Spring 2004

GOV 365N • Politics of the Welfare State

Course Description

Course number may be repeated for credit when topics vary. This is an introductory survey of the politics of the welfare state in North America, Western Europe, and Australasia. The welfare state is a form of socio-political organization that characterizes all the liberal democracies in these regions. The welfare state-roughly a political economy that involves state regulation of the market, redistribution of income via taxes and direct benefits programs such as health care, old age pensions, unemployment insurance, and education-emerged in the late 19th century and blossomed in the mid-20th century. In the last 25 years, it has been under both political and fiscal pressures. We examine the main trends in welfare state development and retrenchment, looking especially at contrasts between the American and European welfare states.

Grading Policy

3 exams (a mix of multiple choice and essay) 1 short take-home essay (10 pages) Class Attendance

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