Welfare State and Gender under Undemocratic Rule

Mainstream welfare state literature overwhelmingly focuses on Western liberal democracies and often lacks gendered analysis. In the light of recent “third wave of autocratization,” this course aims at critically analyzing the formative mechanisms, ways of decision making, and outcomes of welfare states under democratic backsliding and undemocratic rule. Applying a critical perspective, the course will address inequalities of social class, gender and ethnicity as mitigated or sometimes fostered by social policies.

The first half of the course outlines the most important concepts related to democracy, autocracy, the welfare state, and critical perspectives on analyzing these. The second half of the course presents global case studies of welfare reforms in countries that experienced democratic transition and backsliding recently or have never counted as liberal democracies on the first place. In one or two of the classes guest speakers, specialized on some countries and/or fields discussed, are invited.