Political Economy of the Welfare State (U03687)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 10 ? Acronym : SPS-3-U03687

The development of social protection is related to both patterns of political mobilisation and strategies of economic production. This course will explore welfare states from the standpoint of their complex inter-relationships with both democracy and capitalism, in a comparative and dynamic perspective. The first part of the course will present the micro-foundations of a political economy approach to the welfare state, examining how welfare provisions reflect and shape the interests of firms and households. Part two will examine how production strategies, structures of welfare capitalism and different systems of interest intermediation and political representation interacted in practice in developed countries during the period of the so-called golden age of the welfare state. The third part of the course will explore how these structured relationships between democracy, welfare and capitalism have adapted to, and mediated, the dynamics of economic and socio-political change in the more recent period, focussing particularly on the shift to post-industrialism and the decline of class politics.

Entry Requirements

none

Subject Areas

Home subject area

Social Policy, (School of Social and Political Studies, Schedule J)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : 3rd year

? Delivery Period : Semester 1 (Blocks 1-2)

? Contact Teaching Time : 2 hour(s) per week for 10 weeks

First Class Information

Date	Start	End	Room	Area	Additional Information
19/09/2007	11:10	13:00			room 122 Adam Ferguson Building

All of the following classes

Type	Day	Start	End	Area
Lecture	Wednesday	11:10	13:00	Central

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, students should have
the ability to analyse welfare states with reference to the interplay of economic strategies and political demands;
a solid knowledge of the institutional varieties of capitalism, welfare and democracy found in developed countries, and of the complementarities between them;
a good theoretical understanding of the economic and political structures within which modern welfare states develop;
a subtle understanding of the relationships between global trends in socio-economic development and differentially structured domestic relationships between the economy, politics and welfare provision.