In a period of political transition in the United States, this book offers a fascinating reminder that policy choices matter, especially for the poorest and most vulnerable among us. Dan Zuberi, a sociologist, argues that many of his colleagues overemphasize the impact of structural forces such as globalization and technological change, and “underplay or ignore the critical role played by government policy and labor market institutions of advanced industrial countries in shaping social stratification and social mobility” (p. 18).

Zuberi builds his case by comparing the impact of social policy on the lives of low-income workers in the United States and Canada. These two countries are remarkably similar economically, socially, and culturally. Yet the poverty rate has diverged significantly on different sides of the border, providing Zuberi's point of departure (p. 19): “At the heart of my research is the following puzzle. The United States and Canada had very similar economies and levels of social stratification after the end of World War II. Despite undergoing an almost identical shift from a largely manufacturing-based economy to a service-sector-dominated economy over the past fifty years, Canada has not experienced the rise in relative household poverty or inequality that the United States has. Why?”

The author answers his question in an elegant manner, comparing in detail the experiences of low-income workers toiling in the same jobs for the same multinational hotel chains in two similar cities, Seattle and Vancouver. His primary evidence comes from in-depth interviews (n = 77) with low-income employees in two hotels in each city. The comparisons are carefully defined, contrasting unionized and nonunionized hotels in both cities and matching workers in the housekeeping, engineering, and guest services departments of the hotels. Four chapters describe the impact of national policies on the lives of these workers: labor legislation, health care, income transfers, and public investment in transit, education, and recreation. Each of these chapters starts with a careful comparison of the public policies and programs in the two countries and then traces their effects through the eyes of employees. The penultimate chapter makes detailed policy recommendations for improving the lives of the working poor, and the concluding chapter highlights the implications of the central findings.

The book has important strengths. Most obviously, Zuberi allows the poor to speak for themselves, providing extensive extracts from his interviews. The result is a vibrancy that is compelling, and a useful complement to the drier quantitative analyses of the same issues to be found elsewhere.

The book also demonstrates the importance of even limited differences in policy. Comparative analysts of the welfare state usually follow Gøsta Esping-Andersen (The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism, 1990) in classifying both the United States and Canada as liberal welfare states, and with the exception of health care, the policy differences analyzed here are often relatively modest in world terms. Yet they clearly matter. Zuberi is not the first to make this point. Indeed, economists David Card and Charles Freeman chose the title Small Differences That Matter (1993) for their comparison of labor market programs in the two countries. But Zuberi's interviewees bring the reality alive: “The impact of the institutional and policy differences between the United States and Canada does not look so small in terms of the subjective experience of individuals living and working in Seattle and Vancouver” (p. 175).

In addition, the book highlights the range of social policies that matter. Debates about social welfare in the United States often focus on public assistance, undoubtedly reflecting the intense politics that swirled around the program for decades. But, as the author argues, public assistance is marginal to the lives of the working poor. A full assessment of social welfare needs to include labor standards, government training programs, unemployment insurance, refundable tax credits, government-subsidized savings plans, health care, child care, public transit, and other community services. On virtually every one of these dimensions, social policy emerges as stronger in Canada than in the United States. Because the interviews were conducted in 2001–2, they will not fully reflect some recent weakening in Canadian social programs. But the overall conclusions undoubtedly remain valid.

Building on these findings, the book provides an impressively detailed set of policy prescriptions. Looking to Canada as a model does have advantages. One does not have to become a fully fledged European social-democratic welfare state to make a difference to low-income workers. In Zuberi's terms, there is a “high road” and a “low road” within the liberal model (p. 175), and he is confident that the United States can move to the high road “if the political will exists” (p. 13).

Where does political will come from? The limitations of the book emerge at this stage. Political scientists in particular will be disappointed by the absence of any attempt to explain why social policy has diverged in the two countries. The book does not draw on the rich literature that seeks to explain variation in the welfare state across contemporary democracies, or the smaller literature explaining United States–Canada differences. Zuberi suggests in passing that the higher level of unionization of labor in Canada is critical “because unions represent a countervailing political and institutional force that combats the rising influence” of corporations and wealthy individuals (p. 65). But he attributes differences in union densities fully to differences in labor legislation (p. 50), which simply begs the question of why the legislative frameworks differ.

Nor is there much appreciation of the constraints on the transfer of policies from one jurisdiction to another. The literature on the international diffusion of policy ideas regularly highlights the ways in which domestic politics filter the reception of ideas from abroad. A brief look at recent debates in the United States makes the same point. The Canadian single-payer model of health insurance hardly represented a rallying point during the intense struggle over health policy during the 1990s. More recently, a proposal to adopt a Canadian-style points system for immigrant selection encountered stiff resistance in Congress as being inconsistent with American traditions in the field.

Differences That Matter provides a powerful analysis of the impact of differences in social programs on the lives of the working poor. But developing strategies for reform will also require a fuller appreciation of the ways in which domestic politics shapes policy choices and the diffusion of ideas.