Global Dynamics of Long-term Care Policies

Project A07 focuses on the comparative research of long-term care systems and policies. It thus builds on the results of projects A04 and B07 of the first funding phase of the CRC on the global spread and design of long-term care systems and the role of migrant caregivers. The project has three research goals. The first two goals are pursued by means of macro-quantitative surveys and analyses, the third goal by means of comparative country case studies.

Firstly, project A07 will investigate how long-term care systems have developed from their introduction to the present with regard to their - de jure as well as de facto - coverage and their generosity. Special attention is also paid to the question of public coverage of the risk of dementia. The data collection focuses on the period from the introduction of the respective system in the country until today and is based on existing comparative studies, country-specific literature and laws as well as interviews with country experts.

Secondly, the time- and space-related patterns of inclusion and exclusion dynamics as well as performance dynamics are described and explained. In terms of explanatory approaches, the main focus is on the actors, ideas and institutions that are of particular relevance to the inclusion, exclusion and performance dynamics. Here we plan to include, for example, the role of women's (movements), cultural norms, international transfer of ideas and migration.

Thirdly, comparative case studies will be used to examine in depth linkages and the mechanisms behind them, which are of great importance not only for inclusion, exclusion and benefit dynamics, but also for the mode of regulation, service provision and financing, i.e. the design of the security system itself. On the one hand, horizontal linkages, such as those that arise through the transfer of ideas or through migration movements, are examined on the basis of the care policies of two East Asian countries, South Korea and Taiwan. On the other hand, we analyse vertical linkages between international organisations and states in care policy in South America with case studies on Uruguay and Chile.