Social Policy Responses To COVID-19 In Canada and The United States: Explaining Policy Variations Between Two Liberal Welfare State Regimes

Authors

Daniel Beland, McGill University
Shannon Dinan, Bishop's University
Philip Rocco, Marquette UniversityFollow
Alex Waddan, University of Leicester

Document Type

Article

Language

eng

Publication Date

3-2021

Publisher

Wiley

Source Publication

Social Policy and Administration

Source ISSN

0144-5596

Abstract

Canada and the United States are often grouped together as liberal welfare-state regimes, with broadly similar levels of social spending. Yet, as the COVID-19 pandemic reveals, the two countries engage in highly divergent approaches to social policymaking during a massive public health emergency. Drawing on evidence from the first 5 months of the pandemic, this article compares social policy measures taken by the United States and Canadian governments in response to COVID-19. In general, we show that Canadian responses were both more rapid and comprehensive than those of the United States. This variation, we argue, can be explained by analysing the divergent political institutions, pre-existing policy legacies, and variations in cross-partisan consensus, which have all shaped national decision-making in the middle of the crisis.

Comments

Accepted version. Social Policy and Administration, Vol. 55, No. 2 (March 2021): 280-294. DOI. © 2021 Wiley. Used with permission.

Recommended Citation

Beland, Daniel; Dinan, Shannon; Rocco, Philip; and Waddan, Alex, "Social Policy Responses To COVID-19 In Canada and The United States: Explaining Policy Variations Between Two Liberal Welfare State Regimes" (2021). Political Science Faculty Research and Publications. 83.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/polisci_fac/83