This course provides the analytical tools needed to understand and critically evaluate the key policy and practical challenges of social policy in the so-called 'Global South'.  While we examine key actors and processes of policymaking and implementation throughout, the first half of the course focuses on the role of states and formal institutions—the most obvious, and usually prominent players in social policy provision.

In the second half of the course, we turn our attention to the private sector and markets, as well as informality, both non-state actors and institutions that often are used to fill the gaps left by states in social policy provision. But both markets and informal institutions can complicate the implementation of social policies in developing countries and undermine the state.