Social Policy and Solidarity, Orphans of the New Model of Social Cohesion

Abstract

This article argues that social policies foster social cohesion through their direct con- tribution to a citizenship regime, referring to a stable set of civil, political and social rights, which together serve to constitute a society of equal citizens before the state. However, economic and policy transformations since the 1980's have eroded the social aspects of the Canadian citizenship regime. The government's Policy Research Initiative (PRI) has posited new grounds for social cohesion by shifting the sense of social citizenship away from its traditional association with social rights and grounding it instead in the actions and institutions of civil society. The article identifies an affinity between this model of social cohesion developed by the PRI, and the shifting policy orientation of the Canadian government, as exemplified by the direction of new social spending. Both social cohesion and citizenship are increasingly seen as bottom-up rather than top-down processes, while social policy is geared more to social regulation.