ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the basic characteristics of the welfare states of the United States, Canada and Mexico, and compares them with one another and with the more expansive European models. This comparison is conducted through the prism of social rights. The chapter examines the historical debates about social rights, and the efforts to expand them. It also examines the efforts during the past two decades to retrench welfare states and limit the scope of social rights. The basic lesson of this comparison is that each of the three countries reached a golden age for the establishment of social rights. Since the golden age, efforts to retrench welfare systems have circumscribed the expression of social rights. A desire to contain the rising costs of the welfare state has been an important driver of change, but these reforms have been justified with new concepts of social rights. The chapter focuses on the liberal type of welfare state.
