Opinion-policy correspondence in public provision and financing of childcare in Europe

Citizens’ preferences regarding who should provide and finance childcare and whether these preferences are linked to the current policies in place have been understudied. Two sets of multilevel analyses are conducted to determine whether the current governmental involvement in childcare provision and financing is supported by the citizens in European countries and the results are discussed in relation to political representation and issue salience. In countries where public provision and financing are more prominent, the demand for public childcare is higher. Citizens support public childcare more in countries where the government is more involved in childcare provision and financing.