Familialism reoriented: The development of work-family policies in Italy

This paper examines the process of policy-making in the field of work/family reconciliation over the last two decades in Italy and outlines the main changes in the way state initiatives have been framed and implemented, as regards rationale and the nature of policy package. Following previous research on the topic, the manuscript first investigates to what extent specific policy designs on work/family reconciliation have been put forward by both left-wing and conservative governments in three domains: leaves, childcare provision, flexible working arrangements. In this respect the analysis of legislation, consultation papers, policy documents contribute, together with literature review, to spell out the underlying ideas and goals. In the second part, drawing on literature on welfare regimes, the paper discusses how the approaches taken by governments with different political leanings relate to each other and whether a new and coherent policy paradigm has resulted. The main assumption is that conservative governments, in office for the greatest part of the last decade, promoted a shift from a Mediterranean to a liberal regime in which work/family reconciliation has been framed as a private and gendered concern, to be left either to labor market partners or to the family itself. Implications of such a shift, at both the organizational and individual level, are considered and discussed in the final part.