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Power Resources, Institutions and Policy Learning: The Origins of Workers' Compensation in Quebec

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 October 2005

Andrew Stritch
Andrew Stritch
Affiliation:
Bishop's University
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Abstract

Abstract. This paper seeks to explain the origins of Quebec's system of compensation for workplace accidents, which was established in 1909 and functioned as the first component of Quebec's welfare state. Besides being an important example of early social policy, workers' compensation was also part of a transformation of liberalism that embodied a significant change in liberal jurisprudence, from a system of employer liability based on individual fault and responsibility to a system of compensation regardless of fault. This paper argues that Quebec's first Workmen's Compensation Act can only be understood in terms of the interaction of three factors that are more commonly seen as alternatives in the theoretical literature on policy development. The first is the differential power resources of capital and labour, where the interests of the former predominated over those of the latter in shaping the provisions of the act. The second involves a structural dimension, where the institutional autonomy of the legal process and jury system in employer liability cases started to cause problems for capital accumulation and provided a stimulus for change. And third, the acceptance of the new idea of workers' compensation depended on a widespread process of policy learning by both state and societal actors. Theoretically, the paper tries to go beyond one-dimensional explanations of policy development and to integrate analyses of interests, institutions and ideas into a wider framework.

Résumé. Dans ce texte, l'auteur s'intéresse à l'origine du régime québécois d'indemnisation en cas d'accident du travail instauré en 1909. Premier jalon de ce qu'on appellera plus tard l'État-providence, le régime d'indemnisation s'inscrivait dans une transformation du libéralisme et allait marquer un tournant dans la jurisprudence : on passait en effet d'un système où la responsabilité de l'employeur se limitait à la faute patronale à un régime d'indemnisation sans égard à la faute. Cet article postule que l'analyse de la Loi concernant les responsabilités des accidents dont les ouvriers sont victimes dans leur travail et la réparation des dommages qui en résultent doit s'appuyer sur la corrélation de trois facteurs, que la théorie de l'élaboration des politiques tend plutôt à considérer comme distincts. Le premier facteur a trait au rapport de force inégal entre la main-d'œuvre et le capital, l'intérêt de ce dernier ayant prédominé dans la formulation des dispositions de la loi. Le second facteur est, quant à lui, d'ordre structurel, car l'autonomie du processus judiciaire et la présence d'un jury dans les causes portant sur la responsabilité de l'employeur compromettaient l'accumulation du capital et incitaient par le fait même au changement. Enfin, le troisième facteur souligne que le principe d'indemnisation des travailleurs était à l'époque tributaire d'une nouvelle conception tant sociale que gouvernementale de l'élaboration des politiques. Pour s'éloigner d'une compréhension unidimensionnelle de l'élaboration des politiques, l'auteur entend utiliser un cadre théorique qui tienne compte de l'analyse des intérêts, des institutions et des idées.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 38 , Issue 3 , September 2005 , pp. 549 - 579
Copyright
© 2005 Cambridge University Press

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