Social care policies in conservative welfare states

Blanche Le Bihan and August Österle

Chapter 28 in Research Handbook on Social Care Policy, 2025, pp 448-462 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter explores social care policies in conservative welfare states and focuses on Austria, Belgium, France and Germany. It retraces the historical development of social care policies in each of these four countries, in particular since the 1990s, and explores policies in social care with respect to their conservative familialistic orientation. The analysis shows that the four countries have moved away from explicit, supported familialism in early childhood education and care and unsupported familialism in long-term care, towards policies emphasizing supported, optional (de)familialism. This implies an increase in choice, the potential realization and direction of which are co-determined by the interplay of different policies, the social and economic circumstances of individual families as well as the values that drive decisions within families. This in turn can lead to growing differentiation in the take-up of earner and carer roles between socio-economic groups.

Keywords: Childcare; Long-term care; Conservative welfare states (de); Familialism; Cash-for-care (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781839103681
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