Sociology 924 Spring semester 2006 Thursday 11:00 a.m. 1:00 p.m. Classroom: 6314 Social Science Chad Alan Goldberg Office: Social Science 8116B E-mail: cgoldber@ssc.wisc.edu Office hours by appointment POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY SEMINAR: CITIZENSHIP AND THE WELFARE STATE IN THE UNITED STATES This seminar will examine the relationship between citizenship and the welfare state in the United States. While we may at times consider how the political activities of citizens have shaped social welfare policies, we will focus primarily on how policies have shaped citizenship, construed broadly to mean not merely one s legal status or membership in the polity, but also rights, obligations, and political participation. Thus, a major concern of the seminar will be to investigate what social scientists have called policy feedback effects, i.e., how already instituted social policies have influenced subsequent political struggles. As previous research has shown, the structures and activities of states influence (in both intended and unintended ways) the formation and collective identity of groups; their political capacities, ideas, and demands; and their access to valued material and symbolic goods. With this in mind, we will consider how citizenship has intersected with class, gender, and racial divisions in American society; compare and contrast policies that have targeted citizen-soldiers (veterans), citizenmothers, and citizen-workers; and investigate whether and how various policies have empowered citizens or served as instruments of social control. There are no prerequisites for enrollment in the seminar. However, it is recommended that students first take Sociology 624 (Political Sociology). Although not necessary, Sociology 753 (Comparative and Historical Methods in Sociology) would also be helpful preparation for this seminar. Students who wish to continue this line of study are encouraged to enroll in a follow-up seminar offered next semester by Professor Joe Soss in the Political Science Department. COURSE REQUIREMENTS 1. Regular assigned readings. I have generally tried to limit the weekly reading assignments to about 200 pages maximum. 2. Attendance and participation in seminar discussions throughout the semester. All participants should be prepared at class time to comment upon and critique the required readings assigned for that week. 3. Class presentations. Although I will lead the discussion throughout the entire course, all students (either singly or in pairs) are required to make a seminar presentation on one of the weekly reading assignments. These presentations should be no more than 15 minutes. The purpose of the presentation is not to provide a summary of the reading you should assume that everyone has carefully read the material in advance but to open the discussion by (a) relating the assigned readings to each other and to texts we have previously discussed and (b) identifying what you see as the main issues raised by the assigned readings. The presentation should thus formulate an agenda of critical questions for class 1
discussion. As part of your presentation, I encourage you to prepare a brief memo for the other seminar participants that summarizes the main points of your presentation. If you choose to do so, the memo should be emailed to the class list at least two days prior to the class meeting so that seminar participants will have an opportunity to reflect on your comments and discussion questions in advance. 4. A 1-2 page prospectus for a term paper on a seminar-related topic of your choice. Papers should either focus on the U.S. or involve a cross-national comparison of the U.S. with another country. The prospectus is due no later than Monday, April 10. I will be happy to discuss your prospectus with you. 5. A term paper of approximately 15 pages, following the plan of an approved prospectus, due no later than Monday, May 8. Each seminar participant s overall grade for the semester will be determined as follows: Participation: 30% Presentation: 20% Written seminar paper: 50% READING MATERIALS All assigned books will be on reserve at College Library and available from the University Book Store. All other required reading assignments will be included in a course packet on reserve at College Library and available at Bob s Copy Shop at University Square. The books from which those reading assignments are taken will also be on reserve at College Library. If there is a problem with any of the reserve readings, please e-mail me as soon as possible to let me know. COURSE OUTLINE Please note that on dates followed by an asterisk (*), the seminar will be cancelled and rescheduled due to a major Jewish holiday. I apologize for the inconvenience. January 17 PART ONE: INTRODUCTION Introduction to the seminar. Select dates for presentations. January 26 Edwin Amenta, Chris Bonastia, and Neal Caren, U.S. Social Policy in Comparative and Historical Perspective, Annual Review of Sociology 27 (2001): 213-234. T. H. Marshall, Citizenship and Social Class, in Class, Citizenship, and Social Development (Garden City: Doubleday, 1964), pp. 65-122. Michael Mann, Ruling Class Strategies and Citizenship, Sociology 21, no. 3 (August 1987): 339-354. Bryan S. Turner, Outline of a Theory of Citizenship, Sociology 24, no. 2 (May 1990): 189-217. Paul Pierson, When Effect Becomes Cause: Policy Feedback and Political Change, World Politics 45 (Jul. 1993): 595-628. Suzanne Mettler and Joe Soss, The Consequences of Public Policy for Democratic Citizenship, Perspectives on Politics 2, no. 1 (Mar. 2004): 55-73. 2
Theodore J. Lowi, Four Systems of Policy, Politics, and Choice, Public Administration Review 32, no. 4 (Jul. Aug. 1972): 298-310. Theda Skocpol, Bringing the State Back In, chap. 1 in Bringing the State Back In, eds. Peter B. Evans, Dietrich Rueschmeyer, and Theda Skocpol (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985). Theda Skocpol and Edwin Amenta, States and Social Policies, Annual Review of Sociology 12 (1986): 131-157. Jill Quadagno, Theories of the Welfare State, Annual Review of Sociology 13 (1987): 109-128. Margaret Weir, Ann Shola Orloff, and Theda Skocpol, Understanding American Social Policies, introduction to The Politics of Social Policy in the United States, eds. Margaret Weir, Ann Shola Orloff, and Theda Skocpol (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988). Ann Orloff, Gender in the Welfare State, Annual Review of Sociology 22 (1996): 51-78. Will Kymlicka and Wayne Norman, The Return of the Citizen: A Survey of Recent Work on Citizenship Theory, Ethics 104 (1994): 352-77. Michael Schudson, The Good Citizen: A History of American Civic Life (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998). PART TWO: SOCIAL PROVISION FOR CITIZEN-SOLDIERS AND CITIZEN- MOTHERS February 2 Laura Jensen, Patriots, Settlers, and the Origins of American Social Policy (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003), entire. (If you cannot finish the entire book, read selectively and skim as necessary.) February 9 Theda Skocpol, Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: The Political Origins of Social Policy in the United States (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992), pp. 1-62, 67-87, 102-130, 248-286, 309-310. Chad Alan Goldberg, The Freedmen s Bureau and Civil War Pensions: America s Nineteenth-Century Welfare State (conference paper). 24 pp. Ann Shola Orloff and Theda Skocpol, Why Not Equal Protection? Explaining the Politics of Public Social Spending in Britain, 1900-1911, and the United States, 1880s-1920, American Sociological Review 49 (Dec. 1984): 726-750. February 16 Skocpol, Protecting Soldiers and Mothers, pp. 314-479, 525-539. Felicia A. Kornbluh, The New Literature on Gender and the Welfare State: The U.S. Case, Feminist Studies 22 (1996): 171-197. 3
February 23 PART THREE: THE NEW DEAL AND ITS POLICY LEGACIES Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward, Regulating the Poor: The Functions of Public Welfare, updated edition (New York: Vintage Books, 1993), pp. 3-117, 147-177. (Chap. 4 is recommended but not required.) Linda Gordon, What Does Welfare Regulate? Social Research 55, no. 4 (Winter 1988): 609-630. Piven and Cloward, Welfare Doesn t Shore Up Traditional Family Roles: A Reply to Linda Gordon, Social Research 55, no. 4 (Winter 1988): 631-647. March 2 Suzanne Mettler, Dividing Citizens: Gender and Federalism in New Deal Public Policy (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998), selections TBA. Chad Alan Goldberg, Contesting the Status of Relief Workers during the New Deal: The Workers Alliance of America and the Works Progress Administration, 1935-1941, Social Science History 29, no. 3 (Fall 2005): 337-71. Chad Alan Goldberg, Legitimating Social Rights Through Work? A Comparison of Old- Age Insurance and the Works Progress Administration, 1935-1949 (33-page conference paper) Rogers M. Smith, Beyond Tocqueville, Myrdal, and Hartz: The Multiple Traditions in America, American Political Science Review 87, no. 3 (Sept. 1993): 549-566. Karen Orren, Belated Feudalism: Labor, the Law, and Liberal Development in the United States (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991). Edwin Amenta, Bold Relief: Institutional Politics and the Origins of Modern American Social Policy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998). Jeff Manza, Political Sociological Models of the U.S. New Deal, Annual Review of Sociology 26 (2000): 297-322. March 9 Andrea Louise Campbell, How Policies Make Citizens: Senior Political Activism and the American Welfare State (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003), entire. March 16: Spring recess (no class). March 23 Joe Soss, Unwanted Claims: The Politics of Participation in the U.S. Welfare System (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2000), entire. PART FOUR: POSTWAR SOCIAL POLICIES AND THEIR FEEDBACK EFFECTS March 30 Suzanne Mettler, Soldiers to Citizens: The G.I. Bill and the Making of the Greatest Generation (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), selections TBA. 4
Edwin Amenta and Theda Skocpol, Redefining the New Deal: World War II and the Development of Social Provision in the United States, chap. 2 in The Politics of Social Policy in the United States. Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone: America s Declining Social Capital, Journal of Democracy (Jan. 1995): 65-78. April 6 Emilie Stoltzfus, Citizen, Mother, Worker: Debating Public Responsibility for Child Care after the Second World War (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003), pp. 1-15, 89-240. (Chap. 2 is recommended but not required.) April 13 * Piven and Cloward, Regulating the Poor, pp. 248-338. Jill Quadagno, The Color of Welfare: How Racism Undermined the War on Poverty (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), pp. 3-115, 187-197. April 20 PART FIVE: THE RISE OF THE NEW RIGHT Paul Pierson, Dismantling the Welfare State? Reagan, Thatcher, and the Politics of Retrenchment (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994), entire. (If you cannot finish the entire book, skim chap. 4.) Claus Offe, Democracy Against the Welfare State? chap. 8 in Modernity and the State (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1996), pp. 147-182. April 27 Lawrence M. Mead, Beyond Entitlement: The Social Obligations of Citizenship (New York: Free Press, 1986), pp. 1-68, 120-147, 241-258. Gwendolyn Mink, Welfare s End (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998), pp. 1-32, 103-139. May 4 Anne L. Schneider and Helen Ingram, Policy Design for Democracy (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1997), entire. (If you are unable to read the entire book thoroughly, I recommend you skim chapters 2-3.) 5