1 PSCI 414 / MSSP 514: The Politics of the Welfare State Spring 2016 Thursdays 1:30-4:30 pm Room 300, 3440 Market St. Professor Julia Lynch 3440 Market St, Room 315 jflynch@sas.upenn.edu Office hours: Mondays 2-4pm Overview This seminar provides an overview of the structure and functions of welfare states in Western Europe and North America, and covers key arguments and debates about the emergence and contemporary fate of these welfare states. The approach is broadly comparative, but throughout the course discussions will often emphasize drawing ideas from the experiences of other countries to inform policy solutions to problems we confront in the US. We begin by considering the varieties and tasks of modern welfare states, in order to establish a base of factual knowledge. We turn next to classic theories about the relationship between markets, classes, and social protection, and examine competing explanations for why modern welfare states emerge and why they differ from one another. We consider the role of social forces such as organized labor and the self-employed, the role of political institutions, and the role of societal views of appropriate gender relationships. A third section of the course examines challenges to the welfare state that emerge from changing labor market, demographic, and social conditions in the highly industrialized nations. Finally, we consider the political dynamics of late-20 th century reforms to the welfare state. Students will participate actively in seminar discussions and complete a major research paper. Graduate students will complete additional readings as noted and will write an article-length paper. Statement on academic integrity and plagiarism The University of Pennsylvania s Code of Academic Integrity states: Since the University is an academic community, its fundamental purpose is the pursuit of knowledge. Essential to the success of this educational mission is a commitment to the principles of academic integrity. Every member of the University community is responsible for upholding the highest standards of honesty at all times. Students, as members of the community, are also responsible for adhering to the principles and spirit of the [ ] Code of Academic Integrity. The seven points of this code (on cheating, plagiarism, fabrication, multiple submission, misrepresentation, facilitating dishonesty, and unfair advantage) can be found at http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/osl/acadint.html.
2 Course Requirements 1. (25%) Informed participation in weekly discussions 2. (25%) 7-8 page research proposal, due via Canvas at 5pm on Tuesday, March 15 3. (15%) Presentation of your research results in class on April 21 4. (35%) 20 page [35 pages for graduate students] research paper due in my mailbox in the Political Science office at 3440 Market St, Suite 300 by 4pm on Friday, May 6 Research proposal assignment Your research proposal must include all of the following elements: 1. The question to be asked in the paper (see below) 2. A 1-2 paragraph statement of the significance of this question for the study of comparative social policy what theoretical questions, debates or controversies will answering your question help to resolve? if it s not obvious, a BRIEF explanation (just 1 or 2 sentences) of why answering your question is of substantive or policy importance 3. Your proposed answer to the question (necessarily preliminary, but you must have an informed hypothesis at this time) 4. A list of major alternative hypothesized answers to the problem, which you will generate by drawing on common sense and on the theories you have read in this and other political science classes 5. An explanation of how you will evaluate the merits of your own proposed answer versus the competing hypotheses: what case comparisons will you use, and why? what evidence (data) would support or refute your argument, and competing hypothesis? What evidence in the world would convince you that your theory is wrong? a bibliography indicating where you will get the primary and secondary data that you need to test your argument against alternative hypotheses (the bibliography is not included in the page limit) Your research question should address something that is PUZZLING, and should generally be a WHY question: We expect (based on the following theories or patterns) to see this, but we see that; WHY do we see this rather than that? Identifying an empirical puzzle that needs solving, can be solved in 20 or 30 pages, but has not already been worked to death, is in many ways the most challenging part of writing a research paper. The good news is that in most cases, once you find a good puzzle, the rest of the paper is easy. Developing the proposal will require you to do some serious research up front in order to identify your research question, specify hypotheses (both your own and others'), and come up with a reasonable research design, including selecting appropriate comparison cases. You are strongly advised to meet with me during office hours at least once before turning in the proposal. Getting the proposal right the first time is not easy, especially if you haven t written a major research paper before. You will be allowed one rewrite, due by via Canvas by 5pm on
3 Tuesday, March 29. Your grade for the proposal will be the average of the grades for the original and the rewrite. Research findings presentation During the last week of the course, each student will present his or her research findings to the class. Because your actual papers will not be due until finals week, the findings may be somewhat tentative. However, this is an ideal opportunity to receive feedback on potential problems in time to correct them. Presentations should be no more than 10 minutes in length, and will remind the audience of the research question and rationale for the study, the research design, give an answer to the research question, and rebut possible counterarguments/alternative hypotheses. Course Readings The books listed below are available for purchase at the Penn Book Center. They can also be found in the Rosengarten Reserve at Van Pelt Library. Francis Castles, Stephan Leibfried, Jane Lewis, Herbert Obinger and Christopher Pierson, eds. The Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010) [Chapters are also available in electronic format from the Penn library web site] T. R. Reid. The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care. (New York: Penguin, 2009). Janet Gornick and Marcia Meyers, eds. Gender Equality: Transforming the Family Division of Labor (New York, NY: Verso, 2009) All other readings will be available on the course Blackboard site. Graduate students may also wish to purchase many of the books suggested as supplementary reading. The readings for graduate students are suggested ADDITIONAL readings. They do not need to be completed in the week for which they are assigned, but they are essential readings for doctoral and masters students interested in gaining foundational knowledge. Doing the readings When you read, please be sure to take note of the year of publication; the author s/authors name(s), gender(s), and number; and do your best to figure out who these people are. Are they politicians or policy actors? Journalists? Academics? If so, what discipline? Google is your friend. I strongly encourage you to form reading/discussion groups to share notes and critical summaries, and to discuss the assigned readings outside of class. Students who do this generally do very well in the course, while those who attempt to go it alone have much more trouble participating effectively and writing high-quality papers.
4 Schedule of readings Week 1 (Jan 14) Introduction Week 2 (Jan 21) Where do welfare states come from? OH Chapter 5 The Emergence of the Western Welfare State (Stein Kuhnle and Anne Sander) Karl Polanyi. The Great Transformation (Boston: Beacon Press, 2001), Chapters 6, 7 Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward. Regulating the Poor: The Functions of Public Welfare (New York: Vintage Books, 1971), Chapter 1. T.H. Marshall. Citizenship and Social Class, Chapter 4 in Class, Citizenship and Social Development: Essays by T.H. Marshall (Anchor Books, 1965) Peter Baldwin. The Politics of Social Solidarity: Class Bases in the European Welfare State, 1875-1975 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990) Week 3 (Jan 28) Varieties of the post-war welfare state Gøsta Esping-Andersen. The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990) Chapters 1-3 Ann Shola Orloff. Gender and the Social Rights of Citizenship: The Comparative Analysis of Gender Relations and Welfare States. American Sociological Review 58:3 (1993), pp. 303-28. Maurizio Ferrera, The Southern Model of the Welfare State in Europe Journal of European Social Policy (1996). OECD. How Much Redistribution Do Governments Achieve? The Role of Cash Transfers and Household Taxes, in OECD Growing Unequal? Income Distribution and Poverty in OECD Countries (Paris: OECD Publishing, 2008) [SKIM] Esping-Andersen, entire. Week 4 (Feb 4) Forces shaping post-war welfare states Gøsta Esping-Andersen and Walter Korpi, "Social Policy as Class Politics in Post-War Capitalism: Scandinavia, Austria, and Germany," in John Goldthorpe (ed.) Order and Conflict in Contemporary Capitalism, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984), pp. 179-208. Cathie Jo Martin and Duane Swank (2012). The Political Construction of Business Interests: Coordination, Growth and Equality. NY: Cambridge University Press. Chapter 2.
5 Kees van Kersbergen. Social Capitalism and Christian Democracy, in Social Capitalism: A Study of Christian Democracy and the Welfare State. (New York: Routledge, 1995), Chapter 8 Andrea Campbell. Policy Feedbacks and the Impact of Policy Designs on Public Opinion. Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law 36:6 (2011) Julia Lynch. Age in the Welfare State: The Origins of Social Spending on Pensioners, Workers, and Children (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006). Week 5 (Feb 11): NO CLASS READ ON YOUR OWN What do welfare states do? OH Chapter 31 Social Assistance (Thomas Bahle, Michaela Pfeifer and Claus Wendt) OH Chapter 24 Old-Age Pensions (Karl Hinrichs and Julia Lynch) OH Chapter 28 Disability (Mark Priestly) OH Chapter 29 Unemployment Benefits (Ola Sjöberg, Joakim Palme, and Eero Carroll) OH Chapter 25 Health (Richard Freeman and Heinz Rothgang) OH Chapter 30 Labor Market Activation (Lane Kenworthy) OH Chapter 32 Family Benefits and Services (Jonathan Bradshaw and Naomi Finch) OH Chapter 33 Housing (Tony Fahy and Michelle Norris) OH Chapter 34 Education (Marius Busemeyer and Rita Nikolai) Week 6 (Feb 18) Forces shaping contemporary welfare states Paul Pierson. Post-Industrial Pressures on Mature Welfare States in Paul Pierson, ed. The New Politics of the Welfare State (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000) Torben Iversen and Ann Wren. Equality, Employment, and Budgetary Restraint: The Trilemma of the Service Economy. World Politics 50:4 (1998) OH Chapter 22 Globalization (Duane Swank) Will Kymlicka and Keith Banting. Immigration, Multiculturalism and the Welfare State. Ethics and International Affairs 20:3 (2006) Paul Pierson. Dismantling the Welfare State? Reagan, Thatcher, and the Politics of Retrenchment (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994). Week 7 (Feb 25) The Exceptional American Welfare State? Julia Lynch. A Cross-National Perspective on the American Welfare State. In The Oxford Handbook of U.S. Social Policy, ed. Béland D, Howard C, and Morgan K. Oxford University Press. Sven Steinmo American Exceptionalism Reconsidered: Culture or Institutions? in: Larry Dodd and Calvin Jillson (eds.), The Dynamics of American Politics: Approaches and Interpretations (1994)
6 Joe Soss, Richard Fording, and Sanford F Schram. Disciplining the Poor: Neoliberal Paternalism and the Persistent Power of Race. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011. Chapters 1 and 3. Jacob Hacker. The Divided Welfare State: The Battle over Public and Private Social Benefits in the United States (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002). Week 8 (Mar 3) Gender and family policies OH Chapter 9 Families versus State and Market (Mary Daly) Janet Gornick and Marcia Meyers, eds. Gender Equality: Transforming the Family Division of Labor (New York, NY: Verso, 2009), Chapters 1 (Gornick and Meyers), 6 (Orloff), 10 (Zippel), 14 (Morgan). Kimberly Morgan. Working Mothers and the Welfare State: Religion and the Politics of Work-Family Policies in Western Europe and the United States (Stanford University Press, 2006). RESEARCH PROPOSALS DUE VIA CANVAS AT 5PM ON TUESDAY, MARCH 15 Week 9 (Mar 17) Health and Health Care Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett. The Spirit Level. New York: Bloomsbury (2009), Chapter 3 T. R. Reid. The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care. New York: Penguin, 2009. Chapters 1, 2, 4, 7, 8. Jo Phelan, Bruce Link, and Parisa Tehranifar. "Social conditions as fundamental causes of health inequalities theory, evidence, and policy implications." Journal of Health and Social Behavior 51.1 suppl (2010): S28-S40. Jacob Hacker. The Historical Logic of National Health Insurance: Structure and Sequence in the Development of British, Canadian, and U.S. Medical Policy. Studies in American Political Development. 12:1 (2008) Ellen Immergut. Health Politics, Interests and Institutions in Western Europe (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992). Week 10 (Mar 24) Housing Bo Bengtsson. "Housing as a social right: implications for welfare state theory." Scandinavian Political Studies 24:4 (2001): 255-275. John Doling and Richard Ronald. Home ownership and asset-based welfare. Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, 25 (2010): 165-173.
7 Caroline Dewilde and Peter Raeymaeckers. The trade off between home ownership and pensions: the individual and institutional determinant of old-age poverty. Ageing and Society, 28 (2008), 805 830. Peter Kemp. "Private Renting After the Global Financial Crisis." Housing Studies aheadof-print (2015): 1-20. Mark Kleinman. Housing, welfare, and the state in Europe: a comparative analysis of Britain, France, and Germany. Edward Elgar, 1996. REVISED RESEARCH PROPOSALS DUE VIA CANVAS AT 5PM ON TUESDAY, MARCH 29. Week 11 (Mar 31) Education and training Torben Iversen and John Stephens. "Partisan politics, the welfare state, and three worlds of human capital formation." Comparative Political Studies 41, no. 4-5 (2008): 600-637. Jutta Allmendinger and Stephan Leibfried. "Education and the welfare state: the four worlds of competence production." Journal of European social policy13, no. 1 (2003): 63-81. Kathleen Thelen. "Contemporary challenges to the German vocational training system." Regulation & Governance 1, no. 3 (2007): 247-260. Ben Ansell. "University challenges: Explaining institutional change in higher education." World Politics 60, no. 02 (2008): 189-230. Kathleen Thelen. Varieties of Liberalization and the New Politics of Social Solidarity. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014). Week 12 (Apr 7) The future of the welfare state Barbara Vis, Kees van Kersbergen and Tom Hylands. To What Extent Did the Financial Crisis Intensify the Pressure to Reform the Welfare State? Social Policy & Administration 45:4 (2011): 338-353 Silja Häusermann and Bruno Palier. "The politics of employment-friendly welfare reforms in post-industrial economies." Socio-Economic Review 6:3 (2008): 559-586. Jacob Hacker. Universal Insurance: Enhancing Economic Security to Promote Opportunity (Washington, DC: Brookings, 2006) Darrick Hamilton and William Darity Jr. "Can baby bonds eliminate the racial wealth gap in putative post-racial America?" The Review of Black Political Economy 37:3-4 (2010): 207-216. Silja Häusermann. The Politics of Welfare State Reform in Continental Europe: Modernization in Hard Times (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010).
8 Week 13 (Apr 14): NO CLASS Week 14 (Apr 21): EXTENDED CLASS Paper presentations Final papers due on May 6 Turn in papers to my mailbox in the Political Science department office at 3440 Market St, Suite 300 by 4pm (after that the office doors will be locked).