Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: Political Mobilization and Policy Reform in Quebec

Barry Eidlin, McGill University
Emanuel Guay, Université du Québec à Montréal

Quebec enacted major solidaristic family and housing policy reforms towards the end of the 1990s, precisely when other countries were moving towards more individualized policies. Against what existing theories would predict, these reforms took place at a moment when labor’s power had weakened, the ruling Left party had scaled back its progressive commitments, and employers opposed the proposed reforms. Why did Quebec expand its social policies in a broader context of retrenchment? We argue that it resulted from a shift in the context of contention that sparked a process of institutional conversion. First, labor-allied progressive movements in the province filled the gap left by unions’ retreat from direct action and mass mobilization. Second, employers remained relatively weak and state-dependent, leading them to accept the government’s agenda as long as it did not differ significantly from their priorities of deficit and tax reduction. Third, the idea of the “social economy” served as a floating signifier in the province’s public policy debates of the 1990s, providing a framework within which unions, employers and the government could operate while assigning it different definitions and aims. The ambiguity of the idea of the “social economy” forged a disparate coalition of Quebec social actors, resulting in solidaristic policy reforms.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 204. Classes and Politics: Contemporary Case Studies from the Global North to South