Categories:

Instructor(s)

Rogers, Joel

Course Data

Room remotely delivered: synchronously (see day/time)
M 1:10pm-3:10pm

Pass/Fail: No

Past Grade Distributions (Fall '22 and onward)
Fall 2022

Course Description

This course is about problems in the design and maintenance of a democratic “affirmative” (aka“welfare” or “opportunity”) state that satisfies popular interest in both efficacy and democratic legitimacy, particularly in the latter’s requirement of demonstrated fidelity to the rule of law. We take the activities of this kind of state, which is characteristic of all modern capitalist democracies, to include not only income maintenance and social insurance programs but any
public policies or programs that, in alleged pursuit of improved living standards and egalitarian ends, supplement or replace unregulated markets, procedural rights, and representative democracy — for example, in environmental protection, industrial policy, and the provision of basic public goods in education, security, energy, transportation, and communication. We will examine the modern affirmative state’s origin, evolution, current problems in satisfying
expectations of it, and a variety of strategies to address those problems.

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