A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF FAMILY POLICY TO FERTILITY IN THAILAND AND FRANCE

Abstract

Thailand has encountered persisting low fertility than the replacement rate for more than two decades. Family policy is considered the potential tool to tackle the problems and France is the forerunner in implementing the mix-tool of this policy successfully. This study aims to comparatively examine the patterns of the French family policy mix and Thailand’s policy’s pattern to understand the differences and the policy gap. Based on Thévenon’s family policy model, the family policy can be classified into in-cash, in-kind, and in-time. The analysis shows that France and Thailand differ in welfare regimes and the perspectives of state duty on children and family. France has implemented varieties of mixed tools on a wide range of policy targets as well as their needs while Thailand has relatively much fewer interventions applied with residual models. France has motivated positive fertility decisions by enhancing governance and trust, however, Thailand still has a lot of room for this opportunity. Thus, Thailand should adopt the concept of family policy and extend the interventions to wider targets as well as meet the varied needs more universally. On top of that, the governance and trust in government are needed to be improved to sustain the fertility rate.