ICEFIC 2015

Early Childhood Care and Education in Welfare Regimes of Europe

Mehmet Fatih Aysan and Asil Ali Özdoğru

In this study, early childhood care and education is discussed within the welfare regime conceptual framework by using data from the European Union. According to the current study, although all ten of the selected countries are members of the European Union and are obliged to fulfill the same social and economic requirements, early childhood care and education is generally shaped by the characteristics of their respective welfare regimes.

The Liberal welfare regime is distinguished through the domination of the market in the management of social risks, modest universal transfers and social insurance plans, and meanstested social assistance (Esping-Andersen 1990, 1999). Benefits are highly stratified based on means-tested and flat-rate assistance for the poor and private pension schemes based on contributions in working years. This stratification among social groups also leads to inequalities in this welfare regime.

In contrast to other welfare regimes, the Social Democratic welfare regime emphasizes the role of the state to provide for its citizens’ social well-being, rather than the market or the family. This group promotes a high standard of social equality where all people are incorporated under one universal system.

The Continental European welfare regime has a corporatist and conservative welfare tradition heavily influenced by the state. The main characteristics of this regime are the emphasis on the preservation of status differentials, and the institutionalization of rights attached to social class rather than citizenship (Esping-Andersen 1990). Given that early childhood services depend on one’s occupational earnings in such countries. Parallel to the Southern European welfare regime, gender inequality and high youth unemployment rates are two important problems of the Continental European welfare regime. However, this regime produces generous occupational rights and high pension benefits for its citizens.

In addition to Esping-Andersen’s three-fold typology, the Southern European cluster (Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, emerges as a distinct fourth group through its unique institutional and social characteristics (Leibfried 1992; Ferrera 1996; Trifiletti 1999; Gough 2000). This regime is based on strong familialism, a residual form of social assistance, a low degree of state intervention in welfare, patronage, universal health care, and clientelism. The pension structure is dualistic: on the one hand, pension programs of this group offer one of the most generous pension benefits for public employees and skilled workers; on the other hand, a great number of workers, who work in non-standard and temporary jobs (service jobs, agriculture, and small merchants) lack social security in case of unemployment and are severely disadvantaged in old age. This dualism also separates the Southern European welfare regime from the Continental European regime which has much smaller income variations between high and low income pensioners and much larger proportion of recipients of relatively higher pension incomes.

OECD (2013; 2014) and EUROSTAT (2009; 2014a; 2014b; 2014c) data were exploited to make the comparison. While the formal early childhood education system is more developed and available in the Social Democratic welfare regime, it is not possible to speak of a common formal care and educational services especially for the 0-3 age group in the Continental European and South European welfare regimes. It is claimed that even though the countries try to pursue the social and economic objectives of the European Union; they remain dependent on their own welfare regimes in early childhood care and education. Additionally, formal care and educational services, which are important social policy tools for individuals to achieve work-life balance, are discussed for their positive influences on the child and the family, and in the last part, policy recommendations for early childhood care and education are offered.

Keywords: Early Childhood Care and Education, Family, Social Policy, Welfare Regime, Europe

Citation: Aysan, M. F., & Özdoğru, A. A. (2015, May). Early childhood care and education in welfare regimes of Europe. Paper presented at the International Congress on Education for the Future, Ankara, Turkey.