This course provides an introduction to the study of welfare states and social policy applying a comparative perspective. Welfare states and social security schemes are central to industrialized democracies. However, globalization as well as structural domestic changes increasingly challenge traditional social policies, such as the protection of the unemployed and pension schemes. Modernization and changing labor markets also call for new policies, protecting individuals for new social risks. This course aims at providing the analytical and conceptional tools which are useful to understand the development of different welfare state systems and compare different types of welfare states and social policies. We will discuss the origins of core socials security schemes; assess how and why they differ across sets of countries and how these schemes cope with current challenges. We will also look how new social risks, such as unstable employment trajectories or single parenthood are addressed.
The course is roughly divided into three parts: The first part looks into the sources and origins of social policies and welfare states and introduces students to different types of welfare states. The second part explores theories why we see different types of welfare states across advanced economies and also assesses whether these institutional differences have implications for individual level preferences for social policies and redistribution. The third and last part of the course is looking into challenges and problems welfare states are facing in the age of globalization and populist leaders.
- Instructor: Evelyne Patrizia Huebscher