Introduction

This chapter examines the ‘politics of parental rights and responsibilities’. Social policies are rarely ‘rational comprehensive’ responses to social needs and problems (Hudson and Lowe, 2009). Rather, they promote social and political values about the respective social roles and responsibilities of parents, families, young people and the state. The analysis aims to: (1) provide the historical and policy background to post-1997 developments in parental rights and responsibilities; and (2) locate British developments within a broader Western and Northern European context. The chapter draws on typologies of policy regimes and debates about the internationalisation of social and family policy. It highlights the radical developments towards more state support and intervention in parenthood and families in the UK context under New Labour but critiques these developments against feminist and social democratic perspectives and in light of the social inequalities and welfare trends set out in Chapter Three. The discussion contests the ‘individualisation’ of social problems reflected in many UK social policies and the extent to which this remains a feature of early policies of the new Conservative–Liberal Democrat Coalition government.

Welfare regimes in the 1980s and early 1990s

Welfare states are often categorised according to the welfare contract between citizens and the state, that is, according to the nature and level of social entitlements to welfare state support and the institutionalised roles and responsibilities of citizens, families, the state and markets. In the work of Esping-Andersen (1990; 1999, p 73) ‘welfare regimes’ are the ‘ways in which welfare production is allocated between the state, market and households’. Esping-Andersen (1990) contrasted the degree to which welfare states ‘decommodified’ citizens. ‘Decommodification’ ‘occurs when a service is rendered as a matter of right and a person can maintain a livelihood without reliance on the market’ (Esping-Andersen, 1990, pp 21–2), and refers to the degree to which social welfare entitlements and state regulation of the economy ‘diminish citizens’ status as commodities’ (Esping-Andersen, 1990, p 3). Esping-Andersen (1990, p 21) examined the degree to which social rights ‘emancipate citizens from market dependence’, particularly in respect of welfare rights to financial support and income maintenance. The focus on welfare rights and income maintenance systems was later critiqued.