Traiettorie delle politiche di long-term care in Europa: protezione, familizzazione e lavoro di cura

With their recent origin and low level of institutionalization, long-term care (LTC) policies are key in the social policy debate in Europe. Growing care needs in relation to population ageing emerged as a policy problem, in the 1990s, in a critical phase of development of welfare states, characterized by a funding and legitimization crisis. The recent economic and financial crisis deepened this problem. However, countries face cost containment and austerity in diverse ways due to their specific pre-existing policies and institutional set up, giving rise to diverse trajectories. Based on a systematic review of the literature, the article offers a comparative analysis of LTC policies in European countries with specific reference to three dimensions: social protection and social citizenship, the tendency towards (de)familization and views on care work.