PLSI 721.01 Comparative Welfare States
Instructor: Margit Mayer
Fall 2005, Tuesday 6-10
Office: HSS 133
mayer@zedat.fu-berlin.de
Course description:
This class deals with two important aspects of the politics of welfare states: crossnational comparisons and the contemporary restructuring of welfare regimes. Thus, we
look both, at the “exceptional” nature of American social policy and at recent welfare
reforms in the US and Europe. Crucial features of these reforms (retrenchment, rescaling,
privatization and familialization, and the impact of social policy on the restructuring of
labor markets) will be compared and contrasted, as well as the new paradigms informing
them. These comparisons raise the question of policy transfer and convergence between
the US model and the "European model".
The seminar encourages students to develop their own research agenda within the
framework of the topic as sketched. Thus, parallel to your active participation in the class
discussions, you will work on an expose of your research question during the first half of
the course. Based on the feedback you will receive, you then develop this proposal into
your research paper, which will also be presented in a symposium-style final session.
Course Requirements:
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Preparation of weekly readings marked with *
Discussion Lead of one Session
Exposé/Problematique (3-4 pages) based on any one of the class sessions, with a
comparative focus, due October 11
Short Paper (8-10 pages), elaborating on the expose with literature from other
sessions, due November 29
Critical Reflection on your work and Presentation of its findings (1 page handout)
Active participation
Office Hours are Tuesdays from 4-6 pm. Please sign up for a time slot on my office
door.
Readings have all been placed on e-reserve/Blackboard.
If you like, we can have "peer reviews" both for the expose and the final paper, which
means that drafts of each have to be handed in and swapped 2 weeks before the due date,
to give each other one week for commenting and constructive criticism, and one week for
rewriting.
Session 1: August 30
Introduction to the Course
Part I: Comparing Welfare Regimes - Theoretical and methodological debates
Session 2 (Sept 6): Typologizing socio-political regimes
* Gosta Esping-Anderson (1990) The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Princeton,
NJ: Princeton UP, ch. 1-3.
T.H. Marshall, “Citizenship and Social Class,” in Class, Citizenship, and Social
Development. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1964.
Richard Titmuss, “The Social Division of Welfare,” Essays on the Welfare State.
London: Allen and Unwin, 1958, ch. 1
Walter Korpi (1980) The Working Class in Welfare Capitalism. London: Routledge, ch.
1?.
Session 3 (Sept 13): Regime Debates, differentiating between different
theoretical approaches
John Myles, Jill Quadagno, 2002. Political Theories of the Welfare State. Social Service
Review, march 2002, 34-57.
Christopher Pierson, Contemporary Challenges to Welfare State Development, Political
Studies, vol XLVI no. 4, September 1998, 777-794.
Ian Gough, 1979. The Political Economy of the Welfare State. London: McMillan. Intro
and ch.(1-)3, pp.(1-)39-54.
Göran Therborn, 1986. Karl Marx Returning. The Welfare State, Corporatist and Statist
Theories. International Political Science Review 7/2, April 1986, 131-164.
Theda Skocpol, 1985. Bringing the State back in: Strategies of Analysis in Current
Research, in: Peter B. Evans, Dietrich Rüschemeyer, Theda Skocpol, eds., Bringing the
State Back In. Cambridge UP, 3-37.
Session 4 (Sept 20): Emergence, characteristics, and development of the
American welfare state
* John Myles (1996) “When Markets fail: Social Welfare in Canada and the United
States,” In: Esping-Anderson (ed.) Welfare States in Transition: National Adaptations in
Global Economies. London: Sage.
* Margaret Weir, Ann Shola Orloff, Theda Skocpol, (1988) “Understanding American
Social Politics,” in: Weir et al. (eds.) The Politics of Social Policy in the U.S., Princeton
UP.
Charles Noble, 1997. Welfare as we knew it. A Political History of the American Welfare
State. Oxford UP 1997, ch 1, 4, 5.
Jill Quadagno, 1994. The Color of Welfare. Oxford UP, Intro and chapter 1.
Jacob S. Hacker, Paul Pierson, 2002. Business Power and Social Policy: Employers and
the Formation of the American Welfare State. Politics & Society, 30/2 (June), 277-325.
Frances Piven, Richard Cloward, 1971. Regulating the Poor: Functions of Public
Welfare. Chapter 6
Theda Skocpol, 1992. Protecting Soldiers and Mothers. Cambridge: Harvard UP,
Introduction, 1-62.
Session 5 (Sept 27): Emergence, characteristics, and development of
European welfare states
Alberto Alessina and Edward Glaeser, Fighting Poverty in the US and Europe: A World
of Difference. Oxford University Press, 2004, Intro and ch 4
OR Alberto Alesina, Edward Glaeser, and Bruce Sacerdote, “Why Doesn’t the United
States Have a European-Style Welfare State?” Brookings Papers on Economic Activity 2
(2001): 1-69.
Josef Schmid, ed., 2002. The German Welfare State: Dimensions, Innovations,
Comparisons. WIP Working Paper, especially the Introduction.
Wolfgang Voges, Herbert Jacobs, Heather Trickey, 200. Uneven development - local
authorities and workfare in Germany, in: Ivar Lodelmel, Heather Trickey, eds., "An Offer
Your Can't Refuse." Workfare in International Perspective. Bristol: Policy Press.
pp. 71-87.
Andreas Aust, 2003. Policy Map Germany: Labour Market Policy, Social Assistance and
Women's Employment, Long Term Care. WRAMOC Working Paper.
Session 6 (Oct 4): Feminist perspectives on welfare regimes
* Williams, Fiona (1995) Race/Ethnicity, Gender, and Class in Welfare States: A
Framework for Comparative Analysis. Social Politics. Vol. 2. No. 2. Summer, pp.127159.
*Jane Jenson (1986)“Gender and Reproduction: or Babies and the State” Studies in
Political Economy 20, pp. 9-45.
Gosta Esping-Anderson (1998) response to the feminist critique: in Social Foundations of
Post-Industrial Economies. Ch 4-5.
Julia O'Connor et al., 1999. States, Markets, Families. Cambridge UP, ch. 1.
Dorothy Roberts, 1999. Welfare's Ban on Poor Motherhood, in: Gwendolyn Mink, eds.
Whose Welfare? Ithaca: Cornell UP, 152-170.
Part II: Neoliberalism, the State, and Social Policy
Session 7 (Oct 11): Neoliberalism, economic restructuring and the
‘deconstruction’ of welfare (Note: Expose due!)
Bob Jessop, 2001. "Changes in Welfare Regimes and the search for flexibility and
employability. Overbeek.
Jamie Peck (2001) Workfare States. New York: Guilford Press, ch. 3, pp.83-126.
John Myles and Paul Pierson (1997) “Friedmans’s Revenge: The Reform of Liberal
Welfare States in Canada and the United States.” Politics and Society 25(4).
Bob Jessop (1993) “Towards a Schumpeterian Workfare State” Studies in Political
Economy 40.
Wolfgang Voges, Herbert Jacobs, Heather Trickey, 2000. Uneven development - local
authorities and workfare in Germany, in: Ivar Lodelmel, Heather Trickey, eds., "An Offer
Your Can't Refuse." Workfare in International Perspective. Bristol: Policy Press, pp. 8799.
Britta Grell, Jens Sambale, Volker Eick, 2002. "Workfare as regulation of labor markets
and life styles. A German/US comparison," Prokla 32/4, 557-577 (http://workfarecity.lai.fu-berlin.de/index.php?id=37#117)
Joel Handler, “Social Citizenship and Workfare in the US and Western Europe: From
Status to Contract.” Journal of European Social Policy 13, 3 (2003): 229-43.
Session 8 (Oct 18): Rescaling welfare - A new division of labor between
national and local scales and spaces
* Jamie Peck (1998) “Postwelfare Massachusetts,” Economic Geography, vol 74 no 4,
pp. 62-82.
Nik Theodore, Jamie Peck, "Welfare-to-Work: National Problems, Local Solutions?" ,
Critical Social Policy 61, 1999, vol 19 no 4, 485-510.
Bob Jessop, 1999. Changing Governance of Welfare: Recent Trends in its Primary
Functions, Scale, and Modes of Coordination, Social Policy and Administration 33/4,
December, 348-359.
Rianne Mahon (2003), “Yet another R? The Redesign and Rescaling of Welfare
Regimes.” School of Public Policy and Administration Working Paper No.55. Carlton
University.
Joel F. Handler, Chapter 5: The Return to the States, in: The Poverty of Welfare Reform.
New Haven: Yale UP 1995
Geoffrey DeVerteuil, Woobae Lee, Jennifer Wolch, 2002. New spaces for the local
welfare state? The case of General Relief in Los Angeles County. Social and Cultural
Geography 3/3.
Session 9 (Oct 25): Social policy after fordism: From Welfare to Workfare
* Peck, Jamie (2001) Workfare States. Guilford Press, ch 5 pp.168-210 and part of ch 6,
pp. 236-260.
Peck, Jamie (1998) “Help and Hassle. Means, motive and method in local workfare
strategies," conference paper.
Isabel Sawhill, 1999. From Welfare to Work. Toward a New Anti-Poverty Agenda.
Brookings Review, Fall 1999.
Nikolas Theodore, Jamie Peck, 2000. Searching for Best Practice in Welfare-to-Work:
the means, the method and the message. Policy and Politics, 29/1, 81-98 (#)
Jamie Peck, Nikolas Theodore, 2001. Exporting workfare/importing welfare-to-work:
exploring the politics of Third Way Policy Transfer. Political Geography vol 20, 427460.
Shragge, E. (1997) (ed.) Workfare: Ideology for a New Under-Class. Toronto: Garamond
Press.
Session 10 (Nov 1): Restructuring Labour Markets /Shifting employment
norms
Fritz Scharpf , “Social Justice, Social Democracy and European Integration,” paper
delivered at CES, Harvard University, conference on Social Democracy, March 2005,
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~ces-lib/sjfed/docs/Scharpf_FW.pdf
Heather Boushey, "Staying Employed after Welfare," Economic Policy Institute Briefing
Paper.
Peter G. Gosselin, "If America is richer, why are its families so much less secure?" LAT,
Oct 10, 2004.
Dirk Jacobi and Katrin Mohr, 2005. Mobilising Personal Resources for a “Work First”Strategy. Recent Reforms of Active Labour Market Policy in Germany.
Katrin Mohr, 2005. Changes in Unemployment Policy in Britain and Germany.
Conference Paper.
Matthias Schulze-Böing, 2003. Local Employment Policy: Challenge for Local
Government Strategy and Practice. www.difu.de/publikationen/dfk/welcome.shtml
Session 11 (Nov 8): State restructuring and privatization: the new welfare
mix
* John Shields and Bryan Evans, 1998, Shrinking the State: Globalization and Public
Administration “Reform.” Halifax: Fernwood, ch 5, pp.88-115.
Adalbert Evers, Social Service Provision by Third Sector Organizations within a mixed
system of welfare provision.
Mathematica, 2002. Privatization of Welfare Services: A Review of the Literature.
Prepared for U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services.
Bill Berkowitz, 2001. Prospecting among the Poor: Welfare Privatization. Oakland,
Applied Research Center.
Michael B. Katz, 2001. “The Independent Sector, the Market, and the State,” chapter 7
in: Katz, The Price of Citizenship. Redefining the American Welfare State. New York:
Metropolitan Books, 171-194.
Ingo Bode, Adalbert Evers, Andreas Schulz, 2004. Work Integration Social Enterprises in
Germany. WP 02/04.
(Ralph Kramer, 1993. Privatization in Four European Countries: Comparative Studies in
Government-Third Sector Relationships. New York: M.E. Sharpe.)
Session 12 (Nov 15): Privatization II: Involving the third sector in the fight
against social exclusion
Hilary Silver and S.M. Miller, 2003 “Social Exclusion: The European Approach to
Social Disadvantage.” Indicators 2, 2 (Spring 2003 ): 5-21.
David Sommerfeld, Michael Reisch, Straining the New Social Safety Net. Welfare
Reform and Nonprofit Human Service Organizations. Paper for Aspen.
Nicole P. Marwell, 2004. Privatizing the Welfare State: Nonprofit Community-Based
Organizations as Political Actors. ASR, vol. 69/April, 265-291. (#)
Susan D. Phillips, 2004. The Myths of Horizontal Governance. Is the Third Sector Really
a Partner? Conference Paper.
Ash Amin, Angus Cameron, Ray Hudson, 1999. Welfare as Work? The Potential of the
UK Social Economy.
Kirsten A. Gronbjerg, 2001. The US Nonprofit Human Service Sector: A Creeping
Revolution, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 30/2, June, 276-297.
Ann Withorn, 2002. "Let's Pretend": Continuing Worries about the Role of CommunityBased Agencies in the Post-Welfare Reform Era. Report to the Kellogg Foundation.
Robert W. Lake, Kathe Newman, 2003. Differential Citizenship in the Shadow State.
Geojournal 2003, 1-12.
Yeheskel Hasenfeld and Lisa Evans, 2000. The Role of Non-profit Agencies in the
Provision of Welfare-To -Work Services. 29th Annual Conference of the Association for
Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action.
Volker Eick, Margit Mayer, Jens Sambale, eds., 2003. “From Welfare to Work”,
Nonprofits and the Workfare State in Berlin and Los Angeles. WP 1, Dept of Politics,
JFKI (www)
Peter Dobkin Hall, 2003. A Historical Overview of Philanthropy, Voluntary
Associations, and Nonprofit Organizations in the US, 1600-2000. Unpublished Ms.,
Harvard University.
Session 13 (Nov 22): Social movements and communities resisting the
neoliberal restructuring of the welfare state
Greg Martin, 2001. Social Movements, Welfare, and Social Policy: A critical Analysis,
Critical Social Policy, 21/3, 361-383.
Ellen Reese, Vincent Giedraitis, and Eric Vega, 2003. Public Policy, Threats, and Popular
Mobilization: Campaigns Against Welfare Privatization, ASA Meeting.
Ellen Reese, 2002. “Resisting the Workfare State: Mobilizing General Relief Recipients
in Los Angeles,” Race, Gender and Class 9/1: 72-95.
Janet Conway (2004) Identity, Place, Knowledge: Social movements contesting
globalization. Halifax: Fernwood, ch.7, or
Janet Conway, Knowledge, Power, Organization: Social Justice Coalitions at a
Crossroads. http://www.grisnet.it/filb/Conwayess.htm
Benjamin Shepard and Ronald Hayduk (eds), 2002. From ACT UP to the WTO: Urban
Protest and Community Building in the Era of Globalization. London and New York:
Verso.
Session 14 (Nov 29): Comparing Welfare Models
Georg Vobruba, 2003. Welfare States within the Globalization Dilemma: the US and the
European Social Model in Comparison. in: Danny Pieters, ed., European Social Security
and Global Politics. Kluwer Law Internationa, 189-197 or
Georg Vobruba, Coping with Drastic Social Change: Europe and the US in Comparison,
in: Wolfgang Beck, Laurent J.G. van der Maesen, Fleure Thomese, Alan Walker, eds.,
Social Quality: A Vision for Europe. The Hague/London: Kluwer Law International,
251-270.
(Alberto Alesina, Edward L. Glaeser, Fighting Poverty in the US and Europe. Oxford UP
2004, ch. 6: Race and Redistribution.)
Session 15 (Dec 6): Roundtable Discussion of student research
Web Sources
Electronic Policy Network (EPN), Welfare and Families: <http://www.epn.org>
Assessing the New Federalism - an Urban Institute Project <newfederalism.urban.org
Institute for Research on Poverty - U of Wisconsin/Madison <www.ssc.wisc.edu/irp>
IWPR's Welfare Monitoring project: <http://www.iwpr.org/WRNN9.HTM>
(The Institute for Women's Policy Research
with listserv@american.edu (subscribe WELFAREM-L full name)
Institute for the Study of Civic Values <http://libertynet.org/~edcivic/welfref.html>
tracks welfare reform implementation and monitores national discussion of the issue
International Council on Social Welfare
<http://www.icsw.org/socdev>
offers follow-up information on World Summit for Social Development and links to various organizations
interested in welfare policy
Welfare Information Network (WIN) <http://www.welfareinfo.org>
clearinghouse for information, policy analysis, technical assistance on welfare reform, many good links
www.handsnet.com
Coalition of public interest Organisations, incl. Welfare Watch Rubrik
Welfare to Work Initiative of the Local Investment Commission
<http://www.kclinc.org/initiatives/welfare/overview.html>
a citizens' advisory group that makes available in-depth look at Kansas City's welfare to work program
Welfare to Work Partnership <http://www.welfaretowork.org>
a nationwide effort assisting private sector businesses with hiring people on public assistance. Includes
extensive list of "working examples" of some of the welfare-to-work programs operated by companies
Welfare Reform Resource Project <http://www.welfarereform.org>
a public policy initiative of Regent University offering current articles on welfare reform
Relevant Organizations
American Public Welfare Association <www.apwa.org
public employees in Welfare sector
Council of State Governments <www.csg.org>
Information on individual state Welfare Programs
National Governors Organization <www.nga.org>
ditto
Committee of Economic Development <www.ded.org>
U.S. Chamber of Commerce <www.uschamber.org>
The Business Roundtable <www.brtable.org>
Joint Center for Poverty Research (Northwestern U/ U Chicago): www.jcpr.org/policy_subscription.html
Government publications
U.S. Dept. of Labor, Fact Sheet: <www.doleta.gov/resources/factshet.html
TANF Provision in Welfare Reform <www.apwa.org/reform/tanf.html>