AU kursuskatalog arkiv

243D The Politics and Policies of Welfare State Reform ( efterår 2011 - 10 ECTS )

Rammer for udbud

• Uddannelsessprog: engelsk
• Niveau: Kandidatuddannelsen i Statskundskab
• Semester/kvarter: Autumn 2011
• Timer per uge: First lesson is on Tuesday August 30, 2011 at 12-2 p.m. in building 1455, room 116
• Deltagerbegrænsning: Each module consists of a maximum of about 20 students. The students need to register for the module
• Undervisningssted: Århus
• Hovedområde: Det Samfundsvidenskabelige Fakultet
• Udbud ID: 32754

Formål

The seminar module offers a more extensive and more thorough analysis of a topic from within political science. To this end, the seminar module provides an overview and a critical discussion of the literature and the issues relevant for the topic of the seminar.  

The objectives for this module are:

• to develop further students' knowledge of why, how and to what effect different nations structure the provision of social services and transfers to their citizens;
• to advance a critical analysis and understanding of major current social questions and issues;
• to stimulate critical reflection on the question whether and to what extent existing and emerging social policies are capable of solving current social problems;
• to advance awareness of the political options, dilemma's and risks involved in major welfare state reforms.

Among the competences to be achieved for the student in this module are:

• the ability to analyse and synthesize critically diverging approaches to the analysis of social policy development
• a thorough understanding of fundamental concepts, terms and designs of comparative social policy analysis and welfare state studies
• the ability to apply (established) theories, methods and techniques of social science to problems of social policy development
• the ability to formulate a research question and a fitting research design for a (small-scale) comparative social policy research project
• the ability to write a well-reasoned critical research-based paper in English that - in principal - contributes to the existing knowledge in the field of the comparative analysis of social policy and the welfare state
• the ability to hold in-class presentations that stimulate discussion
• the ability to cooperate and communicate well with fellow students
• a good working knowledge of (the origins, meaning and consequences of) cross-national similarities and differences in social policies
• an ability to reflect critically on major issues resulting from the changing character of social policies and the welfare state
• an understanding of the logic, importance, but also pitfalls of comparative social policy analysis

Indhold

This course explores key questions and issues in social policy and welfare state development. We examine comparatively the history, growth, maturation, retrenchment and reform of a range of social policy areas in advanced industrial democracies as well as their consequences. The comparative analysis of social policies, programmes and institutions helps us understand why, how and to what effect nations deal with important social problems and issues. The course is motivated by the conviction that for a proper understanding of the political opportunities and constraints of contemporary welfare state and social policy reform, we need to appreciate where the welfare state came from, why we have different worlds or regimes of welfare, how these regimes functioned, what the pressures in favour of reform are, why reform is so difficult and politically risky, and why it nevertheless happens.

Mainstream scholarly work on the welfare state is characterized by a wide variety of theoretical and empirical schools and explanatory objectives. The interest of political scientists has mostly been in the welfare state as a dependent variable, especially focusing on the political causes of welfare state development and its cross-national variation. Since the 1990s, most researchers shifted attention to welfare state reform , a concept around which there has existed considerable theoretical and empirical confusion and therefore debate. The problem of political and institutional "stickiness" of welfare regimes was one of the dominant explanatory problems and institutionalist approaches quickly moved to the forefront of the scholarly debate. Institutionalist approaches, however, encountered difficulties in understanding the - sometimes radical - reforms that were occurring in most welfare states. Some of the major puz­zles of con­temporary welfare state research revolve around the questions why reforms can take place in spite of the institu­tional and political mecha­nisms that seem to work against change, and in which direction changes are moving.

The leading idea for this course is that the social policy reform depends crucially on the welfare state's architecture, on its positive and negative social and political feedback mechanisms, on the distribution of (political) power, and on the capacity to design reform packages that are not only economically efficient and socially desirable, but above all also politically feasible. Welfare state reform is exceedingly difficult, yet it happens. Why and under what conditions does it happen? In this course, then, we study the socioeconomic, institutional and political constraints and opportunities of reform and try to explain how such constraints and opportunities emerge and with what consequences. Examples of the key questions that structure the course are: Why did we need the welfare state in the first place? How did we get the (different types of) welfare state? What are the main effects (for instance, in terms of risk coverage, equality, and relief of poverty) of the welfare states' social policies? Why do we need to reform the welfare state? What new welfare state do we need and how do we get it?

Fagspredning

Public Policy

Faglige forudsætninger

Of the nine seminars the student has to pass as part of the MA degree, at least six seminar modules have to be in political science

Underviser

Kees van Kersbergen

Prøveform

The assessment method is oral exam based on an essay .

External examiner/Graded marking.

Undervisnings- og arbejdsform

The seminar module requires active participation of students. At the beginning of the seminar module the lecturer and the students agree on specific "activity requirements" that the students have to fulfill.  

This is a seminar with (inter-)active participation (student presentations, discussion).

Litteratur

Der er fastsat en pensumramme på ca. 1.200 sider.

Studieordning og bedømmelse

Kandidatuddannelsen i statskundskab

• Bunden hj.opg. (7-dages opg.), bedømt efter 7-skala med ekstern censur
• Hj.opg., bedømt efter 7-skala med ekstern censur
• Mundtlig, bedømt efter 7-skala med ekstern censur
• PC-eksamen, bedømt efter 7-skala med ekstern censur
• Skriftlig, bedømt efter 7-skala med ekstern censur
• Synopsis, bedømt efter 7-skala med ekstern censur