This paper analyses contemporary developments in family policy in Slovenia, a country with distinctive welfare state character shaped by its specific historical context in its socio-economic organisations.
As a post-socialist country Slovenia is overwhelmingly located in a ’post-socialist’ cluster in the welfare state regime research. However, inspired by the Swedish approach, its family policy followed a distinct historical path since the 1970s. More recently, the consecutive governments introduced a series of changes. Using the policy-process approach, this paper explores trends in policies regulating leave and childcare services, and investigates whether or not the post-2008 changes fundamentally challenge its overall policy character of ‘supported de-familialism’ (Javornik 2014). In so doing I investigate which elements are resilient/adapting/cut back, how these developments are shaped, and whether Slovenia is converging or diverging from other ‘post-socialist’ / EU member states.
Guided by a historical-institutional framework, the paper shows that recent policy changes represent a case of “first-order change” (Hall 1993) – i.e. changing the levels of policy support but not the overall policy character. Socio-democratic and corporate welfare-regime elements continue to prevail and policies continue to support female employment. That notwithstanding, the governments have been less committed to promoting active fatherhood, with recent changes in this area being closely connected to the EU. A number of additional austerity measures were, however, introduced in 2012 as part of the crisis-related reform package; in combination with a short-lived baby-boom these have forced the municipalities and the state to re-negotiate responsibilities and to relax the funding streams and rules of childcare provision. These findings challenge earlier theses about policy transformations and the dichotomy between the ‘socialist past’ and the ‘post-socialist present’.
