The specific availability for this course is not currently known. If you would like to know if this course will be offered during your session, please contact us.
This course examines the origins and development of social policies such as guaranteed pensions, labor market regulation, and universal health care that together have been called the "welfare state." By comparing France with a number of its European neighbors, we can better understand where these policies come from, why they were implemented, and what challenges face them in the contemporary world. The second half of the course focuses on a single policy - universal health care - as it pursued in five contemporary European nations. This unit will be based in part on the results of a just-completed comparative study, largely based on interviews with decision-makers, in which I participated.
All students are expected to have done assigned readings before class and to contribute actively and regularly to discussion. Each student will prepare six brief written summaries of readings over the course of the term (roughly one every other week).
All readings for the semester are available from the instructor and will be distributed on the first day of class.
