POL410H1F L0101

Topics in Comparative Politics III

Politics of Welfare Development in Comparative Perspective

Themes

The Faculty of Arts and Science have decided that all Summer 2020 F and Y courses will be offered remotely rather than in person. A final determination of the delivery mode for S courses will be made by June 13.

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This course explores the origin and expansion of welfare in the developed and developing countries. The concept of welfare regime will go beyond ‘welfare state’ and a special focus will be given to how the politics of welfare expansion supplements the survival of political regimes. To start, the course will introduce students to a broad understanding of the concepts, measurements and theoretical debates regarding welfare development. Then it will move on to focusing on specific regions across the globe so that students can develop a comparative perspective of the politics of welfare. While the second half of the course is based on different regions, each reading is grounded in the theoretical framework introduced at the beginning of the course. The course will help student develop an understanding on the application of welfare theories from a regional perspective.

Texts

All assigned readings are available online in the U of T library system. They will be also posted on Quercus.

Format and Requirements

The course evaluation format is based on class participation, reading summaries, essay proposal, presentation and a final paper.

Prerequisites

2.0 credits in POL/ JPA/ JPF/ JPI/ JPR/ JPS/ JRA courses