UMass Boston

Course Overview

Description

For the past several decades, the world has witnessed a substantial increase in inequality. Two typical cases are the United States and China. The United States has had the highest level of inequality in the industrial world for the past few decades, and China has experienced dramatic increase in inequality and has become one of the most unequal countries in the world. This course will compare these two countries and will provide a broad overview of the causes and consequences of the rising inequality in the United States, China and globally. This course will also compare and analyze social and welfare policies in the United States, China and globally. The first part of the course will focus on the United States, the second part will focus on China, and the third part will look at inequality and redistributive policies comparatively and globally with a focus on the equal countries Sweden and Germany, and the unequal countries South Africa and Brazil. The topics we will cover include measurements and data of inequality; inequality in different aspects; causes of inequality; public opinions towards inequality; and the implications of rising inequality for democracy, autocracy and governance with a focus on redistributive policies. We will also touch on questions of why inequality should be studied in the first place - that is, why should anyone care about the growing gap between the rich and the poor; and what is the ideal level of inequality?