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Cover -- Contents -- Preface -- 1. Introduction -- PART ONE: INCOME SECURITY -- 2. The Canadian Income Security System -- 3. Political Institutions and Income Security: Comparative Perspectives -- PART TWO: FEDERAL INSTITUTIONS AND INCOME SECURITY -- 4. The Constitutional Division -- 5. Centralization and Expansion in Income Security -- 6. Centralization and Redistribution -- 7. The Policy Process and Income Security -- PART THREE: INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE AND INCOME SECURITY -- 8. Regionalism and Income Security -- 9. The Consequences of Constitutional Reform -- PART FOUR: CONCLUSIONS -- 10. State Structures and Policy Patterns -- 11. Income Security and Federalism in the 1980s -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y.

At first glance, Canada and Europe seem to be diverging dramatically in their approach to immigrant integration. While support for a multicultural approach seems to remain strong in Canada, a potent backlash pervades European debates. This paper argues that beneath the image of transatlantic divergence, there are important elements of convergence. First, the retreat from multiculturalism in Europe is more complete at the level of discourse than policy. With a few notable exceptions, multicultural policies have remained stable or even grown stronger since 2000. In many countries, new integration programs are being layered over multicultural initiatives introduced in earlier decades. Second, many of the new integration policies celebrated as evidence of a U-turn away from multiculturalism resemble programs that have long been part of immigrant integration in Canada. As a result, transatlantic convergence is indeed part of the contemporary story. However, there are also limits to this convergence. While some European countries are opting for liberal, voluntary approaches to integration, which can be combined with a multicultural approach to diversity, others are adopting more obligatory, illiberal versions of civic integration that seem inconsistent with the support for diversity central to a multicultural approach.

The first edition of The Welfare State and Canadian Federalism focused on the impact of federalism on social policy during a period of economic growth and expanding social expenditures. The revised edition extends the analysis by asking how the federal syatem has shaped the social policy response to neo-conservatism, recession, and restraint. It analyses policy trends in detail; examines the implications of constitutional changes, including the Charter; and highlights the continuing role of federalism.

Building and sustaining solidarity is an enduring challenge in all liberal-democratic societies. Ensuring that individuals are willing to accept these "strains of commitment," to borrow John Rawls' apt phrase, has been a worry even in relatively homogeneous societies, and the challenge seems even greater in ethnically and religiously diverse societies. This paper focuses is on the political sources of solidarity. Much has been written about the economic and social factors that influence the willingness of the public to accept and support immigrants and minorities. But solidarity is also a political phenomenon, which can be built or eroded through politics. In addition, our focus on the political sources of solidarity. Understandably, the existing literature concentrates on the politics of backlash and exclusion. This paper looks at the politics of diversity from the opposite direction, asking what are the potential sources of political support for inclusion, and the conditions under which they are effective. How is solidarity built? How is it sustained? Reframing the analysis in this way does not necessarily produce optimism about the future prospects. But exploring the potential political sources of support leads to broader, multilayered perspective with long time horizons. The paper advances a framework for analysis which incorporates three levels: the sense of political community, the role of political agents, and impact of political institutions and policy regimes. Each of these levels, and the interactions among them, matter.