Les réformes des services de garde pour jeunes enfants en France et au Québec : une analyse historico-institutionnaliste

La question des services de garde pour jeunes enfants n’a jamais constitué la chasse gardée des féministes. Certes, s’il est vrai que la mise en place de services abordables et de qualité a toujours été au coeur des revendications des mouvements de femmes de la seconde génération, force est de constater que d’autres acteurs — aussi bien au sein de l’État que de la société civile — ont eux-aussi manifesté de l’intérêt pour cette question. À partir d’une approche historico-institutionnaliste, j’analyse les réformes entreprises récemment en France et au Québec. En France, où le gouvernement avait pour principal objectif de réduire le taux de chômage et d’assainir les finances publiques en encourageant les parents à embaucher leur propre gardienne, les changements apportés ont conduit à une diversification des choix offerts. Il s’en est suivi une fragmentation du système. Au Québec, où le gouvernement a nettement oeuvré en faveur des structures d’accueil sans but lucratif et aux coûts modiques pour les parents, les réformes introduites ont débouché, au contraire, sur l’instauration d’un système plus uniforme et collectif. Cet article examine ces choix divergents et montre qu’ils résultent de manières différentes de définir l’enjeu politique. Ces définitions sont quant à elles le résultat du déploiement de divers corps de savoirs sociaux par les réseaux de décideurs propres à chaque cas. Il s’agit donc ici d’une analyse de l’influence réciproque des institutions, des idées et des intérêts.Child care has never been only a feminist issue. Although the second-wave of the women's movement has always made affordable and quality child care one of its key objectives, other actors within the state and civil society have also prioritized child care. Using an historical institutionalist approach, this article analyses two cases: France and Quebec. Both have reformed their child care policies in recent years. In France the move was towards more varied choice for parents, as child care policy was directed towards reducing unemployment rates and cutting state costs by encouraging parents to employ their own guardians. A fragmented system was the result. In Quebec, the direction of change was towards a more uniform and public system, as the government reinforced its preference for places provided by non-profit associations at substantially lower costs to parents. This article accounts for these diverging outcomes by presenting the different definitions of the problem of child care which derived from the deployment of different bodies of social knowledge by a different mix of policy networks. This is, then, an analysis of reciprocal influence of institutions, ideas and interests

La réforme de la sécurité du revenu pour les sans-empoloi et la dislocation du régime de citoyenneté canadien

La réforme Axworthy est majeure pour l’État-providence au Canada. Elle est significative pour le nombre de programmes qui sont touchés, mais surtout pour les transformations qu’elle introduit dans l’architecture de la protection sociale et donc dans le régime de citoyenneté au Canada. Dans un premier temps, les auteurs présentent les principales caractéristiques du régime de citoyenneté de l’après-guerre. Par la suite, les mesures introduites sont examinées pour saisir la nature des changements qu’elles provoquent et pour en comprendre le sens et les finalités pour le régime de citoyenneté.The Axworthy reform has a great importance for the Canadian welfare state. It is significant for the number of programs concerned, but even more so for the transformations it introduces in the social protection framework and, therefore, in the Canadian citizenship regime. First, the authors present the main characteristics of the citizenship regime built after World War II. Second, the policies proposed are examined in order to comprehend the changes they bring, and their meaning and consequences for the citizenship regime

Ideas and Policy: The European Union considers social policy futures. ACES Cases No. 2010.2

The European Union’s social policy perspectives have changed quite dramatically over the last several decades. Now EU’s social policy discourse often promises to “invest in people,” sometimes “to invest in children,” and always to pay particular attention to youth. This paper argues that the tools of historical institutionalism can lead to understanding the ideational roots of this social investment perspective so distant from the “European social model.” Coming out of social movements, and with collective identities shaped both by those movement roots and national experiences, activists have effectively focused their practices on altering the social representations of European social solidarity through their interest group interventions, their participation in policy forums, and their mobilization within civil society at the European and sub-European levels. They have been able to make common cause with several epistemic communities that themselves revamped their ideas in the face of new institutional constraints, in order to advance their interests in promoting particular directions for social policy. The paper documents that “ideas” are not a variable and discourse “sometimes important” but that the ideas carried by movements and in epistemic communities are integral to the very definition of their interests that they promote within and with institutions

Staatsbürgerschaftsregime im Wandel: oder: Die Gleichberechtigung wird zu Markte getragen Das Beispiel Kanada

The article presents a conceptualisation of 'citizenship regime' created out of a neo-institutionalist approach to political economy and then uses the concept to examine changes in the Canadian citizenship regime over time. The basic proposition is that if the postwar years were marked by regimelike discursive and practical coherence in a wide range of institutional connections between state and citizens, states' and citizens' responses to the economic and political conditions of the late 20th century are dismantling and reconstituting citizenship, so that the postwar regime exists no more

What characteristics of funding, provision and regulation are associated with effective social investment in ECEC in England, France and Germany?

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) is seen as a crucial element of the social investment state. Whilst the extent of social investment in ECEC depends on financial expenditure, its effectiveness depends on certain conditions being met, namely affordable, high quality provision being available. We explore policy development and the role played by government in the funding, provision and regulation of ECEC in England, France and Germany and then compare them in terms of availability, affordability and quality. We argue that for children aged three and over, social investment can be deemed to be broadly effective in France and Germany, but in England quality is compromised by low staff qualification levels in private childcare centres. For children under three, effective social investment is elusive in all countries although as a result of different conditions not being met. Our findings lead us to question the limitations of the concept of social investment in ECEC, particularly in marketised contexts