The course describes the main features that comparative welfare state scholars associate with the Liberal Welfare Regime, as it exists in the Anglo-Saxon countries. It presents institutional characteristics and ongoing debates that set welfare production in this cluster of countries apart from other countries.

The class seeks to encourage critical reflection of not only the norms and institutions of welfare production in Liberal Welfare States, but also of the academic and popular perceptions of those norms and institutions.

The "social politics" of Liberalism and residualism will first be explored on a theoretical level. Then the course examines a set of country cases, in which core features of the Liberal Welfare State can be observed. Examining historical lineages of Liberal welfare policy serves as a backdrop for analyses of current challenges and trends in the social protection systems of the countries under review. The course also discusses (Continental) European perceptions and evaluations of the "Liberal Model".

Introductory lectures during the intensive programme in Vilnius, afterwards the course continues in the on-line learning environment Moodle.

Only for students in the Cosopo programme.