| Abstract: |
at the interactions between changes in the political landscape of Western democracies and social policy (Beramendi et al. 2015; Häusermann et al. 2012). In this chapter we will firstly show the recent paths of reforms in family policy in three countries: Sweden, Germany and Spain that belong to different welfare regimes. The magnitude of reform in this social policy field in former conservative or familistic coun tries such as Spain and Germany contrasts with the stagnation and 'limited' marketization of early developers such as Sweden. Secondly, we will explore possible causal explanations looking at demand and supply factors. On the one hand, the rise of female employment and work family conflict, together with secularization and cultural change, have been identified as the main factors triggering demand, particularly among women and sociocultural professionals. On the other hand, supply may arise from political parties' need to attract new groups of voters, the presence of women in politics and from the functional necessities of advanced capitalist economies. $a In this chapter we look at the explanatory capacity of different political factors in understanding particular paths of family and c are policy reform in Europe. Over the past decade, a growing body of research has been looking. |
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