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This article assesses the constraints and capacities for Canadian state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to enhance economic democracy. Constraints include the democratic deficit produced by the commercialization of SOEs, which shifted away from historically privileging the social outcomes of public enterprise, together with the construction of a global governance architecture with binding and enforceable trade agreements that constrain democratic decision-making and state activity. Capacities include opportunities for SOEs to address deleterious economic outcomes through a rejuvenation of the socially oriented public enterprise tradition in areas of vexing policy concern. The article argues that SOEs can be an important component of enhanced extended state democracy through their redistributive outcomes that provide non-market income support for social infrastructure and services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The Canadian welfare state has changed significantly in the last decade with the federal devolution of policy responsibilities creating opportunities for some provinces to adopt American social policy ideas. Given the expectations of resilience and non-convergence, in the welfare state literature, this article addresses the issues of policy change by demonstrating that the movement of British Columbia's labour and social policy towards international neoliberal norms, including policy examples set in many US jurisdictions, have produced limited convergence. We suggest that this indicates that more change has occurred and is occurring in the Canadian welfare state than the resilience model or comparative public policy literature would indicate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea that Canada is experiencing a "post-constitutional" era is misleading because it is based only on lack of changes to the formal codified constitution. Through an examination of international economic agreements, considered as untraditional mechanisms having a constitutional effect, a case is made that Canada's constitution has undergone significant, but little noticed, change over the last decade. Using Stephen Krasner's typology of sovereignty, it is shown that several aspects of Canada's sovereignty have been diminished. The effect is that the balance between liberalism and democracy in Canada's liberal democratic polity has been altered, to the detriment of the democratic component. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the social impact of unemployment in Canada. Association of neo-liberalism with high levels of unemployment; Relationship of unemployment with social and health problems; Policy changes in unemployment insurance system; Replacement of relative social security by permanent insecurity in employment creation.

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Political Science / Revue Canadienne de Science Politique is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)