Population and family policy in different countries: conceptual approaches and practices
Abstract
The article is concerned with the analysis of various conceptual approaches to family and population policy since the formation in the 19th century of the theoretical foundations of the State's impact on the population. Historically, family policy grew out of population policy, and at the same time is a late developed part of social policy. This might explain the large number of contradictions in its ideology in different countries. The article considers the evolution of approaches to family policy in Europe and the United States, with an emphasis on development in the last decades of the 20th and the first decades of the 21st century (fertility and economic development, children's and women's education, reproductive rights, the well-being of various age and gender groups of the population, work-life balance, the reaction to a drop in the birth rate below the level of simple reproduction, the ethical perception by the population of the “imposition” of fertility standards on people, etc.). Various typologies of family policy systems based on different foundations in developed countries are examined; the diversity in this area indicates a lack of consensus and convergence, while none of the national policy systems can be called unequivocally efficient. An important dimension for determining the ideology of family policy at the present time is whether it is addressed to an individual (and to which individual) or to the family as a community (and to which particular form / forms of the family), and how each specific concept resolves the issue of the family’s interaction with the State. Using the example of the United States, it is shown how the idea that it is better not to interfere in family matters gradually changed, so that there appeared not only individual policies to help families, but also a desire to change legislation accordingly. Now, there are more and more countries where family policy is likely to follow social changes, instead of trying to channel them in a predetermined direction.
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