The compatibility of public poor relief with private, in particular faith-based, charity is a long-debated issue. Our contribution offers a historical reflection by analysing the evolving discourses of Catholic charity in nineteenth-century Belgium. We highlight its somewhat ambiguous self-imagery and evaluate its (un)willingness to cooperate with official provisions. Belgian Catholics at first sought to complement and even to infiltrate the public structures created under French rule, but rising ideological tensions on the issue in Belgian society from 1850 onwards made them realise that the clock couldn’t be turned back. A further expansion or more pronounced agency of public provisions, however, was considered unwanted and unnecessary. The Belgian Church eagerly defended the pre-eminence of private charity provisions, considering them to be more community-embedded, encompassing, efficient, flexible and innovative. Religious charity was portrayed as morally pre-eminent, much more committed and interpersonal, with strong connotations of vocation, pastorate, penance and salvation emerging from its transcendental perspective. Given this mindset, it was far from self-evident that a division of tasks with public poor relief should be sought. While nineteenth-century Belgian Catholics repeatedly made public appeals for pragmatism and cooperation, the continued expansion of their charitable networks and the associated discourses reveal an inherently competitive strategy and a continuous, even growing conviction that upheld the superiority of private initiative.
During the interwar and postwar decades, until the dawn of the 1960s, the Belgian retail sector remained very traditional and overcrowded. In that context literature usually points to the Belgian law of 1936/1937 restricting the expansion of department stores. This article outlines the history of this so-called Padlock Law (Loi de Cadenas/Grendelwet), evaluates its effectiveness and impact. It tries to answer the question as to why the public debate on retailing in Belgium was caught in a deadlock and, specifically, why prohibitive measures against big distribution remained intact for such a long period. It demonstrates how the political dossier of the Padlock was interlinked with a much broader societal debate, that of the survival of the independent classes moyennes/middenstand. The Padlock became a highly symbolic issue, pitting small, family enterprise against big, capitalistic business, with all this linked to powerful social perceptions and powered by the dichotomy of modernity versus tradition. In the highly segmented and pillarized Belgian society, reaching a consensus on the modernization of retail was only possible after clearly incorporating small independent enterprise into the post-war neocorporatist welfare state and into its structures of collective bargaining.
In her 2021 State of the Union address, delivered against the backdrop of a raging covid-19 pandemic, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced a new European Care Strategy. If the pandemic had taught us one thing, Von der Leyen argued, it was the value of time spent with those close to us. The European Care Strategy was therefore intended "to support men and women in finding the best care and the best life balance for them."1 The news was welcomed by the European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities, whose president Luk Zelderloo, in commenting on the strategy, referred to the notion of balance on a wider scale: "[the strategy should outline] how to divide responsibilities between public authorities, notfor-profit and social economy providers and those who draw on care services."2 When the European Care Strategy was launched in 2022, it emphasized the importance of work-life balance for informal caregivers, a clear regulatory framework for public and private initiatives and a shared commitment of all stakeholders.3 1 "2021 State of the Union Address by President von der Leyen," European Commission, https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/ov/SPEECH_21_4701, accessed 18 October 2022. 2 "Yes dear President, we are with you!" European Association of Service providers for Persons with Disabilities, https://easpd.eu/press-releases-detail/yes-dear-president-we-are-withyou/#:~:text=European%20Commission%20President%20Ursula%20von,on%20their%20 agenda%20for%202022, accessed 18 October 2022.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.