earticle

영어

This paper analyses child poverty policies of Britain and Denmark in a comparative perspective. Britain, representing the residual welfare state, experienced the growth of the child poverty rate by 5 times during the rule of the conservative government, the highest in OECD, whereas Denmark, one of the social democratic welfare states, showed the lowest level of child poverty. The Labor Party of Britain pledged to abolish child poverty as a part of social investment state. In Britain, the child poverty policy has been concerned with the poor family only. In contrast, there is not child poverty policy in Denmark because family policy for balancing family and work contributes to lower the level of poverty in general. In other words, the higher the rate of women’s labor force participation, the lower the level of child poverty. Thus family policy for promoting women's work has been emphasized in Denmark. However, in spite of the big difference, both countries have experienced the new poverty due to the rise of immigrant workers and the change of family structure. The rise of new poverty becomes a new challenges to both countries in the 21st century.