1. The Child, the Family, and the State: Children’s Rights and wellbeing
Lars Trägårdh
Stockholm, 21 september 2017

2. The Moral Logic of Social Contracts: Three Crucial Variables
1: View of State
2: Status of the Individual and the Family
3: Role of Civil Society and the Local Community

3. Individualism vs Traditional Values

4. Generalized Trust An International Comparison

5. Social Contracts and Power Relations in Modern Welfare States
France
Germany
Netherlands
Sweden
Family
Civil Society
Individual
United States

6. Dynamics of Governance and Provision of Service
In-put side: Making Policy
Out-put side: Providing Service
Case of Sweden:
In-put side: From Civil Society to the State
Out-put-side: From State to Individual

7. Foe or friend of liberty? or constraint of individual freedom?
State, Civil Society and Freedom
The state:
Foe or friend of liberty?
Civil society:
Cradle of community
or constraint of individual freedom?

8. The Sovereign Individual

9. Versus Family Values

10. Varieties of Individualism (1): Freedoms and Rights
A. Individual Civil Rights:
Negative Freedom (from the State)
B. Individual Social Rights:
Positive Freedom (through the State)

11. Varieties of Individualism (2): Autonomy vs. Liberty
A: Individualism through the State:
“The Swedish Theory of Love”
B: Individualism through Limitation of State
U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights

12. Variation in Child Well-Being
Premise: child wellbeing a universal value
What indices of Child Well-being show:
Significant differences between and within
rich, Western countries
Why?

13. Statist individualism Civil society familism
Three idealtypical children’s rights regimes
Statist individualism
Civil society familism
Statist familism

14. Statist individualism (Sweden)
Regime type A
Statist individualism (Sweden)
Laws, rights, and policies that:
Focus on the rights and autonomy of each individual/child
Has universal reach
Sees the individual/child as much as a citizen as an object of care
Aims to promote equality in access to key resources

15. Limit state power rather than
Regime type B
Civil society familism (U.S.)
Laws, rights, and policies that:
Guarantee the autonomy, integrity, and rights of the family
Favor local and civil society based initiatives
Sees the child as a member of the family rather than citizen
Limit state power rather than
ensure equal access to key resources.

16. Statist familism (France)
Regime type C
Statist familism (France)
Laws, rights, and policies that:
Promote the vitality of the nation
through the strength of the family
Has universal reach
Sees the child as member of the traditional family
Aims at promoting broad access to key sources

17. Case Studies Homeschooling Independent vs Public Schools
Physical Punishment by Parents
Crime and Punishment
Social vs Individual Rights

18. Home-schooling in numbers
Sweden 100
Population 9.5 million
1:95.000
France 5000
(Plus in distance learning)
Population 60 million
1: (1:1.200)
USA million
Population 315 million
1:134

19. CRC and the Religious Right in the US
“The United Nations has become the tool of a powerful
feminist-socialist alliance that has worked deliberately
to promote a radical restructuring of society.”
(Heritage Foundation)
“Nearly all the evils we face can be hidden in this language [of
The CRC]: Abortion, contraception as health care, pornographic
sex education, abortion as a method of family planning,
stigmatization of traditional religious beliefs and educational
practices, and the exportation of the culture of death to the
developing world.”
(Bill Saunders, of the Family Research Council)

22. Measures of child well-being Measures of rights, laws and policies
Indicators and Indices
Out-put indices:
Measures of child well-being
In-put indices:
Measures of rights, laws and policies

23. Implications for Policy
Aims and Objectives
Theory Development
Theory Testing
Index Construction
Implications for Policy