Who Cares ? Changing Patterns of Childcare in Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

This article compares childcare provisions in the new member countries of the EU. It takes into account two pillars of childcare policy: publicly provided childcare services and parental leave provisions. In the analysis, the fuzzy set ideal types approach is utilized. In contrast to the studies conducted so far, this article stops treating the region of Cental and Eastern Europe as a monolith and demonstrates the existence of cross-country variation of childcare policies within the region. Furthermore, the difference is systematized by identifying four clusters of childcare policy. These are: explicit familialism, implicit familialism, female mobilizing and comprehensive support types. The countries are clustered as follows: the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia in the explicit familism policy model; Estonia and Latvia in the female mobilizing type policy; Lithuania and Hungary pursuing the childcare policies typical of the comprehensive support model; and finally the childcare policy in Poland resembles characteristics of the implicit familism model.