Rationales for the Institutionalization of Programs for Young Children

Abstract

An institutional analysis of early childhood care and education indicates that nation-states have not settled on a rationale for universal programs. A trend toward the creation of educational programs allows utilization of established legitimate rationales, but such programs do not fit demands for day care that result from greatly increased participation of mothers with young children in labor markets across the world. Employing a theoretical framework that enumerates prerequisites to legitimate collective control of social activities, the analysis identifies the following barriers to institutionalization: (a) definition of the activity is confused, (b) organization of the activity is not clearly distinguishable from organized activities in other institutional domains, (c) authority over the activity is not concentrated in a single decision-making agency, and (d) reclassification of the activity from women's familial responsibility to the state interest has not taken place.