La provisión de servicios públicos municipales: ¿un movimiento pendular? / The provision of public social services: pendulum oscillations?

Abstract

The article aims at discussing the institutionalization of the delivery of public services (such as sanitation, waste management, etc.), and personal social services (such as elderly care) in selected European countries (UK, France, Germany and Sweden). In pursuing a historical approach, the paper analyzes the phases from the late 19th century, through the post WWII advanced welfare state, unto the neo-liberal marketization, and its aftermath are taken into account. The article is guided by two questions: First, whether and why the institutions of service delivery have shown across-country convergence or divergence during the distinct phases, and second, whether over time the institutional development has been “linear” or, in Polanyi’s image, “pendular”.

Keywords

• provision of public and social services
• neoliberal commercialization and modernization
• return to the municipal sector
• return of the civil society
• pendulum oscillations