POLI 1101 Term Paper: Evaluating Canada's Welfare State Policies

This essay discusses the political, administrative, economic, and social policies of Canada's welfare state. It examines the advantages and disadvantages of the welfare system, the role of privatization, and Canada's responsibility in assisting less developed countries. The essay also delves into the management of natural resources, fiscal and taxation policies, and the impact of global governance on Canada's democratic political life. It argues that while Canada strives to provide for its citizens, it faces internal and external pressures in maintaining its welfare status. The analysis covers topics such as the debate over expanding or reducing the welfare state, the implications of privatization on government services, the importance of developed democracies aiding less developed countries, and the effective management of natural resources through federal and provincial collaboration. The essay concludes by highlighting the unique fiscal and taxation policies of Canada and their contribution to the country's welfare system. Desklib provides a platform where students can find this essay and many other solved assignments.

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The aim of this essay is to discuss the political, administrative, economic and social
policies of the welfare state of Canada. In discussing the welfare nature whether extended or
reduced it can be stated that the welfare state like Canada remains always responsible to promote
and protect economic and social wellbeing of the citizens. However, the state does not allow
people to choose their way to spend their own income. the surveillance on the income of a person
is continued. Privatization can be applied but in some limited aspects so that the welfare nature
doe not get hampered. The less developed countries can get help from this type of developed
democracy like Canada by following its policies. The taxation, fiscal system, management of
natural resources are well maintained. This essay will be detailing whether the democratic
country like Canada as welfare state should be expanded or reduced, the definition of
privatization whether the government services must be handed to the private companies, the
developed democracies must help less developed countries, natural Resources in Canada takes
care of the natural resources, the fiscal and taxation policies of Canada and whether the global
governance support or challenge democratic political life of Canada.
Thesis statement: Canada takes care of the people providing provisions for their good life but
faces tremendous pressure both internally and externally to maintain its positive and welfare
status.
There are numerous criticisms regarding the fact that Canada as welfare state should be
expanded or reduced. In this aspect the advantages and disadvantages of welfare state need to be
discussed. The welfare state like Canada remains always responsible to promote and protect
economic and social wellbeing of the citizens. This aims to provide equal opportunities for each
of its citizens and equal wealth distribution among them. The state is also responsible to take
care of the people who are incapable to avail minimum provisions for their good life. Canada as

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a welfare state involves into the actions like transferring the funds from state to services like
education as well as health care. This country follows the ideologies of social democracy which
is based on the principles of universalism. This particular ideology grants the access to services y
the government as well as advantages based on the citizenship. Based on these views, the
government of this country provides social benefits to the minorities. Due to these reasons the
scholars praise this type of social and political structure in all over the world so that the issues of
economy, society and culture remain balanced.
On the contrary some of the critics like Rod et al. (2015) state that this type of system is
not perfect for the all-inclusive growth of the people living in that country hence must be
reduced. For the reason they have found out that Canada though provide autonomy to its citizens
but limits their reliance on the families or market. Hence all these government policies are
against the market and economic growth. The state does not allow people to choose their way to
spend their own income and the surveillance on the income of a person is continued. The welfare
state imposes high rate of taxes to the higher income group to collect fund for their services. The
people of welfare states cannot use the natural resources in accordance with their own value. In
addition to this, the government intrudes in the personal lives of the people and manipulate their
decision-making process (Hodge 2018). However, despite these issues, the welfare state is
highly popular among the citizens as the benefits are more compelling than those of the
disadvantages.
Privatization is the method of transferring of the government assets, functions and
services to the private associations. This also refers to the deregulation of the government actions
where the heavily regulated private industries become less regulated. This involves the removal
of restrictions that were previously preventing the private individuals as well as businesses from

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participating in some particular industry or services. Through privatization, the control of the
government either loses or eliminated in the series and the private companies take care of those
responsibilities from where they continue their profit mechanism.
Regarding the issue that whether the government services must be handed to the private
companies to save them is mandatory or not, there are regents among the experts. The critic like
Hodge (2018) government services must be handed to the private companies, as this may lead to
have improved efficiency as well as profits from these services. As the private companies run
largely by the competition incentives, therefore, there are chances for innovation as well as
improvement. The private companies ensure that they must improve their operation efficiency
for reducing their costs as well as improve their profits. To the critics like Denhardt and
Denhardt (2015) the privatization method of the government assets reduces the political
interference. The government when find to difficult to make decagons like the layoffs and pay
cuts as these facts their political footing, transfer their responsibilities to the private companies to
avoid negative publicity. The efficacy of the services or institution increases as these do not get
the protection from the government anymore hence work more effectively to survive in the
competition (Montagnes and Bektemirov 2018).
On the contrary, the critics like Abramovitz and Zelnick (2015), reveal that the
privatization affect the citizen in a far-reaching way. Though this method, the government loses
dividends which affect the asset building of the state. Moreover, the privatization of some very
important state entities like electricity and water authorities, create single monopolies but after
privatization of such entities leads to increase of the prices at the detriment of the customers
limitlessly. In addition to these, the government can no more use the companies for the social
welfare as they companies are regularized. This means the government cannot ask the companies

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for employing its citizens or raise fund for carrying out social welfare process. In case of the
welfare states, privatization challenges the whole setting and end the welfare process.
The developed democracies must help less developed countries to become democracy as
the main criteria here is the development process. All the developed democracies of the world
are successful as this system is the most efficient government systems. The developed
democracies have mechanisms to protect the interest of the citizens. These people have right to
vote and choose their representatives who take care of the political, economic and social issues.
these people are directly connected in the government’s decision-making policies and they have
complete understanding of how these decisions will impact on them in the future. This process is
the best for the welfare of the citizens of the countries democratic system of government
prevents monopoly of authority (Raphael 2014). In this system, the government operates under
the threat of the positions hence cannot execute policies without any consent of the people. This
ensures that this system remain exploitation free which supports development.
In the less developed countries, the main problems are related with the policy making
procedure and the democratic countries have solve this type of problem which has helped them
to flourish. Despite the fact that in policy making process often gets infringed by the differences
of understanding of the political parties. This system promotes equality which means the citizens
of the country are equal in the eyes of the government (Ringen and Ngok 2017). Therefore, the
government talks care of their welfare as well as different types of rights. As the develop
democracies does not face discrimination among the people, they can motivate other less
developed countries to transform their political system. This is important because the less
developed countries face issues regarding religion, race, sex and wealth distribute and the
situation becomes more complicated. These countries do not have responsible and stable

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administration therefore, their policy making process suffers the most. The elected and fixed
representatives lead the countries to have a responsible government. This administration conduct
and rule with the ensure of dedication. Therefore, the people under democratic governance can
discuss matters as well as other problems thoroughly with sensible decisions. For all these
reasons, the developed democracies set an idea and positive image in the world politics that can
effectively help the under developed countries to follow.
The Department of Natural Resources in Canada takes care of the natural resources. It is
responsible for the management of natural resources, energy, metals, minerals, earth science,
forests and remote sensing. However, being a welfare state, the Federal and provincial
government managed natural resources of Canada properly. It has different types of authorized
agencies, departments and branches operating under the control of the government which
manage the natural resources of the country efficiently. The constitutional power of this country
is divided into two national and provincial governments by the 1982 constitution act
(Thecanadianencyclopedia.ca 2018). Therefore, there are laws for the proper management and
sales of the natural resources of the country. Moreover, the federal government has abided by the
legislation regarding interprovincial as well as export trade in the natural-resource commodities
and coastal and inland fisheries which are also with in the natural resources section. Bothe the
governments can tax the natural resources revenues.
However, there are issues in the successful handling of natural resources. As there are
overlapping powers as well as responsibilities between provincial and national governments of
Canada that leads to conflicts with the matters like market, pricing of the products and share of
the natural-resource revenues. This also sometimes hamper the broad-scale management of the
natural resources of the country (McPherson and Karney 2017). This intergovernmental conflict

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become further complicated in the urban area’s more importantly where the municipal
governments own the land. However, though proper planning and strategies these issues have
largely been mitigated. The government has employed managers and natural resource planners
who have proper education and trainings in the natural resource management programs. Such
skilled professionals are being employed largely in the country, industries and the consulting
firms. In issues regarding environmental problems due to unprotected natural resource
exploitation, the government has properly laid strategies so that the adverse impact on the
environment can be avoided effectively (Thecanadianencyclopedia.ca. 2018). therefore, it can be
stated that the natural resource management in the country has been well maintained and
managed by the Canadian federal as well as provincial government.
The fiscal and taxation policies of Canada is a unique system in all over the world. The
CPA or Chartered professional accountants advocate on behalf of the public interests for
responsible fiscal management as well as for a simple, efficient and competitive tax system for
the Canadian taxpayers along with businesses (Agency, Canada 2018). The Canadian
government’s tax and fiscal policy include publishing and promoting research, analysis as well
as commentary on the tax and fiscal policy issues. In addition to this, the system advocates the
tax policy recommendations that are based on the public interests. The tax and fiscal system of
Canada helps in analyzing and remarking on the tax and regulatory proposals (Demos.org. 2018).
The system also provides a perspective of the tax preparer to the administrative matters for
improving the tax compliance. This process however, enhances clarity as well as service to the
taxpayers. Finally, the fiscal and tax seem of Canada aims to make some pre-budget
recommendations in one hand and conduct a post-budget analysis of Canada’s federal budget.
The system is completely understood by the agencies related which makes it clean and

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corruption free. Most of the fund raised through taxes and revenues are spent for the welfare of
the people in the country. These are mainly spent to provide benefits to the poor or weaker class
of the society (Agency, Canada 2018). Thus, Canada has become a successful welfare state and
proved itself better than other countries with other political and administrative system.
In the debate whether the global governance support or challenge democratic political life
of Canada, there are various perceptions and understanding. The neighboring countries of
Canada follow different types of ideologies in their political system and administration. This is
regard, the citizens can compare their position and empowerment with the other countries. After
globalization and improvement of technology, the companies of one country can access other
country more easily and without mush issues. the democratic countries prefer for providing free
services to the citizens where as the capitalism system doe not support this method.
The market freedom though embraced by the capitalist countries but not the political one
hence, it has been stated that maintaining and carrying on democratic political system is far more
difficult. This is due to the fact that the markets after globalization need more freedom which the
democratic welfare states often do not provide. Hence in operating more freely, the private
companies prefer to enter the capitalist markets so that they can get all the essential support from
the capitalist governments in one hand and market freely their products without any interference
of the political bodies or the government regulations. Therefore, the economy of the capitalist
countries is showing more development and they also have more efficient human resource.
Hence in this particular setting operating a democratic welfare started is really hard under comes
under various external as well as internal pressure.

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Therefore, it can be concluded that the welfare state of Canada is one of the most
important states in the politics of the world. This country is showing development and welfare
simultaneously. The Canadian government has different types of authorized agencies,
departments and branches operating under the control of the government which manage the
natural resources of the country efficiently. Despite the fact there are various issues like
globalization, privation and demands of the internal bodies to change the status, the government
has been carrying on their services for the citizens making it one of the happiest countries in the
world.

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References:
Abramovitz, Mimi, and Jennifer Zelnick. "Privatization in the human services: Implications for
direct practice." Clinical Social Work Journal 43, no. 3 (2015): 283-293.
Agency, Canada. 2018. "Corporation Tax Rates - Canada.Ca". Canada.Ca.
https://www.canada.ca/en/revenueagency/services/tax/businesses/topics/corporations/
corporation-tax-rates.html.
Demos.org. 2018. "Global Governance Of Capital: A Challenge For Democracy". Demos.
https://www.demos.org/publication/global-governance-capital-challenge-democracy.
Denhardt, Janet V., and Robert B. Denhardt. The new public service: Serving, not steering.
Routledge, 2015.
Hodge, Graeme. Privatization: An international review of performance. Routledge, 2018.
McPherson, Madeleine, and Bryan Karney. "A scenario based approach to designing electricity
grids with high variable renewable energy penetrations in Ontario, Canada: Development and
application of the SILVER model." Energy138 (2017): 185-196.
Montagnes, B. Pablo, and Baur Bektemirov. "Political incentives to privatize." The Journal of
Politics 80, no. 4 (2018): 1254-1267.
Raphael, Dennis. "Challenges to promoting health in the modern welfare state: The case of the
Nordic nations." Scandinavian journal of public health 42, no. 1 (2014): 7-17.

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Ringen, Stein, and Kinglun Ngok. "What kind of welfare state is emerging in China?."
In Towards Universal Health Care in Emerging Economies, pp. 213-237. Palgrave Macmillan,
London, 2017.
Rod, Morten Hulvej, Steffen Jöhncke, V. Steffen, and K. M. Raahauge. "The social life of
evidence: Rationalizing professional practice in the welfare state." Between Magic and
Rationality: On the Limits of Reason in the Modern World 4 (2015): 43.
Thecanadianencyclopedia.ca. 2018. "Resource Management | The Canadian Encyclopedia".
Thecanadianencyclopedia.Ca. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/resource-
management.