The World of Social Policies in a Very Small State: Welfare in Liechtenstein from the 19th to the 21st Century

Within the framework of a three-year research project, the Liechtenstein Institute would like to investigate the hitherto little researched history of welfare policy and practice in Liechtenstein. In a first part, financed by the Government and the Liechtenstein municipalities, the focus is on examining the institutions and legal foundations of Liechtenstein welfare policy since the 1860s. On this basis, the developments of the welfare system in the multitude of relevant political, economic, cultural, idealistic, scientific, and bureaucratic contexts will be reconstructed and analyzed. Such an "overall view" of the complex phenomenon of care, which has not yet been provided within a national framework, has a high potential for knowledge. This concerns the understanding of how poor and other marginalized people are perceived and dealt with in society, as well as the establishment and expansion of social security systems in Liechtenstein and beyond.

Project duration: 2019 to 2023