Daniel Béland
Daniel Béland is Director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada and Professor of Political Science at McGill University. Holding a PhD in Political Sociology from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (Paris), he has been a visiting scholar at Harvard University and The University of Chicago, a visiting professor at the University of Helsinki and the University of Southern Denmark, and a Fulbright Scholar at The George Washington University and the National Academy of Social Insurance. From July 2001 to December 2007, Professor Béland taught sociology at the University of Calgary. While working there, Professor Béland won two major teaching awards.
A political sociologist analyzing politics and public policy from a comparative and historical perspective, he has published seven books and more than fifty articles in major scholarly journals. With John Myles, he also co-edited a special issue of the Canadian Journal of Sociology devoted to social policy reform in contemporary societies. His most recent books include Ideas and Politics in Social Science Research (Oxford University Press; co-edited with Robert H. Cox), What is Social Policy? Understanding the Welfare State (Polity, 2010), Public and Private Social Policy: Health and Pension Policies in a New Era (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008; co-edited with Brian Gran), and Nationalism and Social Policy: The Politics of Territorial Solidarity (Oxford University Press, 2008; co-authored with André Lecours). In April 2008, SSHRC awarded him a Standard Research Grant to collaborate with Professor André Lecours on the project Ideas, Interests, and Institutions: Fiscal Redistribution and Territorial Politics in Four Federal Systems. This project focuses on the politics of equalization policy in Canada and in other advanced industrial countries like Australia. Additionally, alone or with his collaborators, who include some of his graduate students, Professor Béland is currently working on other research projects focusing on issues ranging from transportation policy and health care reform to the role of ideas in policy development and the relationship between tax policy and welfare state development, among others. Professor Béland currently serves as the Editor (French) of the Canadian Journal of Sociology, as International Editorial Advisor to Social Policy and Society (Cambridge University Press) and as a member of the editorial board of the Canadian Review of Social Policy. Since 2006, he has been the Secretary-Treasurer of the Research Committee 19 (Poverty, Social Welfare and Social Policy) of the International Sociological Association. More recently, in 2009, he was appointed to the advisory board of the Australian Institute for Social Inclusion and Wellbeing. Finally, since 2004, he has been a committee member of the Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme (Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences). Professor Béland is a co-investigator in the SEDAP (Social and Economic Dimensions of an Aging Population) multi-disciplinary research program funded primarily by SSHRC and centered at McMaster University (Hamilton, Canada).
In addition to his academic work, Professor Béland has participated in training sessions for civil servants, provided policy advice to federal and provincial officials, and testified in front of the Standing Committee on Finance of the House of Commons (Canada). Moreover, he has been quoted in major newspapers and he is regularly asked to give radio and TV interviews on key policy and political issues. Professor Béland has also published in newspapers such as La Presse (Canada) as well as in magazines like Policy Options (Canada), La vie des idées (France), and The Wilson Quarterly (United States). He is featured in the Canadian Who's Who 2011 (University of Toronto Press) and in the Dictionary of Eminent Social Scientists: Autobiographies (Fondation Mattei Dogan).
A political sociologist analyzing politics and public policy from a comparative and historical perspective, he has published seven books and more than fifty articles in major scholarly journals. With John Myles, he also co-edited a special issue of the Canadian Journal of Sociology devoted to social policy reform in contemporary societies. His most recent books include Ideas and Politics in Social Science Research (Oxford University Press; co-edited with Robert H. Cox), What is Social Policy? Understanding the Welfare State (Polity, 2010), Public and Private Social Policy: Health and Pension Policies in a New Era (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008; co-edited with Brian Gran), and Nationalism and Social Policy: The Politics of Territorial Solidarity (Oxford University Press, 2008; co-authored with André Lecours). In April 2008, SSHRC awarded him a Standard Research Grant to collaborate with Professor André Lecours on the project Ideas, Interests, and Institutions: Fiscal Redistribution and Territorial Politics in Four Federal Systems. This project focuses on the politics of equalization policy in Canada and in other advanced industrial countries like Australia. Additionally, alone or with his collaborators, who include some of his graduate students, Professor Béland is currently working on other research projects focusing on issues ranging from transportation policy and health care reform to the role of ideas in policy development and the relationship between tax policy and welfare state development, among others. Professor Béland currently serves as the Editor (French) of the Canadian Journal of Sociology, as International Editorial Advisor to Social Policy and Society (Cambridge University Press) and as a member of the editorial board of the Canadian Review of Social Policy. Since 2006, he has been the Secretary-Treasurer of the Research Committee 19 (Poverty, Social Welfare and Social Policy) of the International Sociological Association. More recently, in 2009, he was appointed to the advisory board of the Australian Institute for Social Inclusion and Wellbeing. Finally, since 2004, he has been a committee member of the Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme (Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences). Professor Béland is a co-investigator in the SEDAP (Social and Economic Dimensions of an Aging Population) multi-disciplinary research program funded primarily by SSHRC and centered at McMaster University (Hamilton, Canada).
In addition to his academic work, Professor Béland has participated in training sessions for civil servants, provided policy advice to federal and provincial officials, and testified in front of the Standing Committee on Finance of the House of Commons (Canada). Moreover, he has been quoted in major newspapers and he is regularly asked to give radio and TV interviews on key policy and political issues. Professor Béland has also published in newspapers such as La Presse (Canada) as well as in magazines like Policy Options (Canada), La vie des idées (France), and The Wilson Quarterly (United States). He is featured in the Canadian Who's Who 2011 (University of Toronto Press) and in the Dictionary of Eminent Social Scientists: Autobiographies (Fondation Mattei Dogan).
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Papers by Daniel Béland
Explorant les rapports entre institutions, discours politique et changements démographiques, l’article replace le débat américain sur les retraites dans son contexte historique et idéologique. Il souligne le fait que, comme dans d’autres pays, l’idée d’un « choc démographique » inéluctable justifie la nécessité apparente de réformer les retraites, ce qui aux États-Unis est souvent synonyme de « privatisation partielle » du régime fédéral d’assurance-vieillesse. Une analyse de la campagne infructueuse en faveur de la « privatisation partielle » lancée par le président George W. Bush au lendemain de sa réélection en novembre 2004 illustre le poids des obstacles institutionnels à la réalisation de ce projet ainsi que l’omniprésence d’un discours démographique pessimiste au coeur la vie politique américaine contemporaine.
Abstract
Aging, political discourse and pension reform in the United States
Via an exploration of the relationships between institutions, political discourse and demographic change, this article puts the U.S. pension debate back into its historical and ideological context. It underscores the fact that, as in other countries, the prospect of an inescapable “demographic shock” is being advanced as justification for pension reform, which in the United States is often synonymous with “partial privatization” of the federal retirement pension system. An analysis of the unsuccessful campaign in favour of partial privatization launched by President George W. Bush soon after he was re-elected in November 2004 illustrates the weight of the institutional obstacles to this project as well as the omnipresence of a pessimistic demographic discourse in contemporary American political life.
Cet article a pour objectif d’offrir une perspective comparative susceptible d’enrichir notre compréhension des rapports entre les politiques sociales et la décentralisation politique dans le contexte d’États multinationaux. Dans un premier temps, il s’agit de formuler une approche théorique permettant de mieux saisir les rapports complexes et changeants entre les questions d’identité nationale et celles de protection sociale. Tout en explorant l’impact possible des mouvements nationalistes sur le développement de l’État social, l’article montre comment ces rapports peuvent s’articuler. Empiriquement, ces questions sont analysées à travers une comparaison entre les cas québécois et écossais.
Abstract
Decentralisation, nationalist movements and social policies: The Quebec and Scottish cases
The goal of this article is to propose a comparative perspective to strengthen our understanding of the relation between social policies and decentralisation of powers in multinational states. It starts by setting out a theoretical approach for understanding the complex and changing relations between issues of national identity and those of social protection. Examining the impact of nationalist movements on the development of the welfare state, the article documents how these relations are linked. The empirical focus is a comparison of Quebec and Scotland.