#  Jing Ye & Amelia Malpas (APRW) 

 



####  calendar\_today Date and Time 

 **April 21, 2026** 

 12:00PM - 02:00PM EDT 

####  pin\_drop Location 

 **CGIS Knafel room K354**  



 

 [ Join via Zoom arrow\_circle\_right ](https://harvard.zoom.us/j/99320596113) 

 



 

### Speaker & Title #1

Jing Ye, "The Embedded Welfare State: State Building and Government Expenditure on K-12 in the US"

### Abstract #1

The United States is often characterized as a liberal welfare state or a “hidden” welfare state. However, the traditional welfare state literature tends to focus on social insurance programs such as pensions, healthcare, and unemployment. From the perspective of educational spending, the U.S. government’s investment in K–12 education is remarkably substantial. Why does the United States devote such a high level of public expenditure to basic education? Existing research has largely taken “high educational spending” as a given, without offering a systematic explanation. This research tries to argue that, beyond their conventional role in knowledge transmission and human capital formation, public schools in the United States have, over the course of post–World War II development, gradually absorbed and taken on functions that were originally part of the social welfare system. The key actor in this process is the federal government. The reason the federal government turned to schools as a channel for social governance and welfare provision after World War II lies in the specific structural features of American state-building.

### Speaker & Title #2

Amelia Malpas, "World War Pensions for Colonial Soldiers: Representation and Independence in the American, British, and French Empires"

### Abstract #2

I have a broad interest in how great powers organize the territories and peoples under their sovereignty and how this matters for political development in the welfare state and democratization. To date, I have been thinking about cross-cutting patterns of territorial incorporation or exclusion (i.e., state/province versus dependent territory/colony), nationality status (i.e., citizen versus subject), and formal political representation in central or peripheral legislatures. In this specific project, I take up the topic of World War I and World War II pensions for different kinds of soldiers who fought for the United States, United Kingdom, and France. These great power countries benefited not only from soldiers from the dominant native-born metropolitan majority or from minority groups, but from millions of colonial soldiers from dependent territories across the world wars. Against a canonical debate in American politics about racial discrimination in the GI Bill and other veterans’ benefits, I ask, what explains differences in colonial soldiers receiving pensions? Why did some colonial soldiers receive de jure equal pensions to their metropolitan counterparts, others received partial pensions, and still others received no pensions? I develop a theory based on colonial representation in metropolitan legislatures and independence threat. I test the theory in a very preliminary manner, finding partial validation in this course evidence. I will also discuss next steps and solicit ways to study this topic more precisely within the United States.



 

The American Politics Research Workshop (Gov 3004) meets all academic year, Tuesdays, 12:00–2:00 PM, in CGIS K354. This workshop presents an opportunity for graduate students and Harvard faculty to present and receive feedback on their current research. The workshop highlights key theoretical and empirical findings from Harvard affiliates on topics related to American politics.

All interested Harvard affiliates are invited to attend. Lunch will be provided.



 

 



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