The post Second World War Canadian society*

Ce texte porte surtout sur ce qui est arrivéà la société canadienne depuis la seconde guerre mondiale. Cependant l'auteur soutient que pour comprendre les changements qui ont eu lieu dans cette société il faut retourner au passé et faire l'étude de la façon dont la société canadienne a évolué au cours des années d'avant la seconde guerre mondiale. On peut parler non seulement d'un « ordre ancien » de la société canadienne française mais aussi d'un ordre ancien de la société canadienne; et de cette façon qualifier de « révolution tranquille» les évènements qui se sont déroulés depuis la guerre tant au Canada français qu'au Canada anglais. The primary concern of this paper is with what has happened to Canadian society since the Second World War. In seeking to understand the changes that have been taking place in this society, however, the author argues that it is necessary to go back and examine the way in which Canadian society developed over the years before the Second World War. One can speak of an ‘old order’ of Canadian society, not simply of an old order of the society of French Canada, and what has happened since the war, in English-speaking as well as French-speaking Canada, can be described as a ‘quiet revolution.’     

WORKERS SHOULD WANT TO PAY MORE FOR SOCIAL SECURITY

One controversial aspect of the current Social Security system has been the relative distribution of its net costs and benefits between employers and workers. Using simple supply and demand analysis, we demonstrate that proponents and opponents of the current system are making arguments that support the position of their adversaries. In particular, proponents of the existing Social Security system should be arguing that workers pay all of the Social Security tax and then some with lower wages, while opponents should be arguing that employers are paying most of the tax. (JEL H55 , D78 )     

DOES INDUSTRIAL DIVERSITY ALWAYS REDUCE UNEMPLOYMENT? EVIDENCE FROM THE GREAT DEPRESSION and AFTER

A portfolio model of employment predicts that cities with more diversified employment opportunities should experience lower unemployment rates than less diversified cities. Empirical analysis of the diversity-unemployment relationship using Census data support the portfolio theory for the years 1950,1960, and 1970. During the early months of the Great Depression, however, industrially more diversified cities experienced higher, rather than lower, rates of unemployment. By combining the portfolio model of employment with the Lucas-Phelps islands model, the anomalous effect of diversity in 1931 is explained as the result of employers' difficulty of distinguishing real from nominal shocks.     

Issues of Risk Practice and Welfare in Learning Disability Services

This article focuses on risk management in services for people with learning disabilities. It identifies the issue of risk as central to many historical and current care practices. It illustrates this through three examples that raise questions of risk in relationship to people with learning disabilities: on community care, alcohol and sexuality. It concludes that risk has often been negatively associated with danger, but that sensitive risk management has the potential to improve or maintain the quality of care services.     

EFFECTS OF BENEFITS APPEALS, MANDATORY APPEALS, AND VARIATIONS IN STATEMENTS OF CONFIDENTIALITY ON COMPLETION RATES FOR CENSUS QUESTIONNAIRES

This study examines the effects of two different prominentlydisplayed appeals in combination with two different prominentlydisplayed confidentiality assurances on mail-back completionrates for census questionnaires. The experiment was carriedout on a national probability sample of 30,000 household units,using occupant-addressed questionnaires that contained the contentof the 1990 decennial census short form. Neither the benefitsappeal nor the variation between two confidentiality assuranceshad a significant effect on completion rates. The mandatoryappeal, however, significantly improved completion rates, evenwhen it appeared on the envelope only.