66710 - Political Economy Of Welfare Systems

Academic Year 2019/2020

  • Docente: Rosa Mulè
  • Credits: 8
  • SSD: SPS/04
  • Language: English

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes:

At the end of the course the student will be able to:

  • Compare welfare states
  • Understand the challenges to the welfare state
  • Plan and write a comparative research paper using the Luxembourg Income Study Dataset

Course contents

(Political economy of welfare states

2019-2020

This course examines cross-national evolution and variation in welfare states in industrialized countries and especially in Europe. The course is structured around three questions: How do we compare the political economy of welfare states? Why do countries differ in their welfare states models? To what extent do differences in institutional settings, coalition politics and economic systems shape fundamentally different models of welfare states? The methodology is comparative and the focus is on theoretical models and applications using the Luxembourg Income Study Dataset.

Course Procedures and Evaluation

Each student should read the 'required readings' for each class. In some classes ‘further reading’ is intended to provide background introduction to the main readings. Every week students’ group should hand in one question for discussion.

class participation 10% grade

student presentation 25% grade

written paper 65% grade. Deadline for written paper 4 January 2020

(5000 words).

Classes will involve lectures, presentations by guest speakers, and inter-active sessions in which students will have an opportunity to participate.

Textbooks

Castles, F., Leibfried, S., Lewis, J., Obinger, H., Pierson, C. (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State, Oxford University Press, 2010 (e-book). Greve, B. (ed.) 2018. Routledge Handbook of the Welfare State, 2nd Edition

Pierson,C. Castles, F. and I.K.Naumann (eds.), 2014. The welfare state reader, Polity Press (and some chapters in 1st edition 2000).

Background reading

David Garland, 2016. The Welfare State: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press

1. Historical foundations of the welfare state

Required reading

Briggs, A. Welfare State in Historical Perspective, in Reader, 2014.

Further reading

Ferrera, M. The Boundaries of Welfare: European Integration and the New Spatial Politics of Social Protection, Oxford University Press, 2005, cap. 1 and 2 (Oxford Online).

Ravallion, M. 2015. The Idea of Antipoverty Policy, in A.B.Atkinson and F.Bourguignon, eds. Handbook of Income Distribution, Vol. 2B, chapter 22.

2. Comparing welfare states: METHODS

Required reading

Sartori, G. 1994. Compare Why and How. Comparing, miscomparing and the comparative method, in Dogan, M. K and Kazancigil, A. (eds.) Comparing nations: concepts, strategies and substance, Oxford, Basil Blackwell.

Atkinson, A. B. 2000. The economic consequences of rolling back the welfare state, MIT Press, chps.1, 2.

3. Comparing welfare states models I

Required reading

Esping-Andersen, G. Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism, in Reader, 2014.

Arts, W. and Gelissen, J. 2010. Models of the Welfare State. In Castles, F.G. et al. (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State. Oxford University Press, 569-583.

Gornick,J. and T. Smeeding, 2018. Redistributional policies in rich countries: Institutions and impacts in non-elderly households, Annual review of sociology, 44, 441-68. Only section 4.

4. Comparing welfare states models II

Required reading

The Nordic countries, Kautto, M. in OHWS, chp 40

Continental Western Europe, Palier, B. in OHWS, chp 41

The South European Countries, Ferrera, M. in OHWS, chp. 42.

The English Speaking Countries, Castles, F. in OHWS, chp. 43.

Further reading

Alesina, A. Glaeser, E. and B. Sacerdote, 2001. Why Doesn’t the United States Have a European Style Welfare State? Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 2,187-277.

Bartels, L. 2005. Homer Gets a Tax Cut: Inequality and Public Policy in the American Mind, Perspectives on Politics, 3,15-31.

Mulé, R. 2016. The South European Welfare State in the New Millennium. Challenges, constraints and prospects for Europeanization, in World Economy and International Relations, 7, 25-36.

5. Comparing welfare states models III

Required reading

Fenger, M. 2007. Welfare regimes in Central and Eastern Europe: Incorporating post-communist

countries in a welfare regime typology. Contemporary Issues and Ideas in Social Sciences, 3, 2, 1-30.

Deacon, B. and Standing, G. 1993. Social Policy in Central and Eastern Europe. Journal of European Social Policy, 3, 3, pp. 159-161.

Eastern Europe and Russia, Cook, L. in OHWS, chp. 46.

Adascalitei, D. 2017. From Austerity to Austerity: The Political Economy of Public Pension Reforms in Romania and Bulgaria. Social Policy & Administration, 51, 464– 487.

Naczyk, M. and Domonkos, S. 2016. The Financial Crisis and Varieties of Pension Privatization Reversals in Eastern Europe. Governance, 29, 167–184.

Further reading

Deacon, B. 2000. Eastern European welfare states: the impact of the politics of globalization, Journal of European Social Policy, 10, 146-161.

Sotiropoulos D., Neamtu I., Stoyanova M. 2003. The Trajectory of Post-communist Welfare State Development: The Cases of Bulgaria and Romania, Social Policy and Administration, 37.

East Asia, I. Peng and J. Wong, in OHWS, chapter

6. Gender and the welfare state

Required reading

Orloff, A.S. Gender, in OHWS, chp. 17.

Alpern Engel, B. 2004. Women in Russia 1700-2000. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, chapters 12 and 13.

Rhein, W. 1998. The feminization of poverty: unemployment in Russia, Journal of International Affairs, 52, 1, pp.351-366.

Further reading

Sainsbury, D. (ed). 1999. Gender and welfare state regimes, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Gornick, J. C., and J. A. Jacobs. 1998. “Gender, The Welfare State, and Public Employment: A Comparative Study of Seven Industrialized Countries.” American Sociological Review 63, 5, pp. 688-710. (Originally Luxembourg Income Study Working Paper 168, 1997.)

7. Welfare state in Europe

Required reading

Ferrera, M. 2005. The Boundaries of Welfare: European Integration and the New Spatial Politics of Social Protection, Oxford University Press, chaps 4 and 6. (Oxford Online). Kvist,J. and Juho Saari, The Europeanization of Social Protection: Domestic Impacts and National Responses, in Reader 2014.

Scharpf, F. Negative Integration: States and the Loss of Boundary Control, in Reader 2000.

Troshkov, D. 2007, Transposition of EU social policy in the new member states. Journal of European Social Policy, 17, 335–348.

Further reading

Leiber, S. 2007. Transposition of EU social policy in Poland: are there different ‘worlds of compliance’ in East and West? Journal of European Social Policy, 17, 349–360.

Scharpf, F. 2010.The Asymmetry of European Integration, or why the EU cannot be a ‘social market economy’. Socio-Economic Review, 8, 211-250.

Lendvai, N. and Stubbs, P. 2015. Europeanization, Welfare and Variegated Austerity Capitalisms – Hungary and Croatia. Social Policy & Administration, 49, 445–465.

8-10. Political, social and economic challenges to the welfare state

Andrew Gamble, 2016.Can the welfare state survive? Wiley

Electoral politics

Required reading

Manow, P. Palier, B. and H. Schwander (ed.). 2018. Welfare Democracies and Party Politics. Explaining Electoral Dynamics in Times of Changing Welfare Capitalism [https://global.oup.com/academic/product/welfare-democracies-and-party-politics-9780198807971?q=manow%20palier%20schwander&lang=en&cc=fr], Oxford University Press. Introduction.

Taylor-Gooby, P. 2017. Re-Doubling the Crises of the Welfare State: The impact of Brexit on UK welfare politics Journal of Social Policy, Vol. 46, 4, pp. 815-835.

Further reading

Mahler, V. A. 2004. Economic Globalization, Domestic Politics and Income Inequality in the Developed Countries: A Cross-National Study, Comparative Political Studies, vol.37, no.9, pp. 1025-1053. (Originally Luxembourg Income Study Working Paper 273, 2001.)

Doner, R and B.R. Schneider 2016. The Middle-Income Trap: More Politics than Economics, World Politics Vol. 68, no. 4, pp. 608-644.

Migration

Required reading

Castles, S. and Schierup, C-U., Migration, minorities and the welfare state, in Reader, 2014.

Further reading

Diane, S. 2012. Welfare states and immigrant rights: the politics of inclusion and exclusion, Oxford, Oxford University Press (Oxford Online).

Naumann, E., Stoetzer, L. 2018. Immigration and support for redistribution: survey experiments in three European countries, West European Politics, Vol. 41, 1,pp. 80-101.

New Social Risks

Required reading

Bonoli, G. 2007. Time Matters: Postindustrialisation, New Social Risks, and Welfare State Adaptation in Advanced Industrial Democracies’, Comparative Political Studies, 40, 495-520.

Globalization, financial crisis and welfare state sustainability

Required reading

Vis, B., van Kersbergen, K. and Hylands, T. 2011. To What Extent Did the Financial Crisis Intensify the Pressure to Reform the Welfare State? Social Policy and Administration,45, 338-353.

Szikra, D. 2014. Democracy and welfare in hard times: The social policy of the Orbán Government in Hungary between 2010 and 2014. Journal of European Social Policy, 24(5), 486 –500.

Ravallion, M. 2017. Inequality and globalization: A review essay, ECINEQ Working Paper Series 435, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.

Peter Taylor-Gooby, Benjamin Leruth, and Heejung Chung (eds) 2017. After Austerity: Welfare State Transformation in Europe after the Great Recession, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Further reading

Sacchi, S. and J. Roh, 2016. Conditionality, austerity and welfare: Financial crisis and its impact on welfare in Italy and Korea. Journal of European Social Policy, 26, 358-373.

Bacchetta, M. and M. Jansen (eds.) 2011. Making globalization socially sustainable. International Labour Office- World Trade Organization. (available online).

Welfare state and terrorism

Required reading

Krieger. T., Meierrieks, D. 2010. Terrorism in the worlds of welfare capitalism. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 54, 902-939.

Further reading

Burgoon, B. 2006. On welfare and terror: Social welfare policies and political-economic roots of terrorism. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 50, 176-203.

Mulé. R. 2018. The political economy of violence and terrorism. Why less income inequality matters, paper presented at the conference Inequality and Innovation, Bologna University, 21-22 June.

New approaches to the welfare state

Comim F. Fennell, S. and P.B. Anand (eds.) 2018. The capability approach: new frontiers of the capability approach, Cambridge University Press.

Hemerijck, A. (ed.) 2017.The Uses of Social Investment, Oxford University Press.

Readings/Bibliography

Political economy of welfare states

2019-2020

This course examines cross-national evolution and variation in welfare states in industrialized countries and especially in Europe. The course is structured around three questions: How do we compare the political economy of welfare states? Why do countries differ in their welfare states models? To what extent do differences in institutional settings, coalition politics and economic systems shape fundamentally different models of welfare states? The methodology is comparative and the focus is on theoretical models.

Course Procedures and Evaluation

Each student should read the 'required readings' for each class. In some classes ‘further reading’ is intended to provide background introduction to the main readings. Every week students’ group should hand in one question for discussion.

class participation 10% grade

student presentation 25% grade

written paper 65% grade. Deadline for written paper 4 January 2020

Classes will involve lectures, presentations by guest speakers, and inter-active sessions in which students will have an opportunity to participate.

Textbooks

Castles, F., Leibfried, S., Lewis, J., Obinger, H., Pierson, C. (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State, Oxford University Press, 2010 (e-book). Greve, B. (ed.) 2018. Routledge Handbook of the Welfare State, 2nd Edition

Pierson,C. Castles, F. and I.K.Naumann (eds.), 2014. The welfare state reader, Polity Press (and some chapters in 1st edition 2000).

Background reading

David Garland, 2016. The Welfare State: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press

1. Historical foundations of the welfare state

Required reading

Briggs, A. Welfare State in Historical Perspective, in Reader, 2014.

Further reading

Ferrera, M. The Boundaries of Welfare: European Integration and the New Spatial Politics of Social Protection, Oxford University Press, 2005, cap. 1 and 2 (Oxford Online).

Ravallion, M. 2015. The Idea of Antipoverty Policy, in A.B.Atkinson and F.Bourguignon, eds. Handbook of Income Distribution, Vol. 2B, chapter 22.

2. Comparing welfare states: METHODS

Required reading

Sartori, G. 1994. Compare Why and How. Comparing, miscomparing and the comparative method, in Dogan, M. K and Kazancigil, A. (eds.) Comparing nations: concepts, strategies and substance, Oxford, Basil Blackwell.

Atkinson, A. B. 2000. The economic consequences of rolling back the welfare state, MIT Press, chps.1, 2.

3. Comparing welfare states models I

Required reading

Esping-Andersen, G. Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism, in Reader, 2014.

Arts, W. and Gelissen, J. 2010. Models of the Welfare State. In Castles, F.G. et al. (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State. Oxford University Press, 569-583.

Gornick,J. and T. Smeeding, 2018. Redistributional policies in rich countries: Institutions and impacts in non-elderly households, Annual review of sociology, 44, 441-68. Only section 4.

4. Comparing welfare states models II

Required reading

The Nordic countries, Kautto, M. in OHWS, chp 40

Continental Western Europe, Palier, B. in OHWS, chp 41

The South European Countries, Ferrera, M. in OHWS, chp. 42.

The English Speaking Countries, Castles, F. in OHWS, chp. 43.

Further reading

Alesina, A. Glaeser, E. and B. Sacerdote, 2001. Why Doesn’t the United States Have a European Style Welfare State? Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 2,187-277.

Bartels, L. 2005. Homer Gets a Tax Cut: Inequality and Public Policy in the American Mind, Perspectives on Politics, 3,15-31.

Mulé, R. 2016. The South European Welfare State in the New Millennium. Challenges, constraints and prospects for Europeanization, in World Economy and International Relations, 7, 25-36.

5. Comparing welfare states models III

Required reading

Fenger, M. 2007. Welfare regimes in Central and Eastern Europe: Incorporating post-communist

countries in a welfare regime typology. Contemporary Issues and Ideas in Social Sciences, 3, 2, 1-30.

Deacon, B. and Standing, G. 1993. Social Policy in Central and Eastern Europe. Journal of European Social Policy, 3, 3, pp. 159-161.

Eastern Europe and Russia, Cook, L. in OHWS, chp. 46.

Adascalitei, D. 2017. From Austerity to Austerity: The Political Economy of Public Pension Reforms in Romania and Bulgaria. Social Policy & Administration, 51, 464– 487.

Naczyk, M. and Domonkos, S. 2016. The Financial Crisis and Varieties of Pension Privatization Reversals in Eastern Europe. Governance, 29, 167–184.

Further reading

Deacon, B. 2000. Eastern European welfare states: the impact of the politics of globalization, Journal of European Social Policy, 10, 146-161.

Sotiropoulos D., Neamtu I., Stoyanova M. 2003. The Trajectory of Post-communist Welfare State Development: The Cases of Bulgaria and Romania, Social Policy and Administration, 37.

East Asia, I. Peng and J. Wong, in OHWS, chapter

6. Gender and the welfare state

Required reading

Orloff, A.S. Gender, in OHWS, chp. 17.

Alpern Engel, B. 2004. Women in Russia 1700-2000. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, chapters 12 and 13.

Rhein, W. 1998. The feminization of poverty: unemployment in Russia, Journal of International Affairs, 52, 1, pp.351-366.

Further reading

Sainsbury, D. (ed). 1999. Gender and welfare state regimes, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Gornick, J. C., and J. A. Jacobs. 1998. “Gender, The Welfare State, and Public Employment: A Comparative Study of Seven Industrialized Countries.” American Sociological Review 63, 5, pp. 688-710. (Originally Luxembourg Income Study Working Paper 168, 1997.)

7. Welfare state in Europe

Required reading

Ferrera, M. 2005. The Boundaries of Welfare: European Integration and the New Spatial Politics of Social Protection, Oxford University Press, chaps 4 and 6. (Oxford Online). Kvist,J. and Juho Saari, The Europeanization of Social Protection: Domestic Impacts and National Responses, in Reader 2014.

Scharpf, F. Negative Integration: States and the Loss of Boundary Control, in Reader 2000.

Troshkov, D. 2007, Transposition of EU social policy in the new member states. Journal of European Social Policy, 17, 335–348.

Further reading

Leiber, S. 2007. Transposition of EU social policy in Poland: are there different ‘worlds of compliance’ in East and West? Journal of European Social Policy, 17, 349–360.

Scharpf, F. 2010.The Asymmetry of European Integration, or why the EU cannot be a ‘social market economy’. Socio-Economic Review, 8, 211-250.

Lendvai, N. and Stubbs, P. 2015. Europeanization, Welfare and Variegated Austerity Capitalisms – Hungary and Croatia. Social Policy & Administration, 49, 445–465.

8-10. Political, social and economic challenges to the welfare state

Andrew Gamble, 2016.Can the welfare state survive? Wiley

Electoral politics

Required reading

Manow, P. Palier, B. and H. Schwander (ed.). 2018. Welfare Democracies and Party Politics. Explaining Electoral Dynamics in Times of Changing Welfare Capitalism [https://global.oup.com/academic/product/welfare-democracies-and-party-politics-9780198807971?q=manow%20palier%20schwander&lang=en&cc=fr], Oxford University Press. Introduction.

Taylor-Gooby, P. 2017. Re-Doubling the Crises of the Welfare State: The impact of Brexit on UK welfare politics Journal of Social Policy, Vol. 46, 4, pp. 815-835.

Further reading

Mahler, V. A. 2004. Economic Globalization, Domestic Politics and Income Inequality in the Developed Countries: A Cross-National Study, Comparative Political Studies, vol.37, no.9, pp. 1025-1053. (Originally Luxembourg Income Study Working Paper 273, 2001.)

Doner, R and B.R. Schneider 2016. The Middle-Income Trap: More Politics than Economics, World Politics Vol. 68, no. 4, pp. 608-644.

Migration

Required reading

Castles, S. and Schierup, C-U., Migration, minorities and the welfare state, in Reader, 2014.

Further reading

Diane, S. 2012. Welfare states and immigrant rights: the politics of inclusion and exclusion, Oxford, Oxford University Press (Oxford Online).

Naumann, E., Stoetzer, L. 2018. Immigration and support for redistribution: survey experiments in three European countries, West European Politics, Vol. 41, 1,pp. 80-101.

New Social Risks

Required reading

Bonoli, G. 2007. Time Matters: Postindustrialisation, New Social Risks, and Welfare State Adaptation in Advanced Industrial Democracies’, Comparative Political Studies, 40, 495-520.

Globalization, financial crisis and welfare state sustainability

Required reading

Vis, B., van Kersbergen, K. and Hylands, T. 2011. To What Extent Did the Financial Crisis Intensify the Pressure to Reform the Welfare State? Social Policy and Administration,45, 338-353.

Szikra, D. 2014. Democracy and welfare in hard times: The social policy of the Orbán Government in Hungary between 2010 and 2014. Journal of European Social Policy, 24(5), 486 –500.

Ravallion, M. 2017. Inequality and globalization: A review essay, ECINEQ Working Paper Series 435, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.

Peter Taylor-Gooby, Benjamin Leruth, and Heejung Chung (eds) 2017. After Austerity: Welfare State Transformation in Europe after the Great Recession, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Further reading

Sacchi, S. and J. Roh, 2016. Conditionality, austerity and welfare: Financial crisis and its impact on welfare in Italy and Korea. Journal of European Social Policy, 26, 358-373.

Bacchetta, M. and M. Jansen (eds.) 2011. Making globalization socially sustainable. International Labour Office- World Trade Organization. (available online).

Welfare state and terrorism

Required reading

Krieger. T., Meierrieks, D. 2010. Terrorism in the worlds of welfare capitalism. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 54, 902-939.

Further reading

Burgoon, B. 2006. On welfare and terror: Social welfare policies and political-economic roots of terrorism. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 50, 176-203.

Mulé. R. 2018. The political economy of violence and terrorism. Why less income inequality matters, paper presented at the conference Inequality and Innovation, Bologna University, 21-22 June.

New approaches to the welfare state

Comim F. Fennell, S. and P.B. Anand (eds.) 2018. The capability approach: new frontiers of the capability approach, Cambridge University Press.

Hemerijck, A. (ed.) 2017.The Uses of Social Investment, Oxford University Press.

Teaching methods

Classes will involve lectures, presentations by guest speakers, and inter-active sessions in which students will have an opportunity to participate.

Assessment methods

Students attending at least 70% of the classes:

class participation 10% grade

student presentation 25% grade

written paper 65% grade. Deadline for written paper 4 January 2020.

Students not attending classes or attending less than 70% of the total number of classes will be assessed with an oral exam.

 

Teaching tools

Interactive classes, Lectures, Slides, hands-on lab on Luxembourg Income Study Dataset, documentaries

Office hours

See the website of Rosa Mulè