| Since the 1980s, policy interest has focused on early care and education to promote children's school readiness and support working parents. Despite other cutbacks to the welfare state, many advanced industrialized countries expanded access, improved quality, and developed more coherent early care and education during this period. Yet, there has been little scholarly attention to governance---how nations allocate responsibility for decision-making and delivery within and across administrative departments, levels of government, and public and private actors. I study the politics of early care and education governance (administrative integration, decentralization, and privatization) to better understand how institutions, actors, and ideas shape policy outcomes (quality, access, and coherence) in France and Sweden.;Although France and Sweden have experienced similar national governance trends, the broader national institutional context for education and social policy in each country sets the parameters within which early care and education governance evolves. I find that early care and education governance decisions shape politics, giving some actors and ideas power over others. In turn, these shifting responsibilities and relationships have consequences for quality, access, and coherence of early childhood services.;The consequences of governance are influenced by institutional history, political and economic context, and social constructions of the child. Both France and Sweden are moving toward a universal preschool model. As preschool becomes more integrated with elementary school, it gains more status, but loses early childhood specificity in teacher training and pedagogy. Decentralization brought greater diversity and flexibility of services, but also geographical disparities. Public-private partnerships have expanded provision to meet diverse needs of families, but public funding and regulation are necessary to promote equity. For the under threes, France and Sweden are on different paths. Swedish policy supports universal access to preschool, whereas French policy is more ambivalent and favors private, individual arrangements. The study provides a comparative perspective on current policy debates in the United States about integrating preschool into the education system, decentralizing responsibilities, and increasing the role of the private sector. |
