All in, against all odds. Path shift in family policy via cross‐party agreement
The case of the Single Universal Allowance reform in Italy
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11197852 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ilaria Madama (0000-0002-6117-072X, Dipartimento di Scienze Sociali e Politiche Università degli Studi di Milano Milan Italy), Eugenia Mercuri (0000-0002-1913-9091, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici Università del Piemonte Orientale Vercelli Italy, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 58 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 474-490 |
| Publication date | 2024-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Policy and Administration (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0144-5596 • E-ISSN: 1467-9515 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/spol.12981 |
| OpenAlex | W4388869509 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 20 |
The introduction of the Single Universal Child Allowance in 2021 marked a sharp turning point in Italian family policy. Presented as a major revolution aimed at combating the country's alarmingly low birth rates as well as child poverty, the reform was also meant to rationalise the benefits system while overcoming the historical fragmentation and uneven protection granted to families. Against this backdrop, the article contributes to the literature from two different angles. First, the study offers fresh empirical evidence of the path‐shifting scope of the reform, marking a rupture with the longstanding weak model of income support. Second, the article engages from an interpretative standpoint with the puzzling emergence of a cross‐party consensus around approval. Drawing from the comparative literature on institutional change and the modernisation of family policies, the article asks which factors made it possible—after decades of substantial inertia—to overcome path dependency through cross‐party agreement in Italy, providing an in‐depth, original examination of parties' positions throughout the legislative process and identifying key elements of agreement and conflict
Allowance (engineering · Clientelism · Democracy · Economics · Legislature · Modernization theory · Odds · Path dependence · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Poverty · Sociology · Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving · Law · Medicine · Political and Economic history of UK and US · Social Policy and Reform Studies
Parties and party systems
The Politics of Welfare State Reform in Continental Europe
Ambiguous Agreement, Cumulative Change
Multiple Meanings of Gender Equality
The Politics of Work-Family Policy Reforms in Germany and Italy
Determinants of a Silent (R)evolution
Varieties of familialism
Politics of defamilialization
Family policy in high-income countries
Social and Family Policies in Italy
The politics of disaggregated family policy
Political Theories of the Welfare State
How Welfare States Care
Path Shifting of the Welfare State
Horizontal and Vertical Equity Objectives of Child Benefit Systems
The New Politics of the Welfare State
The multidimensional politics of social investment in conservative welfare regimes
The family policy positions of conservative parties
Understanding convergence and divergence
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |