How Social Investment Reforms Affect Voting Behavior

This study explores the electoral consequences of reforms to employment-centered family policies. The literature suggests that voters should tend to favor such policies due to their presumed ability to ease work-family conflict and low cost. Yet various factors may also moderate their support, such as norms and values about family and gender roles and ease with which parents can re-enter the labor market in different production regimes. Using regression analysis holds the capacity to reveal broad trends in political contestation and the results find that left parties systematically gain votes for expanding daycare whereas governments within the social democratic regime and those with in contexts with high public sector employment significantly gain votes for expanding daycare and weeks of leave. On the other hand, governments within the liberal regime lose for expanding weeks of leave.