Varieties of Marketization<subtitle>Introducing a new Framework for the Study of Market Reforms in Nordic Welfare States</subtitle>

Abstract

The article develops a new framework for the study of market reforms in Nordic welfare states based on a division between “markets”, “quasi-markets” and “pseudo-markets”. The two latter types of marketization have been the most common, and the article exemplifies them by revisiting the early 1990s Swedish school reform, “Friskolereformen”—which instigated a quasi-market for publicly funded schools run by both for-profit companies and non-profit actors—and the Norwegian hospital reform, “Foretaksreformen” of 2001—which created what we call a pseudo-market, in which public hospitals were reorganized to mimic the structures of capitalist enterprise. By discussing the different reforms in relation to justification, the type of welfare state sector, and the political orientation of the government implementing the reform, our study sheds new light on similarities and differences in marketization processes in the Nordics. Particularly, we find that the justification for the reforms differed, with the Swedish reform being justified in ideological terms and the Norwegian in technocratic terms. Contrary to some literature, we hold that marketization has fundamentally altered Nordic welfare states and the relationship between capital and society in the Nordics, and we suggest that our framework could be used for future comparative studies of market reforms.

Keywords

• privatization
• neoliberalism
• independent school reform
• health care reform
• marketization