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Comparing Public Social Provision and Citizenship in the United States, Canada, and Mexico: Are There Implications for a North American Space?
Author(s) -
Luccisano Lucy,
Romagnoli Amy
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
politics and policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.259
H-Index - 23
eISSN - 1747-1346
pISSN - 1555-5623
DOI - 10.1111/j.1747-1346.2007.00082.x
Subject(s) - citizenship , parallels , sanctions , workforce , welfare reform , political science , social policy , social rights , social citizenship , welfare , economic growth , public administration , sociology , economics , human rights , law , politics , operations management
This study compares the reform of public social provision in the United States, Canada, and Mexico from 1996 to 2006. It highlights important parallels among the three countries in terms of policy design, discourses that frame each policy, and the ways social citizenship has become reconfigured. We argue that in all three cases, poor women/mothers are being regulated, monitored, and held accountable through surveillance and sanctions, reinforcing how social rights have morphed into social responsibilities and obligations. The objective is to shift welfare from “passive” support to “active” integration into the market, reinforcing a worker‐citizen model within precarious labor markets. The Canadian model shares elements with the U.S. model in its emphasis on welfare‐to‐work policies and integrating single mothers with young children into the workforce. The Mexican model integrates mothers as consumers into the market while investing in their children as future worker‐citizens. The article concludes by broadening the discussion from country‐specific analysis to speculating about the possibility of integrating workers within a North American market.