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US Social Policy

4-0-8 units. HASS-S · Undergraduate

Explores historical development and contemporary politics of the American welfare state. Examines interactions among political institutions, elites, the media, and the mass public. Emphasis on reciprocal relationship between policy designs and public opinion/political action. Investigates broad spectrum of government policies that shape well-being, opportunity and political influence, including welfare, social security, health care, education, and tax policy.

Spring 2006 · U.S. Social Policy

This subject examines the historical development and contemporary politics of social policy in the United States. We will discuss the kinds of risks individuals face over a lifetime and why some are ameliorated by social policy while others are not (and how the U.S. is similar or different from other countries in this regard). We will examine the policymaking process in the U.S., why some alternatives are implemented and others abandoned, why some interests are privileged over others, and how the designs of policies can feed back and shape politics in a given policy area. Along the way we will examine interactions among political institutions, policy elites, the media, and the mass public.

Readings

  • Arnold, R. Douglas. The Logic of Congressional Action . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990. ISBN: 9780300048346.
    Required
  • Baumgartner, Frank R., and Bryan D. Jones. Agendas and Instability in American Politics . Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1993. ISBN: 9780226039381.
    Required
  • Campbell, Andrea Louise. How Policies Make Citizens: Senior Citizen Activism and the American Welfare State . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003. ISBN: 9780691091891.
    Required
  • Skocpol, Theda. Boomerang: Health Care Reform and the Turn Against Government. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Co., 1997, Introduction, pp. 1-19. ISBN: 9780393315721.
    Listed reading
  • Blendon, Robert J., and John M. Benson. “Americans’ Views on Health Policy: A Fifty-Year Historical Perspective.” Health Affairs 20, no. 2 (March-April 2001): 33-46.
    Listed reading
  • Steinmo, Sven, and Jon Watts. “It’s the Institutions Stupid! Why Comprehensive National Health Insurance Fails in America.” Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law 20 (Summer 1995): 329-72.
    Listed reading
  • Schlozman, Kay Lehman, Henry E. Brady, and Sidney Verba. “The Big Tilt: Participatory Inequality in America.” The American Prospect 8, no. 32 (May-June 1997): 74-80.
    Listed reading
  • Rosenstone, Steven, and John Mark Hansen. Mobilization, Participation, and Democracy in America . New York, NY: MacMillan, 1993, chapter 4, pp. 71-127. ISBN: 9780024036605.
    Listed reading
  • LEC #: 5 · TOPICS: Who Gets Represented? The Case of Social Security · READINGS: Campbell, Andrea Louise. How Policies Make Citizens: Senior Citizen Activism and the American Welfare State . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003, chapters 1-5, pp. 1-114. ISBN: 9780691091891. · Discussion Questions: ( PDF ) ↗
    Reading assignment
  • Gilens, Martin. “Public Opinion and Democratic Responsiveness: Who Gets What They Want from Government?” Paper presented at the American Political Science Association Annual Meeting. Chicago, IL, September 2-5, 2004.
    Listed reading
  • Hacker, Jacob, and Paul Pierson. “Abandoning the Middle: The Bush Tax Cuts and the Limits of Democratic Control.” Perspectives on Politics 3 (March 2005): 33-53.
    Listed reading
  • Olson, Mancur. “The Logic of Collective Action.” In Rational Man and Irrational Society: An Introduction and Sourcebook . Edited by Brian Barry and Russell Hardin. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications, 1982, pp. 43-50. ISBN: 9780803918504.
    Listed reading
  • Skocpol, Theda. “Associations without Members.” The American Prospect (July-August 1999): 66-73.
    Listed reading
  • Berry, Jeffrey M. “Subgovernments, Issue Networks, and Political Conflict.” In Remaking American Politics . Edited by Richard A. Harris and Sidney Milkis. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1989, pp. 239-60. ISBN: 9780813304953.
    Listed reading
  • Judis, John B. “Abandoned Surgery: Business and the Failure of Health Care Reform.” The American Prospect 6, no. 21 (March 21, 1995): 65-73.
    Listed reading
  • Levi, Margaret. “Organizing Power: The Prospects for an American Labor Movement.” Perspectives on Politics 1 (March 2003): 45-68.
    Listed reading
  • Gilens, Martin. “Political Ignorance and Collective Policy Preferences.” American Political Science Review 91 (2001): 379-96.
    Listed reading
  • Page, Benjamin I., and Robert Y. Shapiro. The Rational Public: Fifty Years of Trends in Americans’ Policy Preferences . Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1992, chapter 10, pp. 383-98. ISBN: 9780226644776.
    Listed reading
  • Cook, Fay Lomax, and Edith J. Barrett. Support for the American Welfare State: The Views of Congress and the Public. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1992, chapter 3, pp. 58-93, and portion of chapter 4, pp. 94-106. ISBN: 9780231076180.
    Listed reading
  • Gilens, Martin. Why Americans Hate Welfare: Race, Media, and the Politics of Antipoverty Policy . Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1999, chapters 3 and 5, pp. 60-79 and 102-131. ISBN: 9780226293646.
    Listed reading
  • Kingdon, John W. Agendas, Alternatives and Public Policies . 2nd ed. New York, NY: Harper Collins, 1997, chapter 9, pp. 196-208. ISBN: 9780673523891.
    Listed reading
  • Campbell, Andrea Louise, and Kimberly Morgan. “The Shifting Line between Public and Private: The Politics of the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act and Prescription Drug Reform.” Paper presented at the Social Science History Association Annual Meeting. Portland, OR, November 3-6, 2005.
    Listed reading
  • LEC #: 12 · TOPICS: Problem Definition and Agenda Setting II · READINGS: Baumgartner, Frank R., and Bryan D. Jones. Agendas and Instability in American Politics . Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press, 1993, chapters 2, 5, and 6, pp. 6-9. ISBN: 9780226039381. · Discussion Questions: ( PDF ) ↗
    Reading assignment
  • LEC #: 13 · TOPICS: Policy-Relevant Institutions: Congress I · READINGS: Arnold, R. Douglas. The Logic of Congressional Action . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990, chapters 1-5, pp. 3-115. ISBN: 9780300048346. · Discussion Questions: ( PDF ) ↗
    Reading assignment
  • Weaver, R. Kent. “The Politics of Blame.” Brookings Review 5 (Spring 1987): 43-47.
    Listed reading
  • Wilson, William Julius. The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy . Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1990, chapters 1 and 9, pp. 9-12, 14-16, 17-39, and 175-92. ISBN: 9780226901312.
    Listed reading
  • LEC #: 15 · TOPICS: Policy-Relevant Institutions: The Courts; The Case of Welfare Rights · READINGS: Melnick, R. Shep. Between the Lines: Interpreting Welfare Rights . Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1994, chapters 1-3, pp. 3-61. ISBN: 9780815756644. · Discussion Questions: ( PDF ) ↗
    Reading assignment
  • LEC #: 16 · TOPICS: Implementation: The Case of Rehabilitation in Prison · READINGS: Lin, Ann Chih. Reform in the Making: The Implementation of Social Policy in Prison . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000, chapters 3 and 4. ISBN: 9780691009841. · Discussion Questions: ( PDF ) ↗
    Reading assignment
  • Schneider, Anne, and Helen Ingram. “Social Construction of Target Populations: Implications for Politics and Policy.” American Political Science Review 87 (1993): 334-47.
    Listed reading
  • Skocpol, Theda. “Targeting within Universalism: Politically Viable Policies to Combat Poverty in the United States.” In The Urban Underclass . Edited by Christopher Jencks and Paul E. Peterson. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1991, pp. 411-36. ISBN: 9780815746065.
    Listed reading
  • Peterson, Paul E. “Who Should Do What? Divided Responsibility in the Federal System.” Brookings Review (Spring 1995): 6-11.
    Listed reading
  • Soss, Joe. “Lessons of Welfare: Policy Design, Political Learning, and Political Action.” American Political Science Review 93 (June 1999): 363-380.
    Listed reading
  • Mettler, Suzanne. “Bringing the State Back In to Civic Engagement: Effects of the G.I. Bill for World War II Veterans.” American Political Science Review 96 (June 2002): 351-65.
    Listed reading
  • Dobbin, Frank. “Is America Becoming More Exceptional? How Public Policy Corporatized Social Citizenship.” In Restructuring the Welfare State: Political Institutions and Policy Change . Edited by Bo Rothstein and Sven Steinmo. New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan, 2002, pp. 51-77. ISBN: 9780312296285.
    Listed reading
  • Starr, Paul. “End of the Private New Deal.” The American Prospect 17, no. 7 (June 20, 2005): 3.
    Listed reading
  • Lowenstein, Roger. “The End of Pensions?” New York Times Magazine (October 30, 2005).
    Listed reading
  • Graetz, Michael J., and Jerry L. Mashaw. True Security . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999, chapter 4, pp. 69-91. ISBN: 9780300081503.
    Listed reading
  • McIntyre, Robert S. “A Pay Day Bonus.” The American Prospect (September 1, 2004).
    Listed reading
  • Bhargava, Deepak. “How Much is Enough.” The American Prospect (September 1, 2004).
    Listed reading
  • Bernstein, Anya. The Moderation Dilemma: Legislative Coalitions and the Politics of Family and Medical Leave . Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2001, chapter 2, pp. 28-46. ISBN: 9780822941576.
    Listed reading
  • Meyers, Marcia K., and Janet C. Gornick. “The European Model.” The American Prospect (November 2, 2004).
    Listed reading
  • Mettler, Suzanne. Dividing Citizens: Gender and Federalism in New Deal Public Policy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998, chapter 9, pp. 211-31. ISBN: 9780801433290.
    Listed reading
  • Chubb, John E., and Terry M. Moe. “Better Schools through New Institutions: Giving Americans Choice.” Chapter 6 in Schools, Vouchers, and the American Public . Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2002, pp. 185-229. ISBN: 9780815758075.
    Listed reading
  • Howell, William G., and Paul E. Peterson. “The Urban Test Score Gap.” Chapter 6 in The Education Gap : Vouchers and Urban Schools . Revised ed. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2006, pp. 140-67. ISBN: 9780815736851.
    Listed reading
  • The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. “Losing Ground: A National Status Report on the Affordability of American Higher Education.” San Jose, CA: The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, 2002.
    Listed reading
  • Hearn, James C. “The Growing Loan Orientation in Federal Financial Aid Policy: A Historical Perspective.” In Foundations of American Higher Education . 2nd ed. Edited by James L. Bess and David S. Webster. Boston, MA: Simon & Schuster, 1999. ISBN: 9780536018533.
    Listed reading
  • Mettler, Suzanne. “‘A Sense of the State:’ Tracking the Role of the American Federal Government in Citizens’ Lives over Time.” Paper presented at the Midwest Political Science Association Annual National Conference. Chicago, IL, April 3-6, 2003.
    Listed reading
  • Hacker, Jacob. “False Positive.” The New Republic (August 16, 2004).
    Listed reading
  • Hacker, Jacob S. The Divided Welfare State: The Battle over Public and Private Social Benefits in the United States . New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2002, chapter 7, pp. 313-35. ISBN: 9780521812887.
    Listed reading

Prerequisites & course information

Prereq: None Acad Year 2027-2028: U (Spring) Acad Year 2028-2029: Not offered 4-0-8 units. HASS-S

Sources