Admission requirements
Description
The impact of European integration on national welfare states has become a controversial topic in recent decades, sparking criticisms that the European Union is a ‘neoliberal’ project undermining welfare. Trade unions have an ambiguous view of European integration that mixes support for cross-border solidarity with concerns that workers are harmed by the EU’s liberalization agenda. While gender policy in the EU has expanded from the equal pay clause in the Treaties of Rome to a comprehensive set of antidiscrimination law, many criticize that EU subordinates gender policy to internal market objectives. This course takes a historical and political-economy approach to trace the evolving relationship between the welfare state and European integration up to our present, including the impact of globalization on welfare policies. Further, we compare social policy fields of EU member states, in fields such as (un)employment, gender and antidiscrimination policy, social inclusion, pensions, poverty relief, posted workers, privatizations, and healthcare. The course culminates by examining recent initiatives to build ‘Social Europe’ in the 2010s-2020s, including the 2017 Gothenburg Social Summit and 2021 Porto Summit, the role of social policy in the European Semester, the wide-ranging social policy responses in Europe to the Covid pandemic in 2020-2022, and the future of social policy in a time of fiscal restraints and geopolitical conflict.
Course objectives
To examine national social systems and the core features of modern welfare policies in Europe
To build skills of comparative methodology and employ it to compare national welfare policies in Europe
To discuss and debate the relationship between European integration and national welfare systems
To consider together in class discussions and in a written assignment the state of welfare in Europe.
Timetable
The timetables are available through My Timetable.
Mode of instruction
Seminar
Assessment method
Active Participation/coöperation in class/group
Essay, paper
Abstract, oral presentation.
Assessment
20%: Class attendance and participation
20%: Presentation comparing a social policy field of two European countries
20%: A short paper comparing a social policy field of two European countries including recommendations
40%: A longer paper examining a social policy field and European integration from a Social Europe perspective
Weighing
The final mark for the course is established by determining the weighted average. To pass the course, the weighted average of the partial grades must be 5.5 or higher.
Resit
Inspection and feedback
How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.
Reading list
Available through Leiden library catalogue or provided by instructor.
Registration
Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website.
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office:Huizinga
Remarks
NA