Most people in the world live outside developed democracies. The greatest poverty and the greatest need for social policy are found in countries of the Global South. Yet the vast majority of social science research is concerned with the analysis of Western welfare states. We still know too little about what exactly social policy looks like in the Global South, who provides it and what drives it. Where are the differences to the social policies we know from the West? What policies do governments make? What non-state actors play a role? What is the impact of this way of providing social security on poverty and inequality? And conversely, can we learn something for the West?

The students of the course "Social Policy in Developing Countries" at the University of St Gallen explored these questions in the spring semester of 2021. In their blog posts, they explore social policy by traditional and unconventional means and by state and non-state actors. Their analyses span the globe, ranging from micro-states like Grenada to vast multi-ethnic states like India. They examine specific reforms, illustrate the welfare state of individual countries or analyse the effectiveness of social policy measures.

Read the Blog (in German only): "Sozialpolitik in Entwicklungsländern"