P.E. Bryden reveals that Liberal politicians were largely responsible not only for designing the social security legislation but also for creating its justification. She points out that not only did party organization, the structure of Canadian federalism, and internal party power shifts influence the development and implementation of social programs, but the opposite proved also to be true: the commitment to social security imperatives changed the shape of both the Liberal Party and federalism. Planners and Politicians explores the interrelationship between social programs, federal-provincial relations, the role of the bureaucracy in devising and legitimizing policy, and the nature of political power in the modern Canadian state. By considering social policy as part of national policy and recognizing that the federal government was shaped by the imperatives of the programs it was designing, this book offers a new perspective on Canadian social policy and the evolution of the state.

Mount Allison University, Canada

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"Planners and Politicians is the most useful available analysis of the people and workings of the Liberal Party from 1957 to 1968, particularly because it is so well grounded in the struggles within the Party over social security policies. It meshes very effectively the actions and ideas of such bureaucrats as Bryce and Kent with those of politicians like Pearson and Gordon. In doing so it presents a largely convincing picture of the kind of politics that have arisen in the era in which the state has acquired an importance at least paralleling that of party politics." James Snell, Department of History, University of Guelph