This chapter provides a classification of care production modes in a welfare mix framework. The processes of care going public are elaborated by focusing on national social care patterns in Finland, Germany, Japan, the UK and the US. It then looks at why cultural explanations have developed into distinct systems and why these countries are now adopting partly similar ways of rearranging social care. The strategic choice made by the US has been to favour paid employment for women and men and the purchase of care from the market. The Japanese relied for a long time on the availability of...

This chapter provides a classification of care production modes in a welfare mix framework. The processes of care going public are elaborated by focusing on national social care patterns in Finland, Germany, Japan, the UK and the US. It then looks at why cultural explanations have developed into distinct systems and why these countries are now adopting partly similar ways of rearranging social care. The strategic choice made by the US has been to favour paid employment for women and men and the purchase of care from the market. The Japanese relied for a long time on the availability of unremunerated domestic work meeting stronger and stronger obstacles to maintain ideology on extensive family responsiblity. The basic choices made have been crucially affected by the position of women in the labour market. In some countries, the process of care going public has already met its limits.