Restructuring, Privatisation and the Local Welfare State

Abstract

<p>This thesis examines the local consequences of the restructuring of Ontario's welfare state. Changes in welfare state policies are shown to have significant impacts upon the Province's urban areas. The thesis argues that to understand the development of the welfare state it is necessary to examine the structural context in which that deveIopment occurs as weII as the actions of human agents that seek to influence policy development and to change the structures of social organisation. That is, welfare state Policy, and the restructuring of the state, are not to be seen as imposed by the state: people can influence the development of the welfare state. It is within particular locaIities that we can observe the interactions between structures and agents.</p> <p>The thesis proposes that to understand the development of the local welfare state, we need to investigate the structural context in which a locality operates; the processes at work within a locality; and the unique features of the locality itself (e.g., people's experiences of the state and their reactions to state pol icy). This study incorporates each of these dimensions to provide a comprehensive analysis of the development of the local welfare state in Ontario.</p> <p>The primary processes at work in Ontario to influence the local level or Jment of the wellfare state in the last two decades have been the deinst itutionalisation of several (previously -institutionalised populations , and the) privatisation of services which serve these people. The~e policies are shown to be the result of pressures external to the 5tate (e.g .• the demands for social services), as well as those internal pressures which have received much greater attention in UH• literature (E.g •• the state's fiscal crisis).</p>