Le « noyau dur » de la politique familiale : l’enfant. Analyse du cas français

• Published in: Enfances, familles, générations
• Main Author: Michel Messu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Centre Urbanisation Culture Société (UCS) de l'INRS 01.08.2020
• Subjects: child; family; family policy; familyism; public policy; State
• ISSN: 1708-6310; 1708-6310

Research Framework: The article offers an overall thinking on French family policy, its history, discourses, objectives and theoretical interpretations. Objectives: It seeks to establish that a reading from its contemporary point of departure reveals that French family policy has put children, and not primarily the family, at the center of its concerns. Methodology: A secondary analysis of major texts dealing with this family policy, as well as a synthesis of the author's work, provide the methodological substrate adopted for this text. A shift in analytical focus and a renewed understanding of the wide range of socio-ideological debates and public policies support the overall approach. Results: It emerges that the historical and discursive variation of French family policy is, more or less explicitly, based on one invariant: the child. This is because the child presides over a conception of the child as a good of the nation, at the level of the republican state that post-revolutionary France has adopted. The family thus acts by delegation, and the State takes its place in case of failure or need. Conclusions: Contributing to the satisfaction of the needs of the child in his or her family is not only the initial objective of family policies but also their current objective. Contribution: It is therefore to the re-reading of French family policy, in the light of the social valorization of the child proclaimed by many countries, that the article commits.