Syllabus: U.S Social and Economic Policy

Apparently I must have done well enough last time to merit another class at CUNY’s Murphy Institute, because this semester, I’m teaching PADM 611, “U.S Social and Economic Policy.” In this class, we’re going to be breaking down the normal barriers that separate the study of social and economic policy, to study the impacts of economic policy on social policy and the economic implications of social policy. We start with the development of social and economic policy in the new American state, and how these two tracks of policy-making interacted from the emergence of the United States through to the major “big bangs” of the New Deal and the Great Society. We will then examine intensively how the new world of regulated “mixed market” capitalism and the welfare state was dismantled in the 1970s through 1990s, and what the future holds for both social and economic policy.

Anyway, I thought I’d post my syllabus here for anyone who’s interested. Also, if you have any recommendations for documentaries about NYC and the 1970s urban crisis, I’m all ears.

Week 1: Government and the Economy

• State-Building after the American Revolution
• Hamilton, Industrial Development, and Trade
• Internal Improvements and State-Building

Readings:

John Lauritz Larson, Internal Improvement, Introduction, Ch. 2.

Drew R. McCoy, The Elusive Republic, Introduction, selections from Chapters 3-5

Robin Einhorn, American Taxation, American Slavery, Introduction, Chapter 4, 5

Week 2: The 19^th Century Developmental State

• The Republican Vision
• Tariff Wars
• The U.S as an Emerging Economy

Readings:

Eric Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men, Introduction, Ch 1-2

Richard Franklin Bensel, Political Economy of American Industrialization, Introduction, selections from Chapter 3, 4, 5, 7

Michael Lind, Land of Promise, Ch. 6.

Week 3: The 19^th Century Welfare State

• The Old Poor Law
• Mothers Pensions
• Soldiers’ Pensions

Readings:

Theda Skocpol, Protecting Soldiers and Mothers, Introduction, Ch. 2, Ch. 8, Conclusion

Walter Trattner, From Poor Law to Welfare State, Ch. 1-2, 4

Week 4: The Social Question and Its Solutions

• Poverty amid Prosperity
• The Emergence of Corporate Capitalism
• The Progressive Agenda

Readings:

Skocpol, Ch. 3, 5.

John Louis Rechiutti, Civic Engagement, Introduction, Chapter 8

Herbert Croly, selections from Promise of American Life

Progressive Party Platform, 1912

Week 5: The New Deal Order and the Origins of the Welfare State

• Relief, Recovery, and Reform
• The Limits of Reform
• Cradle to Grave

Readings:

Fraser and Gerstle, Rise and Fall of the New Deal Order, Introduction, Ch. 4.

Ira Katznelson, When Affirmative Action Was White, Ch. 2, 3.

National Resources Planning Board, Security, Work, and Relief, Introduction, Ch. 12, 16a+b, 19

Week 6: Poverty Amidst Prosperity – the New Frontier and the Great Society

• Cold War Growthsmanship and Keynesianism’s Heyday
• The Urban Crisis and Housing Policy
• The War on Poverty: Who Won, Who Lost?

Readings:

Robert M. Collins, MORE, Ch 2.

Irving Bernstein, Guns or Butter, Ch 4, 14, 19-20.

Tom Sugrue, Origins of the Urban Crisis, Ch. 5, 6, 8.

Week 7: Liberalism and the Problem of Jobs

• The Decline of the Urban Economy
• Affirmative Action and the Labor Movement
• The Right to a Job

Readings:

Guian McKee, Liberalism and the Problem of Jobs, Introduction, Ch. 1-3, 7

National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, Kerner Report (1968)

Week 8: The 1970s as the Pivotal Decade for Industry

• The Cold War and Trade Policy
• The Importance of the Dollar
• The Rise of FIRE

Readings:

Judith Stein, Pivotal Decade, Introduction, Chapter 1, 4-5, 8-9.

Week 9: Jimmy Carter and the End of the New Deal Order

• Labor Law Reform
• Health Care
• The Humphrey-Hawkins Act

Readings:

Jefferson Cowie, Stayin’ Alive, Ch. 6

Week 10: Volckerism and the End of the Industrial Economy

• The Rise of Monetarism
• The 1979-1983 Recessions
• The Emergence of Reaganism

Readings:

William Greider, Secrets of the Temple, selections from Ch. 11-18.

Week 11: A Micro-View – The New York City Financial Crisis

• The First Post-Industrial Economy
• Welfare and the Public Sector
• Austerity Politics

Readings:

Joshua Freeman, Working-Class New York, Introduction, Ch. 1, 11-13, 15

Week 12: The Rise and Fall (and Rise?) of the Minimum Wage

• The Minimum Wage as Social and Economic Policy
• The Era of Expansion and the Era of Decline
• The Discovery of Working Poverty and the EITC

Readings: selections from various books on minimum wage

Week 13: The End of Welfare As We Knew It

• The Origins of the Third Way
• Welfare Reform on the Right and Left
• The Great Risk Shift

Readings:

Democratic Leadership Council, selections from Mandate for Change (1993)

Jacob Hacker, The Great Risk Shift, Introduction, Ch 1-2.

Michael Katz, In the Shadow of the Poorhouse, Ch. 11

Week 14: The Great Recession and the Rescue

• The Non-Collapse of Neoliberalism
• The American Recovery and Relief Act
• The Turn to Austerity

Readings:

Noam Scheiber, Escape Artists, Prologue, Ch 2-4, 10

Michael Grunwald, The New New Deal, Introduction, Ch 12.

Mark Blyth, Austerity: History of a Dangerous Idea, Ch. 1-3

Week 15: The Affordable Care Act and the Future of the American Welfare State

Readings: articles to be assigned