Social Rights & Welfare Regimes

Schools of Public Engagement: International Affairs

Non-Liberal Arts

Undergraduate Course

Graduate Course

Degree Students

Social Rights & Welfare Regime

Spring 2020

Taught By: Scott Martin

Section: A

CRN: 3391

Credits: 3

This course will explore the comparative and global political economy of nationally contained practices, institutions, and networks of social and labor protection (and lack or weakness thereof), known as “welfare regimes.” Analysts and practitioners in the global South have sought to make sense of what such originally Northern concepts like the “welfare state” and “welfare regimes” mean, and have suggested reorientations of these dominant paradigms around different policy and analytical constructs. We will explore how policies are shaped, and what factors condition efforts at reform, expansion, or retrenchment of social benefits and services. Why has there been a heightened focus on poverty and inequality in recent times, and in spite of growing global flows of goods, services, capital and people why have recent trends in inequality diverged considerably across countries and world regions? How are different national “systems” of social protection (with all their attendant strengths and weaknesses) built and remade over time? What is the role of debates about universalism vs. targeting, about conditionality and means-testing, about international diffusion of policy reforms versus local experimentation, and about notions of risk and vulnerability, needs, and rights as alternative or complementary principles for constructing mechanisms of social provisioning relevant to various development contexts? What roles do interests, ideas, international pressures and actors, political coalition-building, and democratic politics play in shaping social policy? What are the underlying intellectual and policy debates about the factors shaping patterns of poverty and inequality, and how do such debates shape struggles over policy? Particular attention will be paid to struggles and policies regarding preventive health care; anti-poverty schemes such as cash transfers and public works; measures impacting labor markets and relations, employment and the informal sector; national and regional trends in income and wealth inequality, and reform and expansion of primary and secondary education. The course will be cross-regionally comparative, considering experiences from Latin America, India, Southeast and East Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa as well as lessons and parallels from Northern experiences (Western Europe and the United States in particular), both historical and contemporary. We will make broad interdisciplinary use of literature from political science, economics, sociology, anthropology, and the policy sciences.

NOTE: This course was formerly titled "Social Policy & Inclusive Development".
This course is part of the Development concentration in the Julien J. Studley Graduate Programs in International Affairs.

College: Schools of Public Engagement (NS)

Department: International Affairs (NINT)

Campus: New York City (GV)

Course Format: Seminar (R)

Max Enrollment: 15

Enrollment Status: Open*


Meeting Info:

Days: Monday

Times: 6:00pm - 7:50pm

Building: TBD

Room: TBD

Date Range: 1/27/2020 - 5/11/2020