3.0

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Why does every rich country have so much more extensive social policy--and consequently so much less poverty and inequality--than the United States? In the first part of the course we seek to explain this ''American exceptionalism", by placing the history and development of the American welfare state in comparative perspective against the history and development of the European welfare states. We then broaden the focus to consider emerging welfare states in Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa. We end with a discussion of the feasibility of proposals for expansion of the American welfare state. Students will leave the course with a basic understanding of the past, present, and possible futures of social policy across the globe, and a familiarity with theoretical debates about the welfare state in sociology and other fields.