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Edited with Francis Castles, Stephan Leibfried, Jane Lewis and Herbert Obinger, The Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State is the authoritative and definitive guide to the contemporary welfare state. In a volume consisting of nearly fifty newly-written chapters, a broad range of the world's leading scholars offer a comprehensive account of everything one needs to know about the modern welfare state. The book is divided into eight sections. It opens with three chapters that evaluate the philosophical case for (and against) the welfare state. Surveys of the welfare state’s history and of the approaches taken to its study are followed by four extended sections, running to some thirty-five chapters in all, which offer a comprehensive and in-depth survey of our current state of knowledge across the whole range of issues that the welfare state embraces. The first of these sections looks at inputs and actors (including the roles of parties, unions, and employers), the impact of gender and religion, patterns of migration and a changing public opinion, the role of international organisations and the impact of globalisation. The next two sections cover policy inputs (in areas such as pensions, health care, disability, care of the elderly, unemployment, and labour market activation) and their outcomes (in terms of inequality and poverty, macroeconomic performance, and retrenchment). The seventh section consists of seven chapters which survey welfare state experience around the globe (and not just within the OECD). Two final chapters consider questions about the global future of the welfare state.
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Course Description: This course discusses the development and structure of the welfare state from a comparative historical and political sociological perspective. Locating the welfare state within the broader context of the development of capitalism as a world systemic phenomenon, the course traces the scholarly discussions on the causes of the welfare state development and the functions of the welfare state. The course discusses the structural (economic or demographic) and political determinants of welfare state development, putting greater emphasis on the latter. As such, political legitimacy, electoral competition, political containment of unrest and political mobilization of popular support will be considered as critical factors shaping welfare policies. In a sense, the course is on the politics of welfare state. It will analyze the development of modern welfare states in the west and in developing countries, with a specific emphasis on so-called emerging markets. Welfare states in China, India, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Indonesia and Turkey will be analyzed. In addition, the course will also pose more technical questions including the policy specific characteristics of existing welfare regimes.
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