who is willing to do this? three questions should be picked out from 6. shold follow essay format. no plagirism. very spesific in your answer. using your own words. i have attached the slides shown by the professor during the class so you can follow.

Pol 223 Week 6

The Neoliberal State

Road Map

• Midterm Prep – Syllabus

• Milton Friedman Video • https://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LucOUS pTB3Y

• The Neoliberal State in Canada

Neoliberal State in Canada

• In Canadian context gradual process, incremental

• Initiated first by Mulroney in the 80’s, many policies continued through to Harper

• Shift toward neo-liberal policies seen as a response to the failure of the Keynesian economic model – stagflation (high inflation & recession)

Neoliberal State in Canada

• Notion that the current system was not working – a need for something different

• Basic tenets – Balanced budgets – Inflation control – Retrenchment of public programs – Reduction of government intrusion into

social and economic affairs

Neoliberal State in Canada

• Government begins to approach the provision of public services in a market driven manner

• Keynesian goal of full employment replaced • Tenets have become part of the Cdn political

culture eg. Deficit/debt focus • International policy also affected by

neoliberalism –lowering barriers, freer trade, supranational organizations

– Lessened sovereignty

Neoliberal State in Canada

• McBride – the problems that occurred in the 70’s and early 80’s caused not by Keynesianism but occurred after that period

• Social welfare state became target – seen as a “destabilizing influence”

Globalization and Neoliberalism

• In order for Canada to be competitive in the global world it was argued that barriers to trade and making govt more lean would be necessary in order to provide a conducive environment for business

• Heightened importance of MNC’s, govts having to affect policies consistent with business goals not necessarily social policy

Globalization and Neoliberalism

• Accompanied with the adoption of New Public Management

• WTO and NAFTA examples of instances where national sovereignty given up to international organizations

• Economically strong countries dominated, develop of blocs started

– Acceptance of diminished role of state was accepted by Canada’s economic and political elite

Globalization and Neoliberalism

• In Canada, “Neoliberalism involved political action aimed at reducing or removing impediments to the operation of market forces, including global market forces” (McBride)

Free Trade and the Social Basis of Neliberalism

• Canada’s Free Trade agreements • http://www.international.gc.ca/trad

e-agreements-accords-commerciaux/ag r-acc/a-z.aspx?lang=eng

• Complemented the adoption of neo- liberal economic principles in Canada

– Focused economy on exports – Locked Canada into neo-liberal agenda

by linking it into international agreements

Free Trade and the Social Basis of Neoliberalism

• Grinspun and Kreklewich (1994) FTA’s “serve as a restructuring tool or, put differently, as a conditioning institutional framework that promotes and consolidates neoliberal restructuring. These international treaties serve as a mechanism whereby domestic ruling groups, with the encouragement of the United States government, can advance economic and social reforms that are inherently anti-democratic”

– Anti-democratic in that they “ foreclose certain options that the population of nation-states may want to preserve or adopt in the future”

Free Trade and the Social Basis of Neoliberalism

• In Canada, overhaul of economic philosophy was seen by economic and political elites as a way to overhaul social philosophy

• Business role in NAFA debate • Business Council on National Issues

saw agreements as way to constrain state power and force govts to commitment to market

Free Trade and the Social Basis of Liberalism

• Priorities became to reduce govt and redefinition of the govt’s role in the lives of citizens

– Tax policy – Employment policy – Privatization – Social policy – Labour-market policy – Health policy

Free Trade and Social Basis of Liberalism

• Roll-back –partial demolition or reduction of the key institutions and programs of the Keynesian era

• Roll-out – a phase of constructing new institutions and programs that embed the neoliberal approach to governance

• Programs range from Expenditure Restraint, Restricting Government Employment, Privatization, Diminishing Social Protection

Expenditure Restraint

• Shift from discourse to action under Mulroney which continues today

• Justification was the need to balance budgets and zero deficits

• Goal was to reduce govt expenditures as a percentage of GDP

– 1980’s 19.4% – 1990’s 17.5% – 2000’s 12.4%

Expenditure Restraint • Increased to 13% in 2009, still much less than in the 1990’s • McBride – “there is evidence that Canada was much more aggressive in

its expenditure reduction campaign that the OECD average” • McBride – economic issues were not as a result of Keynesian theory but

because of “foregone tax revenues, high interest rates, and recessions that were partly due to the implementation of neoliberal economic policies” as “these problems flourished after the monetarist economic theories favoured by neoliberal politicians too rook”

Government Employment

• 1990-99 fell by 9% • Once surplus achieved increased but

has never recovered –still Harper policy

• Usually one of the first targets of deficit/debt policies

Privatization

• Neoliberalism brought forward significant “dispossession”

• P3’s – usually in the area of public infrastructure provision

• Ports and Airports • Sale of public assets • Contrary to Canada’s historical usage

of Crown corps to build economic infrastructure which business favoured

Privatization

• McBride - Some privatized entities should be considered “recommodified” – first transformed from private to state capital, and then back into private capital

• Some have been successful others not so much

Diminishing Social Protection

• Fundamental change to Canada’s social safety net starting under Mulroney

– Transformation of programs from being universal to selective – eg. Unemployment insurance

– Tightening eligibility requirements – Imposition of ceilings on program costs

or making them self-financing or subject to clawbacks

Diminishing Social Protection

• 1995 federal budget fundamental shift

• Paul Martin Minister of Finance • Declining spending, transfers to

provs, and a redesign of unemployment insurance

• 1996 Canada Health and Social Transfer

– Removed most of the federal conditions attached to the transfer

– Transferred responsibility but was not resourced

Diminishing Social Protection

• Made possible considerable experimentation by the provs

• Cuts in welfare for example – 3 million in 1995 to 1.68 million in 2005

• Some punitive actions taken as well – workfare

Growing Inequality

• Richest 10% increased its share of wealth from 51.8% in 1984 to 58% in 2005

• Disproportionately distributed

Health Care: Domestic and Global Influences

• Creeping privatization • Bill C-22 extension of drug patents

increased pharma costs • 5 principles of Canada Health Act

– Public, Comprehensive, Universal, Portable, Accessible – no extra billing or user charged

– Threatened by privatization ● “passive privatization” – generalized retreat of the

state from the provision of health care services and an enlargement of the health space a occupied by the private sector”

Health Care: Domestic and Global Influences

• Increased commodification of health care

• Some provs not able to keep up

Labour Market Policy

• Full employment policies not followed furthering of policies to promote greater labour flexibility by removing politically constructed obstacles to the unfettered operation of the market

• Unemployment insurance reduction – 1990 74% unemployed covered – 2001 39% unemployed covered

Institutions in the Neoliberal Era

• Canada’s trade policy tied intimately to foreign affairs

• Federal agreements had effects on prov and local govts

• Entanglement in the international system

• Increased concentration of power in the executive

Neoliberal Globalization and the Courts

• Court power diminished through dispute resolution mechanisms of trade agreements

Neoliberal Globalization and the Parliamentary System

• New bilateral and multilateral agreements have affected parliamentary supremacy

• Suasion of international agents to get nat’l govts to comply buttressed with international agreements that impose significant restrictions on state capacity –prohibition of the use of state instruments such as foreign investment rules, discriminating against foreign companies, etc.

• Marketing agencies, etc.

Public Administration

• McBride “the institutions of the state have been shrunk, reshaped and redirected

– Social and economic interventionism has been curtailed

– Centralization of budgetary control along with decentralization of operations

– Public service circumvention – privatization

– NPM decline – increased contracting out

Neoliberal Globalization and the Federal System

• Constitutional balance has shifted to the feds

• Demands by the provs for more consultation

• Increased complexity in the relationships among feds, provs, local govts

Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT) and the Trade, Investment, and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA)

• Desire for less barriers to trade within Canada

• Both related to NAFTA, FTA, and GATT precedents

• Mixed results – may be because of Division of Powers

Conclusion

• Gradualism of the roll back stage of the neoliberal “project” testifies to the strong public support for the welfare net

• Roll back stage was successful as new paradigm now in place – changes to the political, social, economic reality

• Neoliberalism has been resilient – will pendulum shift?