Public attitudes towards family policies in Europe: linking institutional context and public opinion

Abstract

Family policy variation in Europe is still enormous and there is very limited knowledge about the publics attitudes toward family-policy measures in a comparative perspective. Monika Mischke addresses this research gap by combining a profound analysis of existing family-policy measures with a thorough analysis of public attitudes. Based on institutional theory, which argues that institutions structure the process of orientation, the empirical analysis sheds light on the relationship between the current family-policy setup, the social context, and public attitudes toward particular family-policy measures in 12 countries of the European Union. The results demonstrate that the social context needs to be taken into account in order to improve our understanding of attitudinal variation among different countries and family-policy contexts. Moreover, the author points out that only a few patterns of social polarization are quasi universal, whereas many others are specific to individual countries or certain groups of countries. Contents Theoretical background and literature review Family policies in Europe a cluster analysis Family policy, contextual features, and public opinion. Social cleavages within European welfare states Target Groups Scholars and students of social policy, sociology, political science, and social work Practitioners involved in policy making and evaluation, interest groups, and welfare organizations.