Beyond left and right: Socio-cultural determinants of parenting leave policy in advanced democracies

Abstract

This study examines the political determinants of parenting leave policy across 21 OECD countries from 1970 to 2021. While prior research has linked parenting leave expansion to social democratic and Christian democratic governments, this paper argues that party positions in the two-dimensional ideological space—socio-economic left–right and socio-cultural libertarian–authoritarian—better explain policy preferences. Using mixed-effects ordered logit models, the analysis reveals that socio-cultural rather than socio-economic positions drive parenting leave expansion. Governments with libertarian socio-cultural orientations are more likely to extend paid maternity, paternity, and parental leave for both mothers and fathers. These findings remain robust even when controlling for party family, indicating that the influence of Christian democratic and social democratic governments stems from their shifts towards libertarian positions. The study provides new insights into the partisan determinants of parenting leave policy, highlighting the role of socio-cultural competition in shaping welfare state transformations in post-industrial democracies.