Gender, Social Care and Welfare State Restructuring in Europe by Jane Lewis

Author:Jane Lewis [Lewis, Jane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781138316393
Google: mSb4ygEACAAJ
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Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2020-06-30T00:00:00+00:00

5 Caring for Very Young Children and Dependent Elderly People in France: Towards a Commodification of Social Care?

CLAUDE MARTIN, ANTOINE MATH AND EVELYNE RENAUDAT

Introduction

The mid-1980s were a turning point for French economic policies. When the public authorities implemented budgetary and monetary policies aimed at curbing inflation and making the French franc stronger, notably by limiting the growth of public expenditure. The 1990s saw increasing pressure on the public budget due to the goal of matching the Maastricht criteria in the context of a worsening economic situation. This resulted in dwindling fiscal resources which have become insufficient to meet increasing needs. Growth has been very weak at around 1 per cent per year on average between 1991 and 1996, followed by a slow economic recovery of 2.3 per cent in 1997 (3 per cent is expected for 1998). This has resulted in a sharp rise in unemployment rates from 8.9 per cent in 1990 to a maximum of 12.6 per cent in mid-1997. Combined with an increase in inequalities, this has led to an extension of poverty and social exclusion. The pressure on public expenditure has risen and in spite of frequent new measures for limiting or lowering social protection, the social security deficit has remained at over 50 billion francs per year since 1993.

All areas of social protection have to face scarcity of resources and restructuring. Care services are not exceptions. Traditionally, caring for young children and for elderly people represent two very distinct fields of public policy in France. Childhood, especially early childhood, is mostly the concern of family policy which has always been a legitimate field for state intervention. Dependent elderly people, for whom concern is more recent, are a matter both for central government policy and for the field of 'action sociale' which, since the decentralization laws of 1983, has been the responsibility of the 'départements' (counties). In this chapter, the evolution of care for early childhood and dependent elderly people in public policy issues over the last fifteen or twenty years are discussed separately; since the 1980s, developments in these fields have been rather different. Early childhood caring policies have been characterized over the period by numerous changes aimed mainly at developing and diversifying childcare facilities. It is important to understand these changes, their logic and their impact. There has not, however, been any major decision regarding the question of care for elderly people, at least until 1997, in spite of ongoing debates, numerous reports, proposals for legislation and, more recently, local experiments. The absence of major change is nonetheless interesting in terms of understanding of the policy-making process. Thus, an analysis of this political 'non-decision' is also necessary. While the focus is mainly on the rationale for policy development in both fields, a basic description of how care looks in practice is also provided.

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