16922

Health versus economy? Introduction to the welfare state

Daniel Louis Nethery

Hinweise für Studierende

Workload and assessment: During the semester you will be required to read on average 20 pages each week and pass a midterm test. You will qualify for 5 ECTS points if you engage with the course materials, your attendance is satisfactory, and you pass the examination at the end of the semester. Schließen

Zusätzl. Angaben / Voraussetzungen

Is this course for me? This course is open to all students. There are no prerequisites.

Kommentar

Subject: Since the mid twentieth century welfare states like Germany have achieved improved public health outcomes alongside sustained economic growth. But when the pandemic forced governments to consider imposing lockdowns, many journalists portrayed the decision in stark terms: either protect the “health” of the economy or the health of the population. In welfare states lockdowns were only feasible, however, where governments underwrote substantial additional welfare spending, and as the pandemic unfolded other significant connections between health and the economy—the importance of the biomedical industry, for instance—became patent. Program: We will study the complex connections between health and industry as a way of asking: What is a welfare state? We will trace the importance of health in the development of the German welfare state, arguably the oldest in the world. Among other topics we will cover: the establishment of German health and other social insurance; the development of eugenics as a scientific discipline; the discovery, by German chemical firm IG Farben, of the first antibacterial drug; the coincidence of the therapeutic revolution and the so-called golden age of the welfare state; contraception and abortion in East and West Germany; and the challenges posed by population ageing. Along the way we will discuss questions which the study of the welfare state raises and to which the pandemic has given renewed significance: What role should governments play in technological innovation? How can governments best act to reduce inequality in health and economic outcomes? And how far should they intervene in our lives in pursuing these objectives? Schließen