Explaining Cross-National Differences in Long-Term Care Policies - a Historical Study about the Role of Culture, Institutions and Actors

Since the 1990s, many European welfare states extended public pay for extra-familial care for older people in need of care, together with new forms of pay for care work by family members.  There are substantial cross-national differences with regard to the generosity of care policies  towards pay for familial care work, and how they interact with policies towards extra-familial care. There is a lack of theorizing and research about the explanation for such differences. The paper aims to explain such differences on the basis of a cross-national comparative historical analysis. We stress the role of of differences in the specific cultural and institutional heritage and differences in the new cultural ideas and interests that were relevant during the process of re-negotiation of the care policy. The empirical study is based on a comparative historical analysis of causal relations and processes during the historical period of policy formulation in Austria, Germany, and Ireland, which represent welfare states with substantially different types of welfare state policies towards family care.