Public Attitudes Toward Budget Cuts in Alberta: Biting the Bullet or Feeling the Pain?

Karen D. Hughes, Graham S. Lowe and Allison L. McKinnon

Canadian Public Policy, 1996, vol. 22, issue 3, 268-284

Abstract: This paper examines public responses to the Alberta government's deficit elimination strategy. Using data from the province-wide 1995 Alberta Survey (N=1240), we examine how individuals have been affected by, and are responding to, cutbacks and restructuring in health care, education, and public sector employment. Public attitudes about government cost-cutting are contradictory. While most respondents support the government's deficit elimination strategy, they express considerable concern about its impact on public services. Experiencing cutbacks somewhat erodes the Klein government's electoral support, though not as much as the perception that cost cutting is undermining public services. The paper raises several key public policy issues regarding the individual and social dimensions of deficit elimination, especially when this fiscal policy is linked to a broader "new right" agenda as is the case in Alberta.

Date: 1996
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0317-0861%2819960 ... ATBCI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-0 (text/html)
only available to JSTOR subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpp:issued:v:22:y:1996:i:3:p:268-284

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.utpjournals.com/loi/cpp/

Access Statistics for this article

Canadian Public Policy is currently edited by Prof. Mike Veall

More articles in Canadian Public Policy from University of Toronto Press University of Toronto Press Journals Division 5201 Dufferin Street Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3H 5T8.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Iver Chong ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).