Catholicism and the Welfare State in Secular France

Fabio Bolzonar holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and a part-time lecturer at Waseda University, as well as a scientific collaborator at the Centre d’Étude de la Vie Politique at the Université Libre de Bruxelles.

• PrefacePART IIntroduction Catholicism and the Welfare State: Beyond Christian Democracy Studying the Role of Catholicism in Social Policy Developments Outline of the Book Catholicism and the Welfare State in a Reactionary Regime (1940-1944) Catholicism and Politics in Vichy France Social Policies during the Vichy Regime The Expansion of Social Protection The Reorganization of Public Hospitals An Authoritarian Corporatist Reform 45 A Legacy for Post-war Reformers Foundation and Consolidation of a Christian Democratic Welfare State (1944-1959) The Roots of Christian Democratic Social Reformism Foundation and Development of a Christian Democratic Welfare State The New Institutional Organization of Social Security Family Policies Housing Policies A Christian Democratic Welfare State? Catholicism in the Years of Gaullism and Mitterrandism (1959-1995) The Social Reforms of Gaullist and Right-wing Governments The Reform of 1967 78 Family Policies under the Right in Power Moral Liberalization of Social Legislation Decline of Family Benefits Support for Larger Families Support for Working Mothers The Mitterrand Years 88 Renovating the Démocratie Sociale Modernizing Family Policies Moral Liberalization of Family Legislation Increasing Family Benefits Support for Smaller Families Promotion of Work-family Reconciliation Policies Great Disillusions? PART IIA Period of Changes Catholicism in Contemporary France: Some Observations Weakening Values? A Church in Decline? Do Catholic Values Still Play a Role in French Politics? Catholicism and Civil Society Entering a Post-secular Era: Secularization, Civic Engagement, and New Social Mobilization Social Catholicism in an Age of Permanent Austerity Housing Policies and Social Catholicism Early and Contradictory Developments Increasing Activism Toward a New Alliance? Evaluating Values in Action New Ideological Conflicts? Against Same-sex Marriage Troubles in the Church The Political Support for the Anti-gay Marriage Campaign The Opposition of Civil Society Influence on Policy Outcomes Abortion: A Still Open Question New Ideological Conflicts? A Contribution to a Theory on the Mobilization of Catholicism in Secular Societies Continuities and Changes in a Long Story A Way Ahead Concluding Remarks Abbreviations Bibliography Index of Persons Colophon

This book is well worth reading by anyone interested in the development of French social policy and civil society. It is clearly written and pleasantly reluctant to shoehorn evidence into sweeping conclusions. The most innovative and important part of the book, to my mind, comes in the second half, where Bolzonar shows how Catholicism has reinvented itself for a new political order, in which expertise and nonprofit mobilization play a key role against a general backdrop of austerity politics--an atmosphere very different from the decades of the mid-century when the French social system was born. - James Chappel, H-France Review Vol. 25 (March 2025), No. 22, https://h-france.net/vol25reviews/vol25_no22_Chappel.pdf