PSC 288 Comparative Social Policy
Spring 2006, Mondays 5:10-7:00 p.m.
Professor
Kimberly Morgan
Office: Old Main 413D
Phone: 994-2809
Email: kjmorgan@gwu.edu
Office Hours: T, Th 1:45-3:00, or by appointment
Summary
This course will examine social policy in advanced
industrialized states. The aim is not
only to understand the varying ways in which nations have addressed social
issues, but also the political forces that shape these responses. The course will emphasize the policies and
programs of the welfare state, including labor market, anti-poverty, family,
pension, and health care policy. Other
topics include education, taxation, and immigration or diversity-related
policies. Much of the course will focus
on the
The following book(s) are available for purchase at the GWU bookstore:
Alberto Alesina and Edward L. Glaeser, Fighting Poverty in the
Peter H. Lindert, Growing
Public: Social Spending and Economic Growth since the Eighteenth Century (
Blackboard
The required readings can be accessed through Blackboard’s e-reserve system. In addition to the required readings, you can find a number of other useful things on Blackboard, including a copy of the syllabus, helpful websites, and copies of any handouts from class. I’ll also post the two take-home exam questions on the web when the time comes, and information about the short research paper (see below).
Most of the readings have been scanned into the system as pdf files, and you can either read them on your computer or print them out. You will find all readings under the “e-reserves” heading in the Blackboard menu. In a few cases, you will have to search for the article yourself through the library system on Proquest.
To log onto Blackboard, you will need a Colonial email address and be registered for this course. To log in, go to http://blackboard.gwu.edu and type in your NetID and email password. If you have any questions or problems, you can first try going to http://helpdesk.gwu.edu. I suggest that you try to access Blackboard as soon as possible, to make sure that you are in the system and understand some of its features.
Course requirements
(1) Class participation and weekly discussion questions:
as a small seminar, class participation is vital to the success of this
course. For that reason, I will be
keeping track of who comes to class and how much they talk, and will factor
this into your final grade. To help
foster discussion, I’d like you to email to me a set of questions each week
that the reading raised in your mind – the kinds of questions that might be
useful for the class to discuss. You should
start doing this for the reading on week two, although everyone is allowed two
weeks of “amnesty” from having to send in weekly questions. I must receive them by
(2) Two take-home essays. I will post the questions on a set date, and you will have 48 hours to complete these essays. More details to follow.
(3) One short research paper. This paper is for you to develop your interest in a particular area of social policy. The paper should be 12-15 pages, and examine an aspect of social policy in another country (or countries), or else look at an American social policy in comparative perspective. Everyone should meet with me once during the semester to discuss their topic. We’ll discuss the paper on the first day of class and collectively set a due date. Detailed specifications about the paper (length, font, citations, etc.) are posted on Blackboard.
(4) Longer paper option. If you choose, you may write a longer research paper for the second take-home essay. The paper should be 25-30 pages and you should discuss this with me in advance – preferably by the middle of the semester – in the event that you would like to do this. I recommend this option in particular for PhD students.
Grading
-- Discussion questions and class participation: 20%
-- Each take-home essay: 25%
-- Research paper: 30% (55% for longer paper option)
Week One: Introduction to the Comparative Study of Social Policy (Jan. 23)
Introduction to themes of course; why study comparative
public policy; benefits and pitfalls of comparison; why does the
Week Two: Characterizing and conceptualizing welfare states (January 30)
What does the welfare state look like in different countries? How should we characterize the American welfare state?
Alesina and Glaeser, chp. 2, “Redistribution in the
Lindert, Growing Public, chp. 1.
Gøsta Esping-Andersen, “The Three Political Economies of the Welfare State,” Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, 26/2, 1989: 10-36.
Roger Goodman and Ito Peng, “The East Asian Welfare States: Peripatetic Learning, Adaptive Change, and Nation-Building,” in Gøsta Esping-Andersen, ed., Welfare States in Transition (Sage: 1996), pp. 192-224.
Christopher Howard, “Is the American Welfare State Unusually Small?” PS Notes 36, 3 (July 2003): 411-16.
Highly recommended:
Willem Adema and Maxime Ladaique, Net Social Expenditures 2005 Edition. This is very long; I suggest you read enough to understand the concept of “net social expenditures.”
Week Three: Explaining differences in social policy: historical origins and working class power (February 6)
Lindert, Growing Public, chp. 7.
Chris Pierson, “On the origins of welfare state 1880-1975,” in Pierson, Beyond the Welfare State? The New Political Economy of Welfare (1998).
Timothy Tilton, “
Peter Baldwin, “How Socialist is Solidaristic Social Policy? Swedish Postwar Reform as a Case in Point.” International Review of Social History XXXIII (1988): 121-147.
Kees van Kersbergen, “Social Capitalism and Christian Democracy,” in Social Capitalism: A Study of Christian Democracy and the Welfare State (Routledge 1995), pp. 174-91.
Week Four: Explaining
differences in social policy: political institutions, culture, and diversity (February
13)
Alesina and Glaeser, chps. 3-7, pp. 55-216.
Sven Steinmo “American Exceptionalism Reconsidered: Culture or Institutions?” in: Larry Dodd and Calvin Jillson (eds.), The Dynamics of American Politics: Approaches and Interpretations (1994), pp. 106-131.
Martin Gilens, “The News Media and the Racialization of Poverty,” pp. 102-32 in Why Americans Hate Welfare (University of Chicago Press, 1999).
Keith G. Banting, “Is a Multicultural Welfare State a Contradiction in Terms?” (2005).
Seymour Martin Lipset and Gary Marks, It Didn’t Happen Here: Why Socialism Failed in the United States, chp. 8.
Recommended:
Chapter 1 and other chapters in Lipset and Marks, if you are interested in the question of why social democratic parties did not develop in the United States.
No class February
20: President’s Day
Week five: taxation (February 27)
Why and how do tax systems differ? Income, payroll, and consumption taxes; the notion of tax expenditures.
OECD Economic Outlook no. 69, chp. 5, “Challenges for Tax Policy in OECD Countries.” (pp. 169-85).
Sven Steinmo, “Political Institutions and Tax Policy in the
Junko Kato, chp. 1 from Regressive Taxation and the Welfare State, read only pages 1-34 (read the rest if you wish, pp. 1-52).
Christopher Howard, “The Hidden Side of the American Welfare State,” Political Science Quarterly 108, 3 (1993): 403-36.
Week six: pensions (March
6)
Why do pensions systems look different?
What is the nature of pension reform – including the impetus for and the
obstacles against? What alternative
models are available for reformers?
Gøsta Esping-Andersen, “State and Market in the Formation of Pension Regimes,” in Esping-Andersen, The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism (1990), pp. 79-104.
Peter H. Lindert, Growing Public, chp. 8-9.
R. Kent Weaver, “The Politics of Public Pension Reform,” (2003).
Economists duke it out over pension reform:
Peter Orszag and Joseph Stiglitz, “Rethinking Pension Reform: Ten Myths about Social Security Systems” (1999).
Martin Feldstein, “Structural Reform of Social Security.” NBER Working Paper, 2005.
Recommended
Alison Chopel, Nozomu Kuno, and Sven Steinmo, “Social
Security, Taxation, and Redistribution in
Week seven: Health care policy (March 13)
What does the American health care system look like in comparative perspective? What explains the unique nature of the American health care system, our political culture or our institutions? How do other countries organize health care provision and financing?
Sven Steinmo, “It’s the Institutions Stupid: Why Comprehensive
National Health Insurance Always Fails in
Gerald Anderson, et al., “Health Spending in the
American Journal of Public Health symposium, January 2003, on health care abroad:
*
* Raise
* Victor Rodwin, “The Health Care System under French National Insurance.”
* Donald W. Light, “Universal Health Care: Lessons from the British Experience.”
* Christa Altenstetter, “Insights from Health Care in
Recommended
Steffie Woolhandler and David U. Himmelstein, “Paying for National Health Insurance –And Not Getting it.” Health Affairs July/August 2002: 88-98.
Gerard Anderson and Peter Sotir Hussey, “Comparing Health System Performance in OECD Countries,” Health Affairs May/June 2001: 219-32.
FIRST ESSAY DUE:
March 17.
** SPRING BREAK **
Week eight: Labor
market policy (March 27)
What are the patterns of employment and unemployment across western countries? Why are European economies suffering from high unemployment? Is providing more jobs enough? How do public policies affect women’s labor force participation?
Siebert Horst, “Labor Market Rigidities: At the Roots of
Unemployment in
Stephen Nickell, “Unemployment and Labor Market Rigidities:
Europe versus
“The Rise and Fall of the
Torben Iversen, “The Choices for Scandinavian Social
Democracy in Comparative Perspective,”
Jelle Visser, “The First Part-Time Economy in the World: A Model to be Followed?” Journal of European Social Policy 12, 1 (2002): 23-42.
Recommended:
Jane Lewis and Gertrude Åstöm, “Equality, Difference and
State Welfare: Labor Market Policy in
Week nine: the
organization of care (April 3)
How do different societies and polities organize the provision of care for children and the elderly? What is the balance of state, market, and family in assuring care? What are the consequences of different arrangements?
Jane Lewis, “Decline of the Male Breadwinner Model: Implications,” Social Politics: 152-66.
Janet C. Gornick and Marcia K. Meyers, “Supporting a Dual-Earner/Dual-Carer Society: Policy Lessons from Abroad.” (2004)
Margarita Estevez-Abe, “Gender Bias in Skills and Social Policies: The Varieties of Capitalism Perspective on Sex Segregation.” Social Politics (2005): 180-215.
Mark Merlis and Paul Van de Water, “Long-Term Care Financing: Models from Abroad,” (2005).
John Creighton Campbell and Naoki Ikegami, “Long-Term Care
Insurance Comes to
Recommended
Jane Waldfogel, “Understanding the ‘Family Gap’ in Pay for Women with Children.” JEP 12, 1 (1998): 137-56.
Judith Feder, Harriet L. Komisar and Marlene Niefield,
“Long-Term Care in the
Alison Evans Cuellar and Joshua M. Wiener, “Can Social
Insurance for Long-Term Care Work? The
Experience of
Week ten: poverty and inequality (April 10)
Why are people poor? The feminization of poverty; family policy other countries; how does the American 1996 welfare reform look in in comparative perspective?
Walter Korpi and Joakim Palme, “The Paradox of Redistribution,” American Sociological Review (October 1998): 661-87.
Peter H. Lindert, Growing Public, chp. 10.
Esping-Andersen, “A Child-Centered Social Investment Strategy,” pp. 26-67.
Karen Christopher et al., “The Gender Gap in Poverty in Modern Nations: Single Motherhood, the Market, and the State,” Sociological Perspectives (Fall 2002): 219-42.
Measuring Poverty
Peter Townsend, Poverty
in the
Amartya Sen, “Poor, Relatively Speaking,”
“Poverty in the OECD” tables from the LIS Project.
Recommended:
McLanahan and Erin Kelly “The Feminization of Poverty: Past and Future.” Handbook of the Sociology of Gender, ed. Janet Chafetz (1999).
Sara McLanahan and Irwin Garfinkel, “Single-Mother Families
and Social Policy: Lessons for the
For background on US anti-poverty policy, see: John Karl Scholz and Kara Levine, “The Evolution of Income Support Policy in Recent Decades,” in Sheldon H. Danziger and Robert H. Haveman, Understanding Poverty (2001): 193-228 (on reserve).
Week eleven: education (April 17)
Peter H. Lindert, Growing Public, chp. 5-6.
Vouchers
Edwin G. West, “Education Vouchers in Principle and Practice: A Survey,” World Bank Research Observer Feb 1997: 83-103.
Martin Carnoy, “National Voucher Plans in
Vocational education and tracking
Jeylan T. Mortimer and Helga Krüger, “Pathways from School
to Work in
Henry M. Levin, “The Dilemma of
Week twelve: racial,
ethnic, and religious diversity (April 24)
Adrian Favell, Philosophies of Integration, chps. 3-4. Note: this is an e-book, which means you’ll have to read it on-line. Please search for it through the Gelman catalog, and then follow the links to the e-book.
Jane Freedman, “Secularism as a Barrier to Integration? The French Dilemma.” Jane Freedman, International Migration (2004): 5-25.
Robert C. Lieberman, “
One more reading TBA.
Week thirteen: crisis of the welfare state? The future of social policy (May 1)
Peter H. Lindert, Growing Public, chp. 11 (28 pages).
Paul Pierson, “The New Politics of the Welfare State,” (Jan. 1996): 143-179.
Neil Gilbert, Transformation
of the Welfare State (
Janet
Gornick, “Cancel the Funeral: Reports on the Death of the European Welfare
State are Premature,” Dissent 48, 3
(Summer 2001).
SECOND ESSAY DUE DURING
EXAM WEEK. DATE TBA.