3. Belgium: The Vices and Virtues of Pragmatism

Paye, Olivier; Marques-Pereira, Bérengère

doi:10.3138/9781442683389-004

Cited by 6 publications

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“…At least two other countries have adopted similar measures. Belgium best matches the French and Finnish cases (Marquez-Pereira and Payé 2001). Other countries forming part of the northwestern conservative regime seem also to be embracing the new familialism.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 73%

Child Care: Toward What Kind of "Social Europe"?

Mahon¹

2002

Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State &Amp; Society

146

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Child care is central to contemporary welfare state redesign. The emergence of the dual-earner family challenges states to take on new responsibilities as families can no longer provide full-time care, nor can they afford to rely exclusively on markets. There are, however, different ways of addressing the care deficit, and each holds different implications for equality. This article examines the three dominant alternatives being pursued in Western European countries, arguing that each establishes a different "horizon of legitimate expectations." Welfare state redesign no longer takes place exclusively within national boundaries, however. The struggle to build a "social Europe" is engaging member states in reflexive practices, opening them to new and different ideas. The article thus concludes by examining which, if any, of the competing models of care provision has come to define "best practice" for Europe and what this tells us about the emergent contours of social Europe. This article examines the changing and variable mix of child care arrangements within the European Union. The first section argues that child care is central to contemporary welfare state redesign. The "defamilialization" of care, resulting from women's rising labor force participation rate, is one of the "new" developments generating demands for states to take on new responsibilities, as families cannot rely exclusively on markets to meet these needs. As the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) noted, "In many Social Politics Fall 2002

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 73%

Child Care: Toward What Kind of "Social Europe"?

Mahon¹

2002

Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State &Amp; Society

146

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“…The justification for voting these two seemingly contradictory measures was, in the words of a Social Christian senator, to ‘respect fully parents’ liberty of conscience. They must be able to decide whether they will use a day nursery or they will raise their children themselves’ (quoted in Marques‐Pereira and Paye 2001: 65).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…The worker on leave must be replaced by another worker receiving full unemployment benefits. The leave benefit is paid at the lowest unemployment insurance rate, that is, the one available to an unemployed worker who is cohabiting (Marques‐Pereira and Paye 2001).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…care provided by childminders in their own homes, alongside the day nurseries. Tax deductions were introduced in 1987, leading to a tenfold increase in the number of day‐care childminders in the French Community between 1985 and 1992 (Marques‐Pereira and Paye 2001). Since then, the bulk of state subsidies for childcare has gone to this type of childcare and by 1996, there were twice as many places available with day‐care mothers as in nurseries in Flanders (Kremer 2002).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Such an approach, although couched in the rhetoric of ‘free choice’, was again guided by labour‐market concerns and, just as in France, marked a notable shift away from the principle of giving all children an equal start in life through the provision of good‐quality public childcare. The quality of these private forms of childcare has in fact been a source of debate in Belgium, as unlike workers employed in day nurseries, day‐care mothers require no formal training (Marques‐Pereira and Paye 2001).…”

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confidence: 99%

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From Subsidiarity to ‘Free Choice’: Child‐ and Elder‐care Policy Reforms in France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands

Morel

2007

Soc Policy Adm

147

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This article analyses the patterns of reform in care policies in Bismarckian welfare systems since the early  s. Based on a comparison of France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, the article shows that these reforms share similar logics and trajectories, which can be explained by the shared conservative and corporatist traits of Bismarckian labour markets and welfare state institutions and their impact on labour market adjustment possibilities and preferences. Indeed, we argue that care policy reforms have been very closely linked to specific employment strategies, and the politics of welfare without work and subsequent attempts to shift away from such a labourshedding strategy go a long way in explaining both the nature and the timing of child-and eldercare policy reforms in Bismarckian welfare systems. The article also shows how a focus on promoting 'free choice' in all four countries has justified the introduction of measures that have simultaneously reinforced social stratification in terms of access to the labour market -meaning that some women have much more 'free choice' than others -and weakened certain labour market rigidities. To conclude, we argue that care policy reforms have provided a backdoor for the introduction of labour-cheapening measures and for increasing employment flexibility in otherwise very rigid labour markets.

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‘Choice’ Discourse in BC Child Care: Distancing Policy from Research

Kershaw

2004

Can J Pol Sci

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Abstract. The gap between child care research and policy is growing in BC. While policy changes are what one would expect from the right-of-centre Liberal government, the gap runs contrary to its expressed commitment to the design of early childhood development policy on the basis of ‘science.’ The BC child care domain thus provides a rich context in which to examine how ideology mediates the consumption of research in the political arena. This article argues that the government's ‘choice’ discourse facilitates the articulation of neoliberal principles in a rhetorically neutral way while casting doubt on scholarship that illuminates gender and class inequalities.Résumé. L'écart entre les recherches au sujet de soins d'enfant et la politique s'élargit en Colombie-Britannique. Pendant qu'on prévoit ces changements d'un gouvernement libéral droit-du-centre, l'écart dément son engagement de concevoir la politique de development de la petite enfance d'après la “science”. Ainsi la domaine de soins d'enfant en Colombie-Britannique fournit un contexte riche pour examiner comment l'idéologie s'interpose dans la consommation de recherches dans l'arène politique. Cet article soutient que la soi-disant dialogue de “choix” du gouvernement facilite l'articulation des principes néolibéraux d'une manière neutraliste pendant qu'on soulève du doute à l'érudition qui illumine des inégalités de genre et de classe sociale.

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3. Belgium: The Vices and Virtues of Pragmatism

Cited by 6 publications

References 0 publications

Child Care: Toward What Kind of "Social Europe"?

Child Care: Toward What Kind of "Social Europe"?

From Subsidiarity to ‘Free Choice’: Child‐ and Elder‐care Policy Reforms in France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands

‘Choice’ Discourse in BC Child Care: Distancing Policy from Research

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