Genèse et élaboration du système de protection sociale au Québec

"This article retraces the history of social-welfare protection policy in Quebec and emphasizes the multiple influences that contributed to its originality. Looking at the four main periods from the 17th century until today, the author shows the impact of several crucial factors on the development of social-welfare protection in the province. These are the meeting of the indigenous population and Europeans; family responsibilities; immigration; the wars and the status of veterans; aristocratic and popular traditions; religious and charitable institutions; the evolution of the employer-employee relationship and the labor movement; national identities and the respective powers of the Canadian federal government and the Quebecois provincial government. The article ends by considering the crisis in the welfare state and the reasons for government disengagement that has characterized the last thirty years. "