her award-winning Aux origines sociales de l'Ãtat-providence , Dominique Marshall examines the connections between political initiatives and Québécois families, in particular the way family allowances and compulsory schooling primarily benefited teenage boys who worked on family farms and girls who stayed home to help with domestic labour. She demonstrates that, while the promises of a minimum of welfare and education for all were by no means completely fulfilled, the laws helped to uncover the existence of deep family poverty. Further, by exposing the problem of unequal access of children of different classes to schooling, these programs paved the way for education and funding reforms of the next generation. Another consequence was that in their equal treatment of both genders, the laws fostered the more egalitarian language of the war, which faded from other sectors of society, possibly laying groundwork for feminist claims of future decades. The way in which the poorest families influenced the creation of public, educational, and welfare institutions is a dimension of the welfare state unexamined until this book. At a time when the very idea of a universal welfare state is questioned, The Social Origins of the Welfare State considers the fundamental reasons behind its creation and brings to light new perspectives on its future.
Contents
Table of Contents for The Social Origins of the Welfare State: Québec Families, Compulsory Education, and Family Allowances, 1940â1955 by Dominique Marshall, translated by Nicola Doone Danby Introduction Abbreviations Chapter 1 The Drafting of Laws: Social Movements and Legislation Adélard Godbout and the Provincial Compulsory School Attendance Act of 1943: Liberal Reformism, âManagerial Reformism,â and Clerical Agriculturalism The Failure of the 1943 Provincial Family Allowances Act Mackenzie King and the 1945 Federal Family Allowances Act Maurice Duplessis, Provincial Autonomy, and Social Policies The Industrial and Commercial Establishments Act Chapter 2 Implementing the New Laws: Institutionalization of New Rights The Consolidation of the Department of Public Instruction: Statistics and Centralization School Boards, the Department of Labour Inspectors, and the Montréal Juvenile Court The Institution of Family Allowances and the Federal Governmentâs âAdministrative Revengeâ Chapter 3 The Significance of Children's Universal Rights: Official Views on Poverty and the Family Poverty and Collective Responsibility The Question of Childrenâs Autonomy The Autonomy of Poor Parents Chapter 4 The Evolution of the Status of Children: Between the New Official Norms, Market Changes, and the Cultural World of Parents The Progress of Schooling The Decline of Juvenile Labour in Industry and Commerce The Decline of Labour for Farmersâ Sons The Change in Parentsâ Responsibilities and Prerogatives The Increase in Childrenâs Autonomy Chapter 5 Forgotten by Education and Welfare: The New Faces of Poverty and Juvenile Labour The Failure of Government Advice and the Discarding of Abnormal Families The Survival of Juvenile Labour: Market Insufficiencies and the Persistent Needs of Families The Development and Tolerance of Exceptions to Universal Rights: Sons of Self-Sufficient Farmers, Girls of Disadvantaged Homes, and Ghettos of Paid Juvenile Labour The Rigidity of the School Structure, Childrenâs Persistent Needs, and the New Conceptions of Abnormal Childhood Chapter 6 The Transformation of the Political Culture of Families The Maintenance and Dissipation of the War Consensus Traditional Means of Defending Parentsâ Rights and the New Struggles for Democracy School Boards and the Struggle against the Centralizing of Social Institutions Social Policy and the Constitution The Quiet Revolution, State Formation, Nationalism, and Family Values Notes Index
