FROM THE WELFARE STATE TO THE SOCIAL INVESTMENT STATE

This paper discusses the basic rationale which has inspired the intellectual and policy reorientation towards “social investment”, with particular attention to child policy. The firstsection outlines the main features of the social investment approach, contrasting it with the more traditional “Fordist” approach. The second and third sections explain why and how early childhood education and care canmake a difference in termsofbothefficiencyandequity.Thefourthsectionbrieflysummarizes the British experience under New Labour, while the fifth section discusses issues of quality and accessibility. The conclusion wraps up, underlining the need to step up the shift to- wards social investment, overcoming the political obstaclesto reform.