The notion that every person living amidst the relative affluence of the rich world has a right to a minimum income enabling social participation, be it frugally and soberly, holds as a fundamental matter of social justice to most people. But how can we make sure that every person has a decent minimum income allowing for a life with dignity in societies rich enough to afford such a right? How can we ensure that minimum income support is cost-effective and compatible with other goals such a...

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. Single parents face a triple bind of inadequate resources, employment, and policies, which in combination further complicate their lives.This book - multi-disciplinary and comparative in design - shows evidence from over 40 countries, along with detailed case studies of Sweden, Iceland, Scotland, and the UK. It covers aspects of well-being that include poverty, good quality jobs, the middle class, wealth, health, children’s development ...

Advanced welfare states are said to be facing, in the words of Pierre Rosanvallon, a New Social Question. The idea here, and it is a widely shared one, is that the transition from an industrial to a postindustrial environment has brought with it a whole new set of social risks, constraints and trade-offs which necessitate radical recalibration of social security systems. This book analyses in some depth how economic change has impacted on minimum income protection in advanced welfare state...

Forty-five contributions from renowned international specialists in the field provide readers with expert analysis of the core issues related to the welfare state, including regional depictions of welfare states around the globe. The second edition of the Routledge Handbook of the Welfare State combines essays on methodologies, core concepts and central policy areas to produce a comprehensive understanding of what ‘the welfare state’ means around the world.In the aftermath...

Canada, like other countries, is aging. The media has reported on a "grey tsunami," a demographic change reflecting longer life expectancy and the retirement of the so-called baby boomer generation. The numbers and percentages of older adults within our population continue to increase. In 2010, 15.3 percent of Canada's population was over 65; in 2030, it will be 24.1 percent. Many commentators have risen alarm about this flood of adults potentially bankrupting our health care system. This ...

Taxes connect us to one another, to the common good, and to the future. This is a book about taxes: who pays what and who gets what. More than that, it’s about the role of government, about citizenship and our collective well-being, about the Canada we want. The contributors, leading Canadian practitioners and scholars, explore how taxes have become a political “no-go zone” and how changes in taxation are changing Canada. They challenge the view that any tax is a bad tax and provide broad ...

A leading economist discusses the potential of happiness research (the quantification of well-being) to answer important questions that standard economics methods are unable to analyze.Revolutionary developments in economics are rare. The conservative bias of the field and its enshrined knowledge make it difficult to introduce new ideas not in line with received theory. Happiness research, however, has the potential to change economics substantially in the future. ...

A consistent bestseller since its publication in 2000, Changing Politics of Canadian Social Policy is a one-of-a-kind resource in the fields of political science and social work. Examining current conditions affecting the development of social policies in Canada, this book offers in-depth critical analysis of how these policies first arose and the implications they pose for future policy development.This new edition of Changing Politics of Canadian Social Policy f...

This book discusses and analyses global policies and practices aimed at promoting equity in higher education participation and attainment. Although the massification of higher education systems has facilitated the participation of students from deprived backgrounds, socioeconomic inequalities persist in access to the most prestigious institutions and programmes. Privileged students benefit from a number of advantages in the competition for selective and scarce places: access to information...

Why national and international equality matter and what we can do to ensure a fairer worldIn The Globalization of Inequality, distinguished economist and policymaker François Bourguignon examines the complex and paradoxical links between a vibrant world economy that has raised the living standard of over half a billion people in emerging nations such as China, India, and Brazil, and the exponentially increasing inequality within countries. Exploring globali...

In this new edition of Uneasy Partnership, Geoffrey Hale examines the interdependent relationship between Canadian governments and businesses, considering governments’ multiple roles in the economy and their implications for the business environment. Hale provides an overview of the historical dimensions of Canada’s political economy and relations between government and business. Readers are invited to consider topics such as corporate power, the implications of Canada's economic ...

This open access handbook provides a multilevel view on family policies, combining insights on family policy outcomes at different levels of policymaking: supra-national organizations, national states, sub-national or regional levels, and finally smaller organizations and employers. At each of these levels, a multidisciplinary group of expert scholars assess policies and their implementation, such as child income support, childcare services, parental leave, and leave to provide care to fra...