This article analyzes three documents, the actual and presumed influence of which on social regulation in Canada has been considerable: the Marsh (1943), Macdonald (1985) and Axworthy (1994) Reports. More precisely, it focuses on the significant transformations in legitimation entailed by the shift, first, to a Welfare State type social policy (Marsh Report) and, later, to a neoliberal one (Macdonald and Axworthy Reports). Authors attempt to show how the onset of a new social regulation logic involves a significant shift, in political discourse, in social relations and in the relationship of the individual to society.