<p>This study investigates the responses of the labour movement, social policy advocacy organizations, and feminists to the downsizing and restructuring of the welfare state in Canada. Of interest in this research is whether these constituencies are in the initial stages of 're-conceptualizing' social welfare, given that the increasing degree of economic globalization and the rightward shift in political thinking in recent years have created a need for 'paradigm shift' in approaches to social policy among equality-seeking social movements.</p> <p>It is discovered that these three social movements (labour, social policy advocates, and feminists) are at varying stages in imagining and working to achieve a progressive alternative to the postwar welfare state. Some elements of the labour movement have clearly identified the economic and political roots of growing social inequality. Some elements of the social policy advocacy community are promoting comprehensive alternative economic and social policies to the ones currently dominating political discourse. The women's movement, as represented by the National Action Committee on the Status of Women, appears to be the furthest ahead in developing a theoretically grounded critique of neoconservative I neo-liberal social welfare restructuring, and in posing progressive alternatives to it.</p> <p>Theoretical issues which arise in regard to rethinking social welfare and reformulating social policy are discussed. There is also reference made to the strategic challenges which confront social movements within Canada and internationally, in their efforts to use social policy as a means of achieving greater social equality and an environmentally sustainable set of economic and political arrangements.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

公民投票是一種直接民主的表現、是直接民主的實踐，而直接民主也是民主政治最原始的形式，早從古雅典式的民主開始，公民的直接參與政治便已然成形，但是直接民主在實際運作上是有其困難性的，因此公民將其權力委託給代議士的代議民主，就成為當今世界民主國家主導政治運作的核心機制。 雖然代議政治儼然成為世界最為普遍的民主政體，但由於受委託的代議士經常會受到個人利益或是其他利益團體之影響，無法完全展現委託人之意志，因而，產生了許多代議政治下的偏差現象，怎麼樣的機制能夠彌補這諸多代議制度下的失靈現象呢？於此之際，「公民投票」遂為當前必須加以著重討論的重要課題。 本論文試圖就公民投票的定義、理論、類型分析，從中找出公民投票在施行上所可能受到的限制以及其可能造成的偏差現象，並從國外的實際施行的經驗中，找出可以避免或修正公民投票弊病的方法。