Mothers, Families or Children?

Mothers, Families, or Children? is the first comparative-historical study of family policies in Poland, Hungary, and Romania from 1945 until the eve of the global pandemic in 2020. The book highlights the emergence, consolidation, and perseverance of three types of family policies based on “mother-orientation” in Poland, “family orientation” in Hungary, and “child-orientation” in Romania. It uses a new theoretical framework to identify core and contingent clusters of benefits and services in each country and trace their development across time and under different political regimes, before and after 1989. It also examines and compares policy continuity and change with special attention to institutions, ideas, and actors involved in decision making and reform. As family policies continue to evolve in the era of European Union membership and new governmental and societal actors emerge, this study reveals mechanisms that help preserve core family policy clusters while allowing reform in contingent ones in each country.

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A truly impressive endeavor . . . Mothers, Families, or Children? provides a meticulous, engaging analysis of how state approaches to family evolved in Poland, Hungary and Romania.

Europe-Asia Studies

Scholars of welfare and family policy will benefit enormously from it in their work to understand the past of family policy in central and eastern Europe and to shape an inclusive future for families.

Slavic Review

In Mothers, Families, or Children?, three leading experts on East European welfare states investigate the political forces shaping family policies in Hungary, Poland, and Romania over the longue durée. The richness, scope, and theoretical engagement of the work promise that it will become a leading text for scholars interested in both the politics of family policy in the region and theorizing institutional continuity and change.

Kimberly Morgan, George Washington University

Mothers, Families, or Children? is essential reading for everyone interested in welfare and family policies in East Central Europe. Written by three leading authorities in the field, the book offers a timely contribution to the debates that have been sparked by Poland’s 500zł monthly child benefit program or Hungary’s generous but deeply conservative expansion of family policy. The book not only fills a gap by providing an in-depth overview over the long history of family policies in Poland, Hungary, and Romania; it also builds a theoretically sophisticated argument about policy continuity and change, which will travel far beyond the region. As such, the book demonstrates the power of comparative historical analysis to explain current policy developments.

Dorothee Bohle, European University Institute

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