7.   Comparing Family Change and Policy Responses in Europe  

2003 pp 110 £8.00; also available online with password (click here)

Editor: Linda Hantrais

This final issue in the sixth series of Cross-National Research Papers provides a comparative analysis of the relationship between socio-economic change and public policy in eleven EU member states and three candidate countries and looks at the potential for policy learning and transfer. The issue is structured thematically. After an introductory paper, the second section examines the family policy process, drawing on policy context analysis, interviews with elite policy actors and family members regarding their perceptions of family policy and the impact of public policy decisions on family life. The four following sections address the themes of population decline and ageing, changing family forms, changing gender and intergenerational relations. For each theme, an analysis is made of socio-economic trends and associated issues that are already, or are expected to become, of concern for policy practitioners, together with the challenges they present. Current and projected policy responses are explored, covering the formulation and implementation of prohibitive, permissive, pre-emptive and proactive policy measures, followed by an analysis of the imputed outcomes of policies in terms of their perceived impacts on family life, and concluding with a review of proposals for further policy development. The final section highlights the diversity in the pace and intensity of socio-economic change and in approaches to family policy, and examines the circumstances under which policy transfer takes place at European and national level, and the conditions under which it is most likely to be effective. The issue concludes by reflecting on the lessons that can be drawn for improving the efficacy of policies that impact on family life. Nowhere, is the public prepared to accept heavy-handed intervention in family life. Prohibitive and proactive policies are overwhelmingly rejected in favour of a more conciliatory approach that goes with the grain of socio-economic change.