Learning Objectives

  • What do policy outcomes tell us about who has effective representation and power in a political system?
  • Why do states intervene in the market via social, health, and environmental policies?
  • Why have many governments pursued significant reforms to welfare states in the era of globalization?
  • Why have states found it so difficult to reform health policy and control costs?
  • Where and why did more effective welfare and health systems emerge, and can the most effective ones be replicated in other countries?