SOC 792D: COMPARATIVE WELFARE STATES SPRING, 2005 Joya Misra Email: [email protected] Office: Machmer W33e, 545-5969 Office Hours: TuTh 11-12 and by appointment Class Meetings: Monday 4-6:30 pm Classroom: Machmer W32 University of Massachusetts — Department of Sociology The welfare state is a central site for analyses of citizenship, inequality and politics. Indeed, research on welfare states is a key lens through which to examine the major theoretical questions that shape political sociology. In this course, you will be introduced to a number of enduring debates in the study of welfare states. How have welfare states been created? What factors support the expansion of the welfare state? Do welfare states mediate or simply institutionalize inequalities of class, race/ethnicity, gender, sexuality, age, etc.? How do welfare states vary across countries or regions? How do they change over time? What factors support the restructuring or retrenchment of the welfare state? Are welfare states still relevant in an increasingly globalized world? In addition, this course will serve as an introduction to comparative-historical methods. While comparative historical methods are a central research strategy for sociologists (particularly for those interested in global and macro-political processes), they remain widely misunderstood. Doing good comparative historical research requires detailed and systematic knowledge of cases that have been selected with great care. Therefore, in this course, we will read materials on doing comparative historical research and a number of excellent examples of comparative historical research. In doing so, I hope the course will provide both methods training and models for a wide range of students. Students should leave this course with a good handle on the study of comparative welfare states, important theoretical debates relevant to political sociology, and the comparative historical method. I encourage students to take this course as one of a variety of graduate courses offered on political sociology, inequality (including courses in class, gender, and race/ethnicity), social policy, and social movements (including labor movements). COURSE REQUIREMENTS As a seminar, this course is based on active involvement of all participants. You should complete assigned readings before class, and be prepared to take part in class discussion. You will be in charge of leading discussion of the course material for at least one class session. Organizing the class discussion involves raising specific questions and issues for the week, and relating the material to previous readings and class discussions. Effective discussions should analyze the methods as well as the arguments in the readings. As a discussion leader, you must provide a list of FIVE questions to all students one week before the class session you organize. These questions should help focus the other students as they do the readings, and provide a partial basis for class discussion. Your role as discussion leader will not be in “lecturing” on the material, but facilitating a thoughtful and active discussion of these materials. You will also write seven short memos responding to materials covered in the readings, due throughout the semester. In these one page single-spaced memos, you will discuss and critically evaluate the readings for a particular class session. These memos help ensure that class participants are prepared to enter into good and productive discussions. The memos need not summarize the readings, but should integrate the readings and analyze their strengths and 1 weaknesses. Finally, you will write a course paper that (a) presents a research proposal for a comparative- historical project or serves as a draft of a comparative-historical paper (on any topic area), or (b) presents a research proposal for a welfare state project or serves as a draft of a paper on some aspect of the welfare state, or (c) both of the above. Final paper topics should be discussed with me and decided by March 7. Rough drafts of the paper are due April 25, no grades will be given these drafts, but 10% will be deducted from the final if a draft is not submitted. The final version of the paper is due May 9. Grades are based on the following criteria. Class Participation 15 % Organizing class discussion 15% Memos 35% Final paper 35% The grading scale for this course is A=>93; A-=90-93; B+=87-90; B=83-87; B-=80-83, C+=77- 80, C=<77. Required Readings All books are available at Food for Thought Books, 106 N. Pleasant. They are also on reserve in the W.E.B. DuBois Library. Other course readings will be available through a reader or on the web. Peter Baldwin. 1990. The Politics of Social Solidarity: Class Bases of the European Welfare State 1875-1975. New York: Cambridge. Gosta Esping-Andersen. 1990. Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Lynne Haney. 2002. Inventing the Needy: Gender and the Politics of Welfare in Hungary. Berkeley: University of California Press. Robert Lieberman. 1998. Shifting the Color Line: Race and the American Welfare State. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. James Mahoney and Dietrich Rueschemeyer, eds. 2003. Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences. New York: Cambridge University Press. Recommended Books: Evelyne Huber and John D. Stephens. 2001. “Welfare State and Production Regimes” and “The Development of Welfare States and Production Regimes in the Golden Age: A Comparative Historical Analysis.” Pp. 85-201 in Development and Crisis of the Welfare State. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Gail Lewis. 2000. ‘Race,’ Gender, Welfare: Encounters in a Postcolonial Society. Blackwell. Paul Pierson. 2001. “Post-Industrial Pressures on Mature Welfare States.” Pp. 80-104 in Paul Pierson’s The New Politics of the Welfare State. New York: Oxford. Theda Skocpol. 1992. Protecting Soldiers and Mothers. Cambridge, MA: Harvard. 2 COURSE SCHEDULE January 31 - Introduction Initial meeting to talk about class, and divide up discussion leading responsibilities. February 7 - Theoretical Overviews • Jill Quadagno. 1987. “Theories of the Welfare State.” Annual Review of Sociology. 13: 109-28. • Edwin Amenta, Chris Bonastia, and Neal Caren. 2001. “US Social Policy in Comparative and Historical Perspective.” Annual Review of Sociology 27:213-34. • Ann Shola Orloff. 2004. “Social Provision and Regulation: Theories of States, Social Policies, and Modernity.” Institute for Policy Research Working Paper, http:/ Recommended Reading: Gosta Esping-Andersen and Kees van Kersbergen. 1992. “Contemporary Research on Social Democracy.” Annual Review of Sociology. 18: 187-208. Peter Flora and Jens Alber. “Modernization, Democratization, and the Development of Welfare States in Western Europe.” Pp. 37-80 in The Development of the Welfare State in Europe and America, edited by P. Flora and A. Heidenheimer. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books. Joya Misra and Frances Akins. 1998. “The Welfare State and Women: Structure, Agency, and Diversity.” Social Politics. 5:259-285. Theda Skocpol and Edwin Amenta. 1986. “States and Social Policies.” Annual Review of Sociology. 12: 131-57. Fiona Williams. 1995. “Race/Ethnicity, Gender, and Class in Welfare States: A Framework for Comparative Analysis.” Social Politics. 2:127-159. February 14 – Comparative Historical Methods Theda Skocpol. 1984. “Emerging Agendas and Recurrent Strategies in Historical Sociology.” Pp. 356-391. • John Stuart Mill. 1950 [1881]. Pp. 211-33 in Ernest Nagel’s Philosophy of Scientific Method. • Morris Zelditch. 1971. “Intelligible Comparisons.” Pp. 267-307 in I. Vallier’s Comparative Methods in Sociology. Berkeley: University of California. Stanley Lieberson. 1992. “Small N’s and Big Conclusions: An Examination of the Reasoning in Comparative Studies Based on a Small Number of Cases.” Pp. 105-118 in Charles Ragin and Howard Becker’s What is a Case? New York: Cambridge University Press. February 23 (Wednesday) – Comparative Historical Methods, Part II Mahoney, James and Dietrich Rueschemeyer, eds. 2003. Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences. New York: Cambridge University Press. 3 Recommended Readings: Andrew Abbott. 2001. Time Matters: On Theory and Method. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Thomas Janoski and Alexander Hicks. 1994. The Comparative Political Economy of the Welfare State. New York: Cambridge. John Stuart Mill.1925. A System of Logic. London: Longman, Green, and Co. • Adam Przeworski & Henry Teune. 1970. The Logic of Comparative Social Inquiry. New York: Wiley & Sons. Charles Ragin. 1987. The Comparative Method. Moving beyond Qualitative and Quantitative Strategies . Berkeley: University of California Press. Theda Skocpol (Ed.). 1985. Vision and Method in Historical Sociology. New York: Cambridge University Press. Charles Tilly. 1984. Big Structures, Large Processes, Huge Comparisons. New York: Russell sage Foundation. February 28 - Citizenship, Class, and Welfare State Regimes • T.H. Marshall, "Citizenship and Social Class," pp.1-85 in Citizenship, Class, and Other Essays (Cambridge, 1950). • Gosta Esping Andersen. 1990. The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Recommended Readings: Francis Castles (Ed). 1993. Families of Nations: Patterns of Public Policy in Western Democracies (Hanover, NH: Dartmouth). Gosta Esping-Andersen. 1999. Social Foundations of Post-Industrial Economies. New York: Oxford. Trudie Knijn and Monique Kremer. 1997. “Gender and the Caring Dimension of Welfare States: