Timing and the development of social care services in Europe

West European Politics

Volumn 23, Issue 2, 2000, Pages 59-88

  Fargion, Valeria ^a,b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF FLORENCE   (Italy)

^b EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE   (Italy)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

LOCAL GOVERNMENT; SERVICE PROVISION; SOCIAL POLICY;

EUROPE;

EID: 0033940263     PISSN: 01402382     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/01402380008425367     Document Type: Article

References (46)

1. Data used in the article come from the following sources: Eurostat, Statistiques en Bref (various years);
2. Eurostat, Les femmes dans la Communauté Européenne (Luxemburg: Eurostat 1992);
3. Eurostat, Les femmes et les hommes dans l'Union Européenne (Luxemburg: Eurostat 1995).
4. In the cases of Belgium and France female activity rates are instead slightly higher among married women.
5. The only exception is represented by the Netherlands for which the difference is as high as 20 percentage points.
6. Actually, according to more recent statistical information, the figure for Spain is by now 24 per cent, suggesting that the scenario might change quite rapidly even in southern Europe.
7. European Commission, Relazione demografica (Brussells: European Commission 1997).
8. J. Sipilä (ed.), Social Care Services: The Key to the Scandinavian Welfare Model (Aldershot: Ashgate 1997).
9. See A. Antennen and J. Sipilä, 'European Social Care Services: Is it Possible to Identify Models?', Journal of European Social Policy 6/2 (1996), p.93.
10. See V. Fargion, 'Current Social Service Regimes in Europe: The Rise and Development', article presented at the ISA RC 19 meetings (Copenhagen, Aug. 1997).
11. See J. Windebank, 'To What Extent Can Social Policy Challenge the Dominant Ideology of Mothering? A Cross-National Comparison of Sweden, France and Britain', Journal of European Social Policy 6/2 (1996), pp. 147-61.
12. L.Trägårdh, 'Statist Individualism: On the Culturality of the Nordic Welfare State', in O. Soresen and B. Sträth (eds.), The Cultural Construction of Norden (Oslo: Scandinavian University Press 1997), p.262.
13. See E. Page, Central and Local Government Relations. A Comparative Analysis of West European Unitary States (London: Sage 1987).
14. T. Kroger, 'Local Government in Scandinavia: Autonomous or Integrated into the Welfare State', in Sipilä (ed.), Social Care Services, p.97.
15. See Council of Europe, The Financial Structures of Local and Regional Authorities in Europe, Vol.1 (Strasbourg: Council of Europe 1975).
16. P. Pierson, Not Just What, but When: Issues of Timing and Sequence in Comparative Politics (Studies in American Political Development, forthcoming), p.16.
17. Sipilä (ed.), Social Care Services, p.3.
18. See J. Alber, 'A Framework for the Comparative Study of Social Services', Journal of European Social Policy 5/2 (1995), pp.131-49.
19. See B. Dente and F. Kjellberg (eds.), The Dynamics of Institutional Change (London: Sage 1988).
20. R. Bennet, Local Government in the New Europe (London: Bellhaven Press 1993), p. 15.
21. A national minimum income programme has just recently been introduced in Italy. However, for the moment the programme is only being implemented experimentally in a very limited number of municipalities.
22. A few words are in order to explain the procedure I followed. As a preliminary step, I first looked at absolute levels of local expenditure and then turned current into constant values (using 1990 prices as a reference point). However, what appears crucial to develop the implications of the 'timing' argument is not how much local government was spending; rather whether and to what extent its spending capacity was expanding as social care issues started entering the policy agenda.
23. Whereas the Netherlands was already a big local spender in the previous decades, in Italy this was primarily the result of the transition in 1978 from an occupational to a national health care system, which empowered regional governments and local health authorities with spending responsibility.
24. J. Bussemaker, 'Rationales of Care in Contemporary Welfare States: The Case of Childcare in the Netherlands', Social Politics 5/1 (Spring 1998), p.89.
25. R. Kramer et al., Privatisation in Four European Countries: Comparative Studies in Government-Third Sector Relationships (New York: Sharpe 1993).
26. See V. Fargion, 'Social Assistance and the North-South Cleavage in Italy', South European Politics and Society 1/3 (1996), pp.135-54;
27. V. Fargion, Geografia della sittadinanza sociale in Italia (Bologna: II Mulino 1997).
28. R. Trifiletti, 'Restructuring Social Care in Italy', in J. Lewis (ed.), Gender, Social Care and Welfare State Restructuring in Europe (Aldershot: Ashgate 1998), pp.175-206.
29. See C. Ranci, Oltre il Welfare State. Terzo settore, nuove solidarietà e trasformazioni del welfare (Bologna: II Mulino 1999).
30. See U. Ascoli, II Welfare futuro: Manuale critico del Terzo settore (Rome: Carocci 1999).
31. See L. Moreno and A. Arriba, 'Decentralisation and the New Logic of Welfare Provision in Spain', article presented at the conference on 'Reforming Social Assistance and Social Services: International Experiences and Perspectives' (Florence, European University Insitute, 11-12 Dec. 1998). Despite the common upward trend, and while over the 1990s the Spanish ratio of local to total public spending came close to the Dutch and Italian middle range value of 25 per cent, France remained around ten percentage points below.
32. See B. Palier, 'La référence au territoire dans les nouvelles politiques sociales', Politiques et Management Public 16/3 (1998), pp. 13-41.
33. OECD, Caring for Frail Elderly People: Policies in Evolution (Paris: OECD 1996), p.135.
34. See C. Martin, 'Reframing Social Policies in France towards Selectivity and Commodification: The Case of Family and Frail Elderly Policies', article presented at the conference 'Reforming Social Assistance and Social Services: International Experiences and Perspectives'.
35. See J. Laville 'Services de proximité: la construction sociale d'un champ d'activités economiques', article presented at the conference 'Third Sector, State, and Market in the Transformation of Social Policies in Europe' (Milan, Oct. 1996).
36. E. Chuliá and B. Alvarez-Miranda, 'Paulas Presentes y Tendencias Futuras en la Prestatión de Cuidados a Mayores en España', article presented at the Spanish Political Science Association congress (Granada, Sept. 1999).
37. J. Blom-Hansen, 'Macroeconomic Control of Local Governments in Scandinavia: The Formative Years', Scandinavian Political Studies 21/2 (1998), p.134.
38. Notably, most local spending refers to final public consumption. In discussing the anti-service bias of recent welfare retrenchment, R. Clayton and J. Pontusson rightly claim that 'final government consumption expenditure continued to grow (in real terms) through the 1980s; it simply grew less rapidly than spending on social security transfers'. See 'Welfare State Retrenchment Revisited. Entitlements Cuts, Public Sector Restructuring, and Inegalitarian Trends in Advanced Capitalist Societies', World Politics 51 (Oct. 1998), p.95.
39. See E. Jeppsson Grassman, 'The Voluntary Sector in a Welfare Perspective', article presented at the conference 'Comparing Social Welfare Systems in Nordic Countries and France' (Gilleleje, 4-6 Sept. 1998). Whereas generally voluntary organisations are numerous in the social care field, in Sweden the voluntary sector is dominated by cultural and recreational associations.
40. See T. Rostgaard and T. Fridberg, Caring for Children and Older People. A Comparison of European Policies and Practices (Copenhagen: The Danish National Institute of Social Research 1998),
41. which covers the following countries: Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Britain and France. For detailed information on legislation and care arrangements in Europe, also see European Commission, Care in Europe: Joint Report of the 'Gender and Employment' and 'Gender and Law' Groups of Experts (Brussells: European Commission 1998).
42. Clayton and Pontusson, 'Welfare State Retrenchment', p.91.
43. Blom-Hansen, 'The Macroeconomic Control', provides a historical interpretation of why the central level was able to exert a more prominent role in Norway and Sweden.
44. See E. Huber and J. Stephens, 'Political Power and Gender in the Making of the Social Democratic Service State', Article presented at the ISA RC 19 meetings (Canberra, Aug. 1996).
45. As to this point, Glennerster, for instance, states: 'local authorities are creatures of central government. To pretend otherwise is to confuse the constitutional position.' See H. Gelnnerster, Paying for Welfare: The 1990s (Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf 1992), p.88.
46. See T. Knijn and M. Kremer, 'Gender and the Caring Dimension of Welfare States: Toward Inclusive Citizenship', Social Politics 4/3 (Fall 1997), pp.328-61.