https://at-ceu.studyguide.timeedit.net/modules/UGST4212?type=COREDo you want to learn why pension schemes, inequality, and redistribution differ across advanced economies? Do you want to understand how the availability of childcare and old age poverty of women are connected? If so, this is the course that you should sign up for. The course 'Welfare States and Social Policy' provides an introduction to the study of welfare states and the evolution of social policies applying a comparative perspective. Welfare states and social security schemes are central to industrialized democracies. However, globalization as well as structural domestic changes increasingly challenge traditional social policies, such as the protection of the unemployed and pension schemes. Globalization, as well as digitalization and automation, have dramatically changed labor markets, which led to calls for new policies that protect individuals from new social risks.This course aims at providing the analytical and conceptional tools which are useful to understand the development of different welfare state systems and compare different types of welfare states and social policies. We will discuss the origins of core socials security schemes; assess how and why they differ across countries and how these schemes cope with current challenges. We will also look how new social risks, such as unstable employment trajectories or single parenthood are addressed. The course is roughly divided into three parts: The first part looks into the sources and origins of social policies and welfare states and introduces students to different types of welfare states. The second part explores theories why we see different types of welfare states across advanced economies and also assesses whether these institutional differences have implications for individual level preferences for social policies and redistribution. The third and last part of the course is looking into challenges and problems welfare states are facing in the age of globalization and populist leaders.