POL 622: Research Seminar on Comparative Social Policy
Fall, 2014
M 6:30-9:20, BRNG B206
Professor’s contact information:
Professor Pat Boling Office: BRNG 2256 Phone: 494-3711 boling@purdue.edu
Office Hours: Tues 8:30-10:00, Th 3:00-4:15, and F 1:30-2:30 (I teach MWF 9:30 and 12:30)
*Save email for simple queries, and come to my office hours to talk about ideas and
course substance!
Course Description:
We tend to think of social policy in terms of the social safety nets enacted by welfare
states. Here are some other possibilities: Ann Shola Orloff (1993) defines social welfare
policies as "interventions by the state in civil society to alter social and market forces" (Orloff,
1993). Such interventions can be seen as benign, or even emancipatory. T. H. Marshall (1964)
saw the development of social policies as the development of social rights of citizenship. States
first developed legal rights of citizenship, then political ones, and finally social ones, gradually
extending equality of citizenship to broader spheres. Adolino and Blake (2001) define social
policies as policies aimed at improving citizens’ lives: “We use the term social policy because it
captures the many ways in which government tries to protect and directly improve people’s
standard of living” (p. 243). But social policies and welfare states can also constrain and
normalize citizens, and they vary considerably with respect to how redistributive and egalitarian
they are.
Social policy is not a tidy, clearly defined set of issues or programs. We’ll talk about
what exactly we think “social policy” includes at our first class meeting; for the sake of this
description, I take an encompassing view. Social policies are ones related to insuring that people
have certain minimum benefits if they become ill, handicapped, too old to work, or lose a spouse.
They also relate to education, supporting working parents, assistance to the poor, public health
regulations of things we consume (food, alcohol, drugs, tobacco), provision of health care, access
to recognized relationships (marriage, divorce), discrimination on the basis of sex, race, sexual
orientation, bigotry, hate crimes, and general guarantees of equal treatment under the law.
What are the political dynamics that drive or impede government recognition of and
responses to social problems? How does government action on social problems work to define
or transform a policy regime or a social and political order? (How) can we learn from the study
of successes and failures in addressing social problems? In undertaking to answer these and
other questions, social policy scholars confront core issues of democratic theory (How are social
groups represented in government processes? How should they be?), policy theory (What
political factors determine agenda setting, or improve government responsiveness and
effectiveness?) and comparative politics (Why are some governments more responsive to a given
problem than others? In comparison to other developed countries, is the American welfare state
underdeveloped? How do social movements and administrative processes affect policy
processes?)
This course will introduce students to comparative social policy, looking mostly at crossnational comparisons. It offers students an opportunity to work on research projects exploring an
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area of social policy of interest to them. The main project you will undertake in this class is to
write a research paper that could form the basis of a publishable paper or a dissertation
prospectus.
 Note that the items in this syllabus are subject to change, as events get in the way of the
best laid plans. I will announce/discuss changes in readings and the like in class, and may
also occasionally send you an email if there’s a reading change. Please be sure you read
any course-related messages I send you.
Required texts: The 2 books below have been ordered at University and Follett’s. In addition, a
number of book chapters and articles are assigned for the course. All except a couple are available
on Blackboard, and the others are clearly labeled below in the weekly reading assignments (they’re
available in one case through a Purdue ebook, in the other through JSTOR).
Iversen, Torben and Frances Rosenbluth (2010). Women, Work & Politics: The Political Economy
of Gender Inequality. Yale UP.
Reid, T. R. (2010). The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer
Health Care. Penguin Press.
Course Requirements:
1) Class Participation. This class will be taught as a seminar: you should come to each class
having already done the reading for that session. This will allow you to discuss and ask
questions about the readings for that day as part of our class session. Good discussions are a
collective good: they rely on the hard work and commitment of everyone enrolled to work well.
Therefore, if don’t have the time this semester to do the readings in advance for the course,
please don’t take this class.
Students will sign up to lead discussions on the readings. Students will do this in groups of 2 or
3 per class. Discussion leaders are responsible for preparing a 1 page, 2-sided “report” on the
week’s readings. First write a short summary of the key points in each reading. Second and
much more important, devise 6 or so possible discussion questions or lines of questioning for the
class session.
 Good questions will be more insightful than simply asking about content (we’ll assume
that everyone knows what the articles or books have said); they should elicit discussion
of key and contested ideas and arguments that come up in the readings. Where
appropriate, they should help us make connections and develop dialogues among
different readings.
The summary and discussion questions are due to me by 11:00 pm Sunday before our Monday
evening class. Please make copies of these handouts to hand out in class. Students will begin
class by reviewing their summaries, but this should only take about 5 minutes of class time.
People will have a chance to ask questions about anything that seems unclear or confusing, and
we’ll talk a bit about the difficulties in the readings. Then the student leaders will introduce their
questions for discussion, and use them to guide discussion.
Both preparing your summary and questions and leading discussion in class should be a
collective effort. I will not accept individual submissions from individual group members: you
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should meet at least once before class to discuss the readings as a whole and work on the
summaries and discussion questions, rather than simply dividing them up and doing your
summaries and questions independently.
Your participation grade will be based on general participation in class discussions, the
summaries and questions prepared in advance for one class discussion each, and possibly a
combination of short reaction papers, required comments at start of class, or other forms of
participation (25% of grade).
2) Literature Review. The lit review is a paper of 3000-5000 words that presents and analyzes
work that has been done on the social policy topic that you are working on for your research
paper. It is intended to get you to review a good bit of the pertinent research that’s been done on
your topic (or related ones), so that you can speak to the scholarly conversation that’s going on
which you mean to advance by writing your paper. You’ll read a solid chunk of articles, books
and book chapters related to your topics, and then write a paper that discusses them, noting what
is important about their contributions and what is not fully worked out or lacking about them.
This is due by 11:00 pm on October 15 (the Wednesday after October break); please send it (and
subsequent assignments) to me as an attached Word file (15% of final grade).
3) Comments on peer drafts. Students will be assigned a “peer” and will evaluate both their
peer’s lit review and rough draft. These comments will be given to both the author and the
instructor, and will be evaluated by the instructor for depth, clarity, and insight. (10% of grade).
4) Research Paper, in pieces. My goal is for each of you to conceive of a research project, do
the research, and write a paper about it over the course of the semester. You will turn in topics
for this paper on September 22 (5%), a lit review on October 15 (15%), a rough draft on
November 3 (15%), and a final draft by 11:00 pm on December 15 (worth 30%). The final draft
should show substantial development and refinement beyond the first draft; do your best to
grapple with the comments from me and your peer evaluator on the rough draft.

Late papers. Papers turned in late without a valid extension will be down-graded 1
partial letter grade for each day – e.g. an A- paper turned in 1 day late will become a B+.
Extensions must be requested prior to the paper due date and be supported by a
valid reason. No extensions will be granted the day the paper is due except for
documented medical or personal emergencies.

Citation and Plagiarism. The Basic Rule: Don’t use the ideas of others without
attribution – that is plagiarism, and it will result in a failing grade on the assignment and
possibly more serious consequences including failing the course and referral to the Dean
of Students for further disciplinary action. Plagiarism includes using the exact words (or
virtually the same) of another source without quotation marks, copying or using the
substance of another person’s argument in part or in whole without attribution, or more
generally turning in work that is not substantially your own. If you have any doubts
about when to cite someone’s work or not, don’t guess – ask me before you turn in the
paper. If you are citing things found on the internet, you must include both the
name/sponsor of the web site, the URL, and the date you accessed the site.
Class Assignments and grading
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Class participation
Paper topics, due in class Sept 22
Literature review, due by 11 pm Oct 15
Rough draft of paper, due in class on Nov 3
Final paper, due by 11 pm Dec 15
Comments on writing buddy’s lit review & rough draft
Grading:
Grade Points
4.0
3.7
3.3
3.0
2.7
2.3
2.0
1.7
1.3
1.0
0.7
0.0
Letter Grade
25%
5
15
15
30
10
Percentage
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
CD+
D
DF
930+
900-929
870-899
830-869
800-829
770-799
730-769
700-729
670-699
630-669
600-629
<600
Week by Week topics and readings (there are 2 assigned books; everything else is posted on
BB unless otherwise noted). Some subtracting and adding of readings is possible, so please be
sure that you are attentive to announcements of this in class or by email.
25-Aug
Introductions to one another, social policy, and the seminar
1-Sep
Labor Day: no class
8-Sep
introduction
to welfare
states and
comparative
social policy
15-Sep
Interests,
institutions
and values
1. TH Marshall “Citizenship and Social Class,” in Class, Citizenship and Social
Development: Essays by T.H. Marshall, N.Y., Anchor Books, 1964, pp 77-134. 2. Orloff,
Ann Shola, “Gender and the Social Rights of Citizenship: The Comparative Analysis of
Gender Relations and Welfare States,” American Sociological Review 58: 303-28 (1993,
available through JSTOR). 3. Esping-Andersen, Gøsta, The three worlds of welfare
capitalism, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1990 (chapters 1-3, pp. 9-77) 2.
1. Stephens, J.D. and T. Iverson. 2008. “Partisan politics, the welfare state, and three worlds
of human capital formation” Comparative Political Studies 41 (4/5): 600-37. 2. Boling,
Patricia (forthcoming). The Politics of Work-Family Policies: Japan, France, Germany and
the United States. Cambridge UP, 2015: chapter one, "Why Work-Family Policies Matter,
and How Best to Study Them"
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22-Sep
Research
design
1. George, Alexander L., and Andrew Bennett. Case studies and theory development in the
social sciences. MIT Press, 2005. (chapter one: Case studies and theory development)
2. Gerring, John. "What is a case study and what is it good for?" American political science
review 98.02 (2004): 341-354. (Paper topics due tonight)
29-Sep
Agenda
setting
1. Henninger, Annette, Christine Wimbauer, and Rosine Dombrowski, “Demography as a
Push toward Gender Equality? Current Reforms of German Family Policy,” Social Politics,
fall 2008, 287-314 2. Marshall, Thomas R. (2014). Smoking, Public Policy, and Public
Opinion: What’s the Connection? Paper presented at the Western Political Science
Association meetings, Seattle, April 2014. 3. Weldon, Laurel (2002). Protest, Policy and the
Problem of Violence Against Women, ch. 3 (Social Movements and Policies to Address
VAW).
6-Oct
Historical
institutionalism
1. Steinmo, Sven. "Political institutions and tax policy in the United States, Sweden, and
Britain." World Politics 41.04 (1989): 500-535. 2. Thelen, Kathleen. "West European labor
in transition: Sweden and Germany compared." World Politics 46.01 (1993): 23-49. 3.
Immergut, Ellen M. "The rules of the game: The logic of health policy-making in France,
Switzerland, and Sweden." Structuring politics: Historical institutionalism in comparative
analysi, Sven Steinmo, Kathleen Thelen, and Frank Longstreth, eds. (1992): 57-89. 4.
Morgan, K. J., & Prasad, M. (2009). "The Origins of Tax Systems: A French‐American
Comparison." American Journal of Sociology, 114(5), 1350-1394 (optional).
13-Oct
October break: no class. NB: Lit review is due October 15 at 5:00 pm
20-Oct
Historical
institutionalism mark 2
27-Oct
class
cancelled:
individual
meetings
3-Nov
Contrasting
approaches
1. Pierson, Paul (2004). Politics in Time: History, institutions, and social analysis.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP. Chapter 1: “Positive Feedback and Path Dependence.” 2.
Streeck and Thelen, “Institutional Change in Advanced Political Economies,” (intro) and
chapter by Hacker, in Beyond Continuity: explorations in the dynamics of advanced
political economies, Oxford UP, 2005 (e Book via Purdue libraries) 3. Martin, Isaac
William, Ajay K. Mehrotra, and Monica Prasad, eds. The new fiscal sociology: Taxation in
comparative and historical perspective. Cambridge University Press, 2009. (read one of
these two: chapter 5, Making Taxes the Life of the Party, Christopher Howard; chapter 13:
Where’s the sex in fiscal sociology? Taxation and Gender in Comparative Perspective,
Edward McCaffery)
1. Janet C. Gornick and Marcia K. Meyers (2009). “Creating Gender Egalitarian Societies:
An Agenda for Reform.” Politics & Society 36(3):313 2. Boling, The Politics of WorkFamily Policies, chapters 6-8 Rough drafts due tonight
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10-Nov
Gendering
political
economy
1. Iversen and Rosenbluth, Women, Work & Politics. 2. Estevez-Abe, Margarita. 2007.
“Gendering the Varieties of Capitalism: Gender Bias in Skills and Social Policies.” Chapter
3 of Frances Rosenbluth, ed., The Political Economy of Japan’s Low Fertility. Stanford,
CA: Stanford University Press.
17-Nov
Culture,
values, and
policy
differences
1. TR Reid, The Healing of America; 2. Rozin, Paul, Abigail K. Remick, and Claude
Fischler. "Broad themes of difference between French and Americans in attitudes to food
and other life domains: personal versus communal values, quantity versus quality, and
comforts versus joys." Frontiers in psychology 2 (2011).
24-Nov
Food and
institutions
1. Marion Nestle (2007). Food Politics. University of California Press. Chapters 2 &
Conclusion. 2. Messer, E., & Cohen, M. J. (2007). “Conflict, food insecurity and
globalization.” Food, Culture and Society: An International Journal of Multidisciplinary
Research, 10(2), 297-315.
1-Dec
student
presentations
you must attend, listen and ask questions and offer suggestions to your classmates
8-Dec
student
presentations
you must attend, listen and ask questions and offer suggestions to your classmates
Final drafts of your papers are due December 15 at 11:00 pm
Recommended readings will be posted to Blackboard a bit later this semester; you’re always
welcome to come talk with me about topics that you’re interested in. I like providing research
help.
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