Long-Term Care Policies in EU Countries Before and During the Crisis

The aim of the paper is to provide an interpretation of the changes introduced in Long-term care policies (LTC) in different European countries in the last two decades and the first possible signs of change during the Austerity years. The focus will be not on providing a description of such changes (already described in the literature), but to foster a comparative and interpretative framework. The main points of analysis will be:

-       What are the common and peculiar (social, economic, and institutional) factors that help to explain LTC policy changes in the EU countries? Why has the timing of innovation been so different in these countries if demographic and social trends (ageing, family re-organization, ecc.) have been quite the same ones? Why have these changes taken place more in Bismarkian welfare regimes than in others? What are the main factors explaining the innovation capacity of such countries? Why have other countries (such as Italy and UK) not basically changed their LTC systems in the last 20 years?

-       Social care policies have aspects that are common to other welfare policy fields, and some peculiarities that are related to the weak definition of social rights and the consequent loose interdependence between entitlements and provisions. How can we take on board this peculiarity in the interpretation of institutional changes occurring in this policy field? What are the implications of such problem in the definition of the “dependent variable” to be considered?

-       Institutional innovation in EU countries has followed different paths even within the same country. For example, dramatic breakdown and replace changes have been followed by adaptations that have basically reduced or altered the impact of previous reforms. How can we explain long-term reform cycles in the field of social care policy? What conceptual tools should we use in order to catch the reform path and its long-lasting impact?