Welfare states protect and promote the living standards of citizens across the world. At the same time, citizens hold widely different views about the kinds of services and support welfare states should provide. These tensions are further amplified by various societal transformations, such as globalization, technological change, austerity, and population ageing. In this course we explore what attitudes citizens hold towards welfare. How does their socio-economic position affect their attitudes? How do they trade-off different welfare policies against each other? When do they regard others as deserving or undeserving of welfare? We will further explore how societal transformations affect welfare attitudes and the influence they have on party politics and government policy. In addition to introducing students to the main theoretical and methodological approaches, recent examples of empirical research are discussed throughout the course. By the end of the course, students will have acquired knowledge about the central concepts and topics in research on welfare attitudes and be able navigate and critically engage with the related literature.
The syllabus will be available shortly ahead of the term via HU Box (https://box.hu-berlin.de/d/03360b1ed3344feda76d/).
- Course owner: Bastian Becker
- Course owner: Thomas Müller (SHK)