Public Law & Private Power    This is a course on the rise, fall, and renewal of the modern welfare state.
Some comparative material is included, but we focus on the

US.
The course looks at the history of welfare state formation in the US and
Europe; the "Keynesian synthesis" that marked its New Deal/Social
Democratic peak; problems created for that classic structure occasioned by
globalization, new social expectations of government, and changes in the
domestic economy; and current efforts at welfare state retrenchment and
restructuring. Our basic questions are whether and how a functioning welfare
state can be designed under present circumstance and accommodated to a
commitment to the "rule of law." An important subsidiary aim of the
course is to give law students some of analytic tools for use in understanding
politics and policy design.