Party politics and childcare: comparing the expansion of service provision in England and Germany

The expansion of childcare provision in the traditionally 'service-lean' welfare states of England and Germany, in times when most other welfare programmes faced retrenchment, came with some surprise to the comparative social policy and political economy literature. With the expansion of employment-oriented family policies, both countries have departed from their previous strong male breadwinner trajectories. Electoral competition and corresponding party and family policy modernisation in attempts to improve female voter mobilisation is key to understanding this paradigmatic shift informed by the adult worker model.