Deficit reduction as causal story: strategic politics and welfare state retrenchment

Abstract

In 1993, the Government of Alberta, facing continued budget deficits and increasing public debt, announced a multibillion dollar reduction in social welfare expenditures that included large cuts to health care and education, and the elimination of thousands of public sector jobs. This article examines the Alberta government’s attempts to overcome the often daunting challenge of effecting sizable reductions in social welfare expenditures. It explores how the government employed a number of political strategies in an effort to limit potential opposition to its retrenchment policies. The article argues the government was able to achieve its goals because it controlled the debate on the cause and potential consequences of deficit spending and government debt. This allowed the government to define problems and issues in terms that most suited its goal of restructuring the provincial welfare state. The conclusion notes that the Alberta experience offers an opportunity to add to the limited but growing literature on subnational social policy retrenchment.