PS1810 Comparative Politics

The End of Welfare as We know it: A Comparative Analysis of a Changing Welfare State in Western Europe and the United States

Seminar

Course Description and Objectives

The end of what has been dubbed the "golden age of the world economy" has brought enormous challenges to the welfare systems established in Western Europe and North America. Governments there have been trying to square the welfare cycle by dealing simultaneously with increased needs and shrinking resources. With steadily raising unemployment, exploding fiscal deficits and slowing economies, it seems that most social programs can, at best, spread the pain equally. At its worst, the traditional welfare states are confronted with new distribution coalitions that view the entrenched social system as an outdated obstacle to international economic competitiveness. Furthermore, Western societies are increasingly characterized by greater social fragmentation and individualism, strangely coupled with a heightened sense of anxiety and insecurity. How do Europeans and Americans cope with these challenges?

This course will introduce students to the European approach to welfare politics by first discussing in detail six European welfare states, each representing a distinctive model. These are:

  1. Germany's Social Market Economy

  2. The Austrian Corporatist Model

  3. The Swedish `Cradle to the Grave' Welfare State

  4. France's State-Centered Paternalism

  5. Welfare Systems in Southern Europe

  6. Liberal Model: Britain

In each case the course will discuss the historical development of the welfare system as well as its political and economic context. The lectures, the reading material and the class discussion will then try to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the respective model. Subsequently, we shall study government efforts to reform and adapt each welfare model in light of rising deficits and increased global competition.

In the final part of the course, the students will look at the American welfare system and its resent transformation.

Overview

Historically, Europeans and Americans have approached social questions form very different view points. American liberalism has traditionally emphasized the equality of opportunity and the individual, the European social democratic tradition, by contrast, has placed greater emphasis on equality of outcome and society at large. While Americans have regarded welfare as a privilege or charity, Europeans have come to take it for granted as a right. In the U.S. welfare is particularistic. It is organized in a multitude of programs intended for certain social groups, such as children, the needy or the elderly. In Europe, by contrast, welfare is holistic. That is, it affects the most fundamental levels of economic and political organization, such the relationship between labor and capital, the health care and education systems. The holistic welfare state targets not only the underprivileged but redistributes proportionally to all social classes, so that everybody may be a stake-holder.

There is, arguably, the widespread perception among many Americans that welfare policy in Europe falls into one broad category, loosely labelled "socialized", "socialist" or "state-run". Undergraduate courses on European politics can typically not discuss the specifics of the European social and economic policy, as a result many students are not as well equipped to deal with such issues as an increasingly global economy would demand. This course, however, means to demonstrate the astonishing variety of policy-approaches, institutions and reform attempts found in Western Europe, some of which are more effective, or can cope with the current difficulties more successfully than others.

Course Requirements

Required Texts

  1. Vic George and Peter Taylor-Gooby (1996). European Welfare Policy. St. Martins' Press.

  2. Comparative Social Policy Course Pack 1997.

  3. Additional Literature will be distributed.



April 1999
Reinhard Heinisch
heinisch+@pitt.edu