Explaining Differences in Child Care Policy Development in France and the USA: Norms, Frames, Programmatic Ideas
| Author | Linda A. White |
| DOI | 10.1177/0192512109340055 |
| Published date | 01 September 2009 |
| Date | 01 September 2009 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
International Political Science Review (2009), Vol. 30, No. 4, 385–405
DOI: 10.1177/0192512109340055 © 2009 International Political Science Association
Sage Publications (Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC)
Explaining Differences in Child Care Policy
Development in France and the USA:
Norms, Frames, Programmatic Ideas
Linda A. White
Abstract. This article provides an answer to the question of why
government support for child care policies and programs in the United
States remains weak, despite increasing levels of women’s labor market
participation and a relatively strong women’s movement, but strong in
France, a country that has had lower levels of women’s labor market
participation as well as a much weaker women’s movement. While those
differences can be explained in part by economic and political interests
and institutional and broad cultural differences, a theoretically richer
understanding emerges when one examines how the three kinds of ideas
underpinning these policy choices – norms, frames, and programmatic
ideas – helped shape policies that emerged within specific actor,
institutional, and cultural contexts.
Keywords: • Child care • Norms • Frames • France • United States
Introduction
How do we account for the fact that government support for child care policies
and programs is underdeveloped in a country such as the United States with high
levels of women’s labor market participation and a relatively strong women’s move-
ment, but well developed1 in a country such as France that has, since the early
1970s, experienced lower levels of women’s labor market participation as well as
a much weaker women’s movement? This article finds that while the differences
can be explained in part by economic and political interests and institutional
and broad cultural differences, a theoretically richer understanding emerges
when one examines the ideas underpinning these policy choices. I argue that the
interaction of three kinds of ideas – norms, frames, and programmatic ideas –
helped shape the policies that emerged within specific actor, institutional, and
cultural contexts. Those institutionalized ideational legacies both constrained
subsequent policy development and allowed new ideas to emerge within the
normative framework already established.
386 International Political Science Review 30(4)
This article demonstrates that workable policy solutions to the need for
women’s labor emerged in France, not only as a result of actor mobilization, but
also through actors coming up with the “right” idea, and using the “right” policy
frames to persuade decision makers. Those right ideas and frames are those that
appealed to extant worldviews.
The article proceeds as follows: the first section outlines the divergent pol-
icies. The second section reviews the limited usefulness of several theoretical
approaches for explaining the differences and explains how ideational research
offers tools that are more useful. The third summarizes shifting norms relevant
to child care in the history of both countries, and the fourth applies the tools
of ideational research to explain the process of normative institutionalization in
both countries. A brief conclusion summarizes the argument.
The Differences between French and US Policies Today
France
While France’s extensive child care and early childhood education (ECE) systems
have been the focus of much recent scholarly attention (e.g. Bergmann, 1996;
Cooper, 1999; Neuman and Peer, 2002), puzzling about the factors behind the
development of such an extensive system is rarer.2 France is widely touted as
a child care policy leader because of its long tradition – beginning in the late
1700s – of providing early childhood education through pre-schools (les écoles
maternelles) and child care (in crèches or écoles maternelles). French child care and
family policies are highly regarded not only because they are generous, but also
because they facilitate parents’ full-time paid labor market participation (e.g.
Joshi and Davies, 1992). Child care centers are usually open every working day for
eleven hours and families bear only about one- quarter of the costs, the amount
depending on their income and number of dependent children (OECD, 2004: 7,
20, 30). The hours they remain open are long enough to support parents’ labor
market participation (Cooper, 1999: 17). Attendance is strong: nearly 100 percent
for three- to five-year-olds and about 35 percent for two-year-olds (OECD, 2004:
17). In addition, maternity and parental leave programs are generous: 16 weeks
for a first child, with a replacement wage of 100 percent and at least 26 weeks for a
second or third child) (OECD, 2004: 21), as well as a longer child rearing benefit
(l’allocation parentale d’éducation or APE) that allows a parent of two or more chil-
dren, the youngest being under the age of three, to leave work for up to two years,
and receive a government allowance in exchange (Fagnani, 2002: 111).
The United States
The United States has developed an extensive child care market to deliver ser-
vices on both a for-profit and a not-for-profit basis, often by workers with very low
levels of education and at low wages, with low rates of unionization, and minimal
state and federal regulations (Morgan, 2005). Parents, not the state, are largely
responsible for the fees.
In the United States, governments have, over time, introduced some public child
care programs; in fact, Haskins (2005: 141) notes that the federal government
is currently involved in at least 70 or 80 major and minor programs related to child
care. The vast majority of these programs are geared primarily toward children of
low-income families, with a minority of programs, such as the Dependent Care
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