(Book Review) Social policy and practice in Canada Essay

(Book Review) Social policy and practice in Canada - Essay Example This book is truly the first of its kind in regards to this subject matter that has been able to provide an insightful and critical perspective on the entire evolutionary process of social policy in the country. Furthermore, Alvin Finkel proves himself as being an extraordinary author, as he divulges into issues that have never been discussed - or even thought of, in some cases - before. In order to be able to understand this book better, the entire work must be thoroughly examined and discussed, and by doing this we will not only be able to gain a more informed and understanding viewpoint on the literary work itself, but as well on the author and on what his purpose was for writing this book. This is what will be dissertated in the following. Social Policy and Practice is a book which starts off by giving a historical point of view in regards to the history of the social policies that have taken place within Canada, and one of the first issues in particular that he discusses is that of how "Canada's constitutional development reflects the history of Canada itself, its maturation into a self-governing democracy, and the steady advent of new ideas and conditions" (22). It is pointed out that the Constitution has changed considerably over the years and that this has made a strong impact on the country of Canada overall, and that these changes have greatly influenced the different social policies and practices that have come about. Finkel then begins to discuss the actual history of constitutional antecedents, and he makes particular note of the fact that Canada's political and constitutional development actually did not begin with the arrival of the first European settlers, contrary to the majority of the world's beliefs, but rather "Formal constitutional development in Canada began with the Edict creating the Sovereign Council of Quebec in 1663, whereby the French established New France as a royal province and made provision for civil government" (26). He continues for several chapters discussing the actual origin of Canada and the onset of the most basic and most intermediate social policies and practices of the countries, and uses analogies and comparisons between Canada and other industrialized countries in order to show the striking and significant differences that exist here. We can see from this alone that Canada is a country which is really in crisis in this regards, as there are a number of large and imperative issues that are facing the country as a whole. Finkel makes very clear in the very beginning of the book the fact of how important and dire it is to have proper and efficient social policies and practices in any country, and that however there are more problems in this regards with Canada than basically any other industrialized nations. He then begins on the issue of the current social policy review process in Canada, and he states that there is a setting for this current debate on the social policies in Canada which truly parallels that of most other industrialized countries in the world, and that "Common features include a secular growth slowdown topped by a recession in the early 1990s, an aging population requiring higher transfer and health-care expenditures, rising needs and costs associated with the increasing prevalence of the single-parent family, and

MICRO PORTFOLIO TASK Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

MICRO PORTFOLIO TASK - Essay Example The six large producers have equal share of market demand and they have successfully threatened the entry of other firms in the industry. According to the viewpoint of the researcher, the firms in the above market are in an Oligopolistic market structure. In this type of a market structure, there are two to ten sellers in the industry. The price and output decisions undertaken by each firm is on the basis of strategic behaviour. In this type of a market structure, each of the above six firms have the power to influence the market demand. This means that each firm undertakes the decision about the prices and the quantity of output to be produced on the basis of the assumption of the business decisions undertaken by the other potential rivals in the market. However, it would be interesting to note that degree competition in the above mentioned Oligopolistic market is zero. The six large firms in the above case are enjoying equal market share and hence, equal profit. This means that the firms have undertaken the decision of Cartel in the Oligopolistic market structure. ... However, on the whole, the market demand curve is downward (Manne, 2012). Figure 1: Profit of Each Firm (Source: McEachern, 2012) The above graph shows the equal profit shared by each of the firm. Cartel in the Oligopolistic market structure which occurs when the nature of the product sold by each of the firm is less differentiated. In the above case, all the firms are engaged in the production of less differentiated cereals. The Herfindahl index is the index that measures the size of each of the firms in a particular industry and comments on the level of existing competition in there. It is calculated by the sum of the squares of the market shares by each of the firm in the industry. An increase in the value of the index indicates a fall in the level of competition on the industry and a rise in the level of market power. The value of Herfindahl index for the above concerned case: Where, N= number of firms on total. So, i = 1 to 16 (6 large and 10 small). S =market share of each firm . H= (0.152+0.152+0.152+0.152+0.152+0.152) + (0.012+0.012+0.012+0.012+0.012+0.012+0.012+0.012+0.012+0.012) = 0.136 (13.6%) The value of the Herfindahl index for the above market (13.6) indicates a high degree of market concentration among the six large firms. Under such a situation if the market shares of any of the six large firms decrease or increase then the value of the index would be increasing substantially. This is the reason for which the firms in the industry have adopted the decision of Cartel in the market (Riley, 2012). (c) It has been analyzed that the level of concentration among the firms in the above industry is high. Only six firms in the industry have occupied about 90% of the aggregate market share. On