Detailed information |
Original study plan |
Master's programme Joint Master's Degree Programme in Comparative Social Policy and Welfare 2020W |
Objectives |
The course conveys an understanding of the main institutional features and underlying political ideas that comparative welfare state scholars associate with the Liberal Welfare Regime, as it exists in the Anglo-Saxon countries. It presents institutional characteristics, historical lineages, current trends, and ongoing debates that set welfare production in this cluster of countries apart from that in other countries. The class seeks to encourage critical reflection of not only the norms and institutions of welfare production in Liberal Welfare States, but also of the academic and popular perceptions of those norms and institutions.
|
Subject |
The "social politics" of Liberalism and Residualism will first be explored on a theoretical level, by reading the classic statements about the classification by Esping-Andersen and Titmus. Then the course examines a set of country cases, in which core features of the Liberal Welfare State can be observed. Here some (albeit not exclusive) focus of attention is on the system of welfare production in the United States, as this country is widely perceived as the paradigmatic case of the Liberal welfare regime. Examining historical lineages of Liberal welfare policy serves as a backdrop for analyses of current challenges and trends in the social protection systems of the countries under review. The class then turns to (Continental) European perceptions and evaluations of the "Liberal Model". It interrogates different European stances vis-a-vis the promises and perils of Liberal welfare production, ranging from positions of admiration for the Liberal countries' flexibility and capacity to reinvent themselves, via dispassionate diagnoses of "Liberalisation" as one of the master trends of our times, to positions that strongly reject Liberal norms and institutions in the social policy field and view the experience of the Anglo Saxon countries as a cautionary tale of the social dislocations under conditions of unrestrained capitalism.
|
Criteria for evaluation |
Combination of a set of smaller written assignments and active participation during the Intensive Programme and the distance learning phase.
|
Methods |
Introductory classroom sessions during the IP at the beginning of the semester, afterwards discussion forums and tutoring supported by Moodle and independent study of the theoretical literature.
|
Language |
English |
Study material |
Readings are provided by the instructor.
|
Changing subject? |
No |
Earlier variants |
They also cover the requirements of the curriculum (from - to) 929NSWPLIBK14: KS The Liberal Welfare State (2014W-2020S)
|