Nothing on the Move or Just Going Private? Understanding the Freeze on Child- and Eldercare Policies and the Development of Care Markets in Italy

Since the 1990s European conservative-corporatist welfare states have expanded public support for child- and eldercare needs. This is in marked contrast to Southern European countries, of which Italy is a paradigmatic example. In Italy, the traditional configuration (limited development of social services coupled with the importance of informal care, mainly provided by women) has recently come under strain, also because of the increasing employment of women. Nonetheless, rather than the development of new policies, this has given rise to a hybrid combination of informal care and the development of a loosely regulated and little supported care market. In this sense, the article asks why care in Italy has been “going private” instead of “going public”. It is argued that cultural features and political ideology do not provide a sufficient explanation: in addition to sharp financial constraints, the structure and functioning of the state and labor market and migration regulation need to be considered.

Introduction

Bismarckian welfare states have traditionally devoted little attention to care policies, assuming that families will take up care responsibilities (Anttonen and Sipila 1996; Esping-Andersen 1999), with the exception of France and Belgium in the field of childcare and of the Netherlands in the field of eldercare. New needs, however, resulted in a policy shift in the 1990s as several conservative-corporatist welfare states expanded publicly funded and regulated child- and eldercare services, through either enlarged direct provision or cash-for-care programmes (Martin and Palier 2007). Nevertheless, this tendency was not uniform (Knijn and Saraceno 2010).

Countries like Germany, Austria, and France established new national long-term care (LTC) schemes, which, despite different institutional designs and limitations in coverage and generosity, introduced new social rights and enlarged the support available to older people with care needs and their families (Da Roit and Le Bihan 2010). Although these reforms centered on the introduction of cash-for-care schemes, there has also been an expansion in service provision (Table 1). With the partial exception of Spain, these reforms were not undertaken in Southern European countries.¹ Italy’s experience in this regard exemplifies the Southern European pattern.

Continental countries have also expanded public intervention in the field of childcare. In the Netherlands, childcare provision has been substantially expanded through private facilities co-funded by the State and employers (Knijn and Saraceno 2010; Morel 2007). In France, a further diversification of the childcare options available to families has occurred, particularly through monetary support. In Germany, the regulation of parental leaves has been recently reformed and a massive plan to substantially increase childcare provision has been launched. In 2009, it was established that a legal right for parents willing to access a childcare facility would come into force in 2013 (Veil 2010). In contrast, in Southern Europe the increased coverage in countries like Spain and Portugal (Table 2) is mostly due to private funding (only half of Spanish provision for children under 3 is publicly funded and supervised; Ministerio de Educaciòn 2010).

In Italy, the tension between a growing need for care services and the reduced ability of families to fulfill these needs due to increasing female

Table 1.

People aged 65 + years receiving care in institutions and at home

Sources: (a) Hennessy 1995; (b) Da Roit 2010; Federal Statistical Office 2001, 2009; FNORS 2008; IMSERSO 2008; Joël et al. 2010; Lundsgaard 2005; Österle et al. 2011; Sissouras et al. 2002.

Table 2.

Children in formal care arrangements publicly provided or significantly subsidized (percent)

Sources: (a) Anttonen and Sipila 1996; (b) Saraceno and Keck 2008, data for around 2003; (c) www.eurostat.eu, year 2009; (d) Istat 2011, year 2009/2010; (e) Ministerio de Educaciòn 2010.

employment is exacerbated by demographic challenges, which in turn jeopardize the long-term sustainability of social expenditure. Italy has one of the lowest birth rates in Europe (1.41 in 2009, against an European Union (EU)-15 average of...