The purpose of this study is to describe how eight countries developed their policies for families and children, and in particular the factors that led to the development of divergent strategies. The countries studied were Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Although much of the family policy literature tends to focus on the role of specific actors and institutions in the development of family policy, this paper considers the importance of values and ideas in explaining the emergence of very different family policies in these eight countries.