NALDINI, Manuela, THE FAMILY IN THE MEDITERRANEAN WELFARE STATES

Abstract

NALDINI, Manuela, THE FAMILY IN THE MEDITERRANEAN WELFARE STATES. Portland, Oregon: International Specialized Book Services, 2003, 248 pp., $62.50 hardcover.Manuela Naldini examines the influence of a welfare state's institutions on families. She concentrates her studies on the Mediterranean area, specifically on developments in Spain and Italy during the last decades. Thereby, she uses a historically and culturally comparing perspective at the same time.The book consists of three chapters: Al first the types of welfare states and models are being discussed. After that political developments in both states after the fascist era are being introduced. Finally, the and as well as the alternations concerning families in Spain and Italy during the following democratic period are being shown. The empiric material mostly covers the second half of the 20. century and gives information concerning employment, educational participation, fertility, relational contacts or childcare institutions for example.Part one (pp. 9-46) supplies the theoretical frame: Naldini presents some definitions of family, social politics and the relation of and state. Additionally there is an overview of different approaches (gender studies, welfare state studies) to then depict two typologies of welfare states in detail: The of Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism of Esping-Anderson and the typology of Ferrera with the differentiation of occupational versus universalistic. The overview of the field of research delivers two results: South European countries have mostly been neglected so far. Compared to other European countries, Southern Europe shows three peculiarities: Old-age benefits are strongly connected to the status of employment, which leads to discrimination of families. The health system is more oriented to the civil rights than to the status of employment. The development of the state and the welfare state has not grown very far and are hardly connected.Naldini demands a new theoretical perspective concerning the historical context of Southern Europe and working on and relational contacts from a gender and intergenerational perspective. Thereby, she also criticizes the narrowness and one-sidedness of the male breadwinner model and extends it with two more types: The dual earner model and the family / kinship solidarity model.Part two (pp. 49-93) delivers the historical description of the two cases of Italy and Spain starting with the fascist era (1922-43, 1939-75). …