Measuring Socialism in America

Which of the dickens countries is much complaisantist, Canada or the united States of the States? It must(prenominal) root come along be maintain that neither Canada nor the regular army is aimed a state-controlled state. For the purpose of this project, a lovingist state would be adept such(prenominal)(prenominal) as Greece was until the early 1990s a country where the state possesss two told forms of companies and/or businesses and flings practic on the wholey every type of mixer service known to modern disposals.Since none of the two newton Ameri locoweed countries that leave behinding be featured in this physical composition tummy accurately comp atomic fig 18 to the bove interpretation, the opus will simply attempt to mould which of the two has a spicyer phase of fabianism when matched against each former(a) pursuit a Before going two further, permits view the abstract definitions to the key elements of this paper. cordialism, as referred to through and through expose the text, can be defined as follows whatever of various cordial or semi regimeal theories or movements in which the common hearty macrocosm is to be achieved through the establishment of a collectivisticic economical system.A accessibleist economic system can be defined as an economic organise in which the community owns the means of production, istri justion, and put backward bodiedly, and the benefits atomic bet 18 distributed to wholly members of that community. In this economic lay turn up the concourse will run the regimen in a extremely choose fashion . Having established what communism is, tot completelyyows move on to the search question, or system.It is sham that Canada will redeem a higher lever of socialism than the fall in States of the States based on its higher adjudge aim of taxation and its plain more(prenominal) develop social serve system. The look into question is in that locationfore is Canada genu inely more socialist than the join States of the States? The variants that will be utilize to assess socialism argon the take aim of majority rule social go offered the minimization of social classes and finally, the collective ownership of eventories, corporation, and companies. harmonise to the c at onceptual definition given earlier, a socialist country must be highly egalitarian. We must then find information that would help indicate the variable of democracy. What makes a country democratic? The deputation and post of diverse authoritiesal views as well up as a high take aim of world break downicipation in governmental decisions atomic number 18 two social characteristics that would ndicate a high train of democracy. To measure the wreakation and support of diverse political views, permits examine the different touristy political parties in both(prenominal) Canada and the die together States of America. correspond to the network CNN , in the current US national election which took belongings in November 2000, three political parties could be split to need garnered complete populace support to be considered important. After the suss out(p) of 99 sh be of precincts, the Democratic society stood at 49 sh ar of familiar support, the Republican party at 48 pct, and the Green party accumulated enough votes to have 3 percent of all votes. No different party standard a single percent of all votes. there is as well as a federal election being held in Canada this month, and the domain will vote on November 27th.According to the latest Reuters/Zogby look into Canada poll , the gratis(p)-hearted Party turn overs the lead with an rough 42 percent of public support, followed by the Canadian Alliance, which polled 29 percent, the Progressive Conservative Party holds 12 percent support, the Neo-Democratic Party has 7 percent and finally, the Bloc Quebecois holds 8 percent of public support. Canada thitherfore has qu intuple important political parties, all of which hold more public support than the unite States third important party.However, it would be inconclusive to assume that Canada is more democratic than the regular army by simply counting the form of political parties. permits kind of number at how many a nonher(prenominal) political views ar represented in both countries. In the USA, the Democratic Party can be said to be by and large leftover of the fasten on the left/ sound line, the Republicans would be somely right of the center, and the Green Party would be considered to represent sportsmanlikely left political views.If we practice the political parties in Canada on the like left/right line tally to the views they represent, we chitchat that many more views are palmed. The Neo-Democratic Party can be testing groundel as a remote-left party, the Liberal Party and the Bloc Quebecois would be considered left-of-the- optic parties, dapple the Progressive Conserv atives are right of the center and the Canadian Alliance (formerly the Reform Party) represents far-right views. It is evident that once the political views of the parties are exposed, Canada follow outms to have the edge over the USA when it comes toLets now take a look at the consequence variable that will be utilise to compare the degree of democracy among Canada and the USA a high level of public participation in political decisions. To measure this variable, we will look at the number of public representatives who are pick out by the population. At the municipal level in the USA, fit in to the City of St-Louis control board of Elections , the population elects a mayor, a comptroller, a President of the get along of Aldermen, the members of the Board of Aldermen (councilors) and naturalize board members.At the state and federal levels, as maintained by the North Carolina Board of Elections , the population of North Carolina elects members of the US nominate of Repre sentatives (In North Carolina,12 members are elected), swain Justices of the supreme tourist court (2), resolve of the judiciary of Appeals (5), District attorneys (37), Judges of District Court (87), members of State Senate (50), members of the State House of Representatives (120), Judges of domineering Court (Non Partisan) (31), local County Commissioners ( 5), a President and Vice-President, a Governor, a deputy sheriff Governor, an Attorney General, an Auditor, a Commissioner of Agriculture, a Commissioner of Insurance, Commissioner of Labor, secretaire of State, a Superint set deflectionent of Public Instruction, a Treasurer, a Chief Justice of NC unequivocal Court and an Associate Justice of NC Supreme Court. In Canada, at the local level elections are similar.According to Elections Canada the public elects a Mayor, Councilors and School Board members, but no comptroller and no President of the Board of Aldermen, such as is the case in the joined States. At the Prov incial Level, gibe to the organisation of Ontario , the population elects Members of the Provincial political relation (legislative Assembly) (In Ontario, 103 members are elected), and a Premier.Contrary to the USA, the population does not elect the Lieutenant Governor, the Attorney General, the Auditor, nor any secretaries, superintendents, treasurers, ministers, Chief Justices, Judges or District Attorneys these positions are awarded by the organization Premier and his Cabinet. The same pattern exists at the federal level. In accordance with the governance of Canada , the Canadian population elects a repair Minister and members of the House of Commons (In Canada, in that respect are 301 members).Again, there is a stern contrast with the American political stem, as Canadians do not elect members of the Supreme Court, or even Senators. When we count the number of representatives who are elected by the population, it seems that the American political system is more democrat ic than the Canadian system, as it is clear that many important positions are chosen by the great deal in America and by the politicians in Canada. It is important but to line of reasoning that the men and women who hold the closely fountain of all in both countries, the members of cabinet, are named by the leading politician.In Canada these great deal must be chosen from the Legislative Assembly at the provincial level, and the House of Commons at the federal, therefore they were elected to represent the population . However, in the US the Governors and President may choose whomever they recreate as their cabinet , whether they were elected or not. Despite the previous situation, when looking at the democracy variable as a whole it must be adjudge that the US is at least as democratic as Canada, therefore the prime(prenominal) variable must be considered void. Lets now move on to the siemens variable, well-established social work system.For a state to be deemed socialis t, it must offer numerous social operate to its people, forgive of charge. Lets begin by examining grooming. The first forefinger for genteelness is the substance of historic period of free education that are offered by the state. twain countries offer free pre-school, elementary and thirdhand education through the public schooltime system. (A primitively socialist state would withal offer free post-secondary education. ) In Canada, harmonize to Statistics Canada , most provinces offer 14 days of free education, beginning at the age of 4 with pre-kindergarten.The only exception is Ontario, which presently offers an optional 15th socio-economic class, known as the Ontario Academic Curriculum. OAC is basically a 5th grade of high school, designed to prepare students for university, also acting as their first year of university. However, the Government of Ontario has passed a load to abolish OAC by the year 2002. In the USA, according to the National Education tie- up , all states offer 15 days of public education, beginning a year earlier than in Canada, therefore offer one year of pre-school more than the provinces of their nigh country does.It can therefore be said that the USA offers more years of free education than Canada does. But how frequently does the state spend on these years of education? Lets look at the second indicator for the variable of education the meter exhausted-per student per-year on education. In accordance with selective information from Statistics Canada , the three levels of government combined to spend an approximate 50,407,100 Canadian horses per student for the school year of 1996-97. In that same year, Statistics Canada states that 5,065,914 students were enrolled in public schools across the country. in that respectfore, the state spend roughly 9,949 Canadian dollars per student. Based on the US number situations data , all three levels of American government combined to spend an approximate 5,882 US dollars per-student for the same school year of 1996-97. In order to compare these numbers realistically, lets convert the Canadian dollars to US dollars. In 1997, the Canadian doll ar was worth approximately 0. 68 American dollars, therefore the Canadian government worn-out(a) an approximate 6,765 American dollars per-student, compared to the US governments approximate 5,882. The next social service to be examined is income bail.It must be noted that the term income aegis does not mean exactly the same intimacy in both countries. In Canada, income security stands for social assistance, benefits to the elderly, employment benefits and child benefits. These go are covered by the Canadian and Quebec Pension Plans, Old Age Security, Guaranteed Income Supplement, teammates Allowance, Unemployment Insurance, Childrens Financial Benefits, Social help, and Workers Compensation. On the opposite hand, in the United States the term income security stands for balk insurance, private pensions, federal employees retirement, and hinderance programs.These run are offered through solid food Stamps, Supplemental Security Income, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Earned Income Tax extension and Unemployment Compensation. In 1994-95, according to the Government of Canadas overview of Income Security , the Canadian governments fatigued a list of 88,900,000,000 dollars on Income Security. When divided by the approximate population at the time, 29,500,000 people, it cleans out to 3014 Canadian dollars per citizen. If that number is then cipher that by . as the Canadian dollar was worth approximately 86 cents American at the time, we get 2050 the average dog-tired per citizen in American dollars.The United States governments spent 257,000,000,000 dollars on Income Security in 1999, according to the Budget of The United States Government for the monetary year 2001 . When divided by the US population in 1999, which was 272,691,000, according to the US number Bureau , we get the measuring stick spent per citizen on Income Security 942 US dollars. It seems as though Canada spends more on Income Security, but it must be taken in account that the US also has what they call Social Security.The latter covers Old-Age benefits, and Survivors, and hinderance Insurance. Since these function fall at a lower place the Canadian defi nition of Social Insurance, it would only be fair to measure them under the same variable. According to the US Census Bureau, 383 billion dollars was spent on Social Security in the US in 1999. That comes out to 1405 US dollars per citizen. When added to the previous total ( enumerate spent per US citizen on Income Security) we get a total of 2347 US dollars spent per US citizen, compared to 2050 US dollars spent per citizen in Canada.However, before declaring the United States more socialist when it comes to Income Security, we must consider the circumstance that the Canadian data dates back to 1994-95, mos t five years younger than the American data. It must be assumed that the Canadian Government has increased its outlay on Income Security since 1995, as has been the cause with all of the social serve for both Canada and the US. However, we must withal recognize the fact that the United States governments spend a hot deal of money on these types of operate and can be said to sp end more, or perhaps only meagrely less than the Canadian governments do.The final social service variable to be inspected is wellness sympathize with. In order to compare the two countries wellness bring off systems, two indicators will be examined the number of wellness run offered for free and the amount spent per citizen on heath guard. In the United States, there are two types of heath care services Medicare and Medicaid. According the US federal Government , Medicare is offered to most citizens who are 65 years of age or older, people authorize to Social Security disability payments for 2 y ears or more, and people with end-stage renal disease.Medicaid is offered to certain low-income families to help cover their medical costs . The Medicare recipients will capture durable medical equipment such as oxygen equipment, wheelchairs, arm, leg, back and neck braces, ostomy pouches, surgical dressings, splints and casts, one pair of eyeglasses aft(prenominal) surgery, and other(a) medically necessary equipment that a doctor prescribes for use at home. Medicare also helps cove r the costs for doctors services, outpatient hospital care, blood, lab tests and physical and occupational therapy. Medicaid on the other hand covers very much more.On the other hand, according to the wellness Care backing Administration, Medicaid recipients receive inpatient and outpatient hospital services, doctor services, medical and surgical dental services, nursing facility services for persons aged 21 or older, laboratory and x-ray services, paediatric and family nurse practitioner service s, ambulatory services to individuals under the age of 18 and individuals entitled to institutional services, prenatal care and delivery services for pregnant women, as well as some home health and clinical services.In Canada, as tell by the Government of Ontarios Ministry of Heath , health care covers all services by a physician (except work or school-related physicals), five or ten yearly visits to a podiatrist (chiropractors, osthopasths) and Physiotherapists, dental services do ne in hospital, optometry services every two years for all 20 to 65 year olds and once a year for all under 20 and all over 65 year olds, and importantly, emergency care of injuries that betide outside of the country.If we compare the services offered in both countries, we see that Medicaid is very corresponding to the Canadian Health Plan, plus and deduction a hardly a(prenominal) services, while Medicare trails both systems, at least as far as services offered are concerned. The second indicator for health care is the amount spent per person on health services. This is an area where the US is expected to cause poorly, as mentioned in the hypothesis, because so hardly a(prenominal) Americans in reality receive government-paid health care. In fact, according to the US Census Bureau any form of government-paid health care covers only 24. ercent of the US population.Medicare covers 13. 2 percent of the population, and Medicaid covers 10. 2 percent while the remain 3. 1 percent are armament personnel who receive basic war machine health benefits. According to the US Census Bureau , the three levels of government in the United States of America spent 40,168,000,000 dollars on 34,900. 000 Americans in 1991, therefore spending 1147 US dollars per recipient. However, when divided by the total America population at the time, which was approximately 258,000,000 people, we see that a mere 156 US dollars was spent per citizen on heath care.Canada on the other hand offers heal th c are to all of its citizens, therefore it is expected that the per-citizen number will be higher. According to Health Canada , in 1994-95, the three levels of Canadian government jointly spent 51,900,000,000 Canadian dollars on health care. When divided by the total population at the time (29,500,000 people), we get 1759 Canadian dollars per person. Hence, after the conversion to US dollars, the amount spent per person on health care in Canada is 1196, almost eight times as much as the US spending.Consequently, it must be alleged that although the US data is quatern years younger than the Canadian data, Canada excuse spends much more on health care than the United States does. Canada then comes out on top when we add all of the variables together in an attempt to pose who is of a more socialist nature, as far as social services go. It must nevertheless be admitted that aside from health care spending, the US does not trail Canada by an extreme amount when in comes to soci al servi ces, and even comes out on top when in the amount of years of free education offered through the public schooling system.Aside from an advance social services system, a socialist country must also have a low level of regeneration when it comes to social classes. In order to reduce the contravention between social classes, one must first reduce the interpretation of income levels. Therefore, the indicator for the variable minimization of social classes will be income dissimilitude. As said by the paper Income disparity in North America Does the forty-ninth check still matter? , Canada has not seen the meaty increase in income inequality that has occurred in the United States.The paper states that the US average income level has been rising rapidly when compared to Canadas, but that the USs income inequality has been maturement consistently as well. In call of comparative economic well-being, Canadian families in the bottom 25% of the income distribution were break off in absolute cost in 1997 than were their counterparts in the United States. However, in the top one-fifth of the income distribution, American families had usable incomes more than 20% higher than their Canadian counterparts.In the top one-tenth of the income distribution, spendable incomes among American families were about 25% higher. (Income inequality in North America Does the forty-ninth parallel still matter? , The Daily, Statistics Canada) Although it was not possible to view the data that was used by the author to make the to a higher place conclusions, the information will be considered thinkable for this paper, as it was written on the part of Statistics Canada, which is highly reputed to be an accurate writer of data. A more precise authority of determining Income Distribution would be to actually compare the spread of income in both countries.According to a US Census Bureau graph, in 1998, 3,6 percent of American households were in the lowest quintile of income (lo west level of income), 9 percent were in the second quintile, 15 percent in the third, 23. 2 percent were in the fourth quintile, and finally, 49. 2 percent of households were in the highest quintile of income. In Canada, the same chart can be prove in Canadian Fact Book On Poverty, which was posted on the Posted on the Canadian Council on Social ripening website (http//www. cfc-efc. ca/docs/00000327. m).According to the data, in 1991, 4. 7 percent of the Canadian households could be found in the bottom quintile, 10. 3 were in the second quintile, 16. 6 were in the middle quintile, 24. 7 were in the fourth quintile and 43. 8 percent were in the top quintile. Although the difference may not be huge, there is no denying the fact that there is a larger gap between the income levels in the US as the above data shows.As mentioned in the paper Income inequality in North America Does the 49th parallel still matter? he highest quintile plays a major role in the spread of income in the US. Almost fractional of all households are in the highest fifth, whereas in Canada, seven percent less (43. 8) households are in the highest quintile. What does all this mean? In keeping with the conceptual definition of socialism used for the purpose of this paper, it means that Canada fits the description of socialism better than the United States of America when it comes to income distribution since the gap between the gamey and the poor is thinner in Canada than it is in the United States.Aside from having a high level of democracy, good social services and a low level of distribution of social classes, a socialist state must also own many, if not all businesses. That brings us to the fourth variable of a socialist state collective ownership of corporations, companies, and factories. Traditionally, Canada has had many vest Corporations (Corporations owned by the State), but the recent front has been to sell these companies to private investors. Nonetheless, the Canadian gov ernments still own many businesses today. Even so, the federal Government still owns 49 Crown Corporations according to the Treasury Board of Canada .The most commonly known of these corporations would likely be Canada Post, a nation-wide postal service, The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission, which runs the blood profile and SRC radio and telly stations, and VIA-Rail. A few of the less known companies are the Canadian Commercial Corporation, International training Research Center, Royal Canadian Mint, the Business Development brim of Canada, Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation, merchandise Development Corporation, Farm Credit Corporation, exculpation Construction Limited, National Capital Commission, atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.Bank of Canada, Marine Atlantis Inc. , and Jacques Cartier and Champlain bridge Inc. In addition to federally owned Crown Corporations, the provinces also own their own public businesses the government of British capital of South Carolina for example runs sixteen Crown Corporations. The most commonly known of these are BC Hydro, BC Rail and BC Ferries. The US Governments also own similar corporation, although they ordinarily tend to be agencies more than companies. A few examples would be the Central wisdom Agency, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission.There are nonetheless some agencies that can compare to the ones owned by the Canadian governments, as illustrated on the White Houses Federal Agencies and Commissions web page such as the US Postal Service, AMTrack, the Export-Import Bank of the US, the Inter-American Development Bank, the International Bank for reconstruction & Development, the Legal Services Corporation, the National jet Service, the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation, the Overseas Private investment Corp. , and the Securities Investor Protection Corp.Since the corporations are included with the agencies and commissions all government sites, it is difficult to count a precise number of government divisions that could be considered Crown Corporations in the US. It can however be estimated that at the Federal level, between 10 and 20 of these corporations exist. In addition, the American public also owns a television station independently of all forms of government. The educational station PBS is funded ideally by the people, depending largely on personal pledges for its survival.It must however be concluded that Canada has a great deal of State-owned companies when comp ared to the US since it is close safe to say that there are at least twice as many of these corporations in Canada than there are in the United States. In conclusion, the hypothesis must be accepted, as the research proves that Canada is indeed more socialist that the United States of America. Although America is relatively strong when it comes to education, Canada does indeed spend more social services than the United States of America does. Canada also has more state-owned cor porations than does the United States of America.Since the US does not intelligibly come out ahead of Canada in any of the variables, we cannot claim is as being in the same league as Canada as far as socialism goes. We can however state that the United States offers more years of public education than Canada does, and that it spends approximately the same on income security. In fact, if the United States offered health care to all of its citizens like Canada does, it could be argued that both countries are very similar in damage of socialism, with Canada being the frontrunner.However that is not the case, and what the entire research came down to was t fact that health care is only offered to 24 percent of all Americans. The US Government actually spends 1147 US dollars per health-care recipient, only 49 US dollars less than Canada spends per recipient. What does this research tell us? It simply reinforces the theory that Canada is more socialist than the United States of America in its ways of governing. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that it is younger than its southern neighbor, that it still follows its European parents, France and England. America has matured more than Canada has, since it has been a free nation for much longer.There is no discredit that the US has developed its own governing system, with its own distribution of services and is striving off of it economically. There is however no less doubting that Canadians are proud of their social services, and education and democratic system. It seems both countries are in a state of comfort. America is broadly speaking content with its system and Canada is also broadly happy with the way the country is run. It is however always fun to peek on the other side of the fence and see how our neighbor is doing, and how we compare to him/her.