This is the first volume in a series reporting on the evolution of family policies in twenty Western welfare states and comparing current provisions. The developments are presented in the context of a report on family change for each of the countries, and with a view of the economic, political, and institutional contexts in which they occurred. Each of the country reports in the present volume has been prepared as a team collaboration by internationally recognized experts. The co-editors have prepared an analytic introduction, which discussed the methodology for the series as well as the hypotheses that emerge from these first case-studies. \n \n The topics include family formation and current structural patterns, families and the division of labour, the income of families (earnings, taxation, transfer programmes) as well as the political and institutional context for family policy. An extensive bibliography is provided. \n \n About the series:\n A series of country studies and comparative analyses examining major changes in the family and the broad specturm of family policies in Western industrial society in the second half of the twentieth century. \n \n Vol. 2: The Consociational Democracies: Belgium, Switzerland, and the Netherlands \n \n Vol. 3: France and Southern Europe \n \n Vol. 4: Capitalist and Socialist Central Europe: Austria, the Germanies, Hungary, and Poland \n \n Vol. 5: The Scandinavian Welfare States \n \nVol. 6: Family, Industrial Society, and the Welfare State in the West: Early Variations and Long-Term Developments in Comparative Perspective \n \n Vol. 7: Family Policies in the West Since World War II: A Cross-National Analysis