Abstract
The privatization process changes reality in a way that strengthens actors with a clear interest in continuing privatization, while more ambivalent societal actors begin to abandon approaches and positions that were previously obvious to them. The chapter analyses the ambivalent actors, among which are found trade unions, non-profit organizations and some political parties. The ambivalent actors are often having a moral conflict between a defence of the Swedish welfare model and the adoption of a new one, based on semi-private funding of welfare. The non-profit organizations are often more antagonistic to the public system than to the for-profit welfare companies. By offering private health insurance to their members, white-collar unions have already taken a big step away from the principles of the universal welfare model.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Bernitz, U. (2011). Svensk och europeisk marknadsrätt 1, tredje upplagan. Stockholm: Norstedts Juridik AB.
Bode, I. (2006). Disorganized welfare mixes: Voluntary agencies and new governance regimes in Western Europe. Journal of European Social Policy,16(4), 346–359.
Cammack, P. (2018). Giddens’s way with words. In The third way and beyond. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Clegg, D., Graziano, P., & van Wijnbergen, C. (2010). Between sectionalism and revitalisation: Trade unions and activation policies in Europe.
Crouch, C. (2000). The snakes and ladders of 21st-century trade unionism. Oxford Review of Economic Policy,16(1), 70–83.
Dobbin, F. R. (1992). The origins of private social insurance: Public policy and fringe benefits in America, 1920–1950. American Journal of Sociology,97(5), 1416–1450.
Edwardsson, E. (2003). Konkurrenslagen och konkurrensbegränsande offentliga regleringar (Doctoral dissertation).
Evans, B., Richmond, T., & Shields, J. (2005). Structuring neoliberal governance: The nonprofit sector, emerging new modes of control and the marketisation of service delivery. Policy and Society,24(1), 73–97.
Finlayson, A. (2009). Financialisation, financial literacy and asset-based welfare. The British Journal of Politics and International Relations,11(3), 400–421.
Giddens, A. (1998). The third way: The renewal of social democracy. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Hacker, J. S. (2002). The divided welfare state: The battle over public and private social benefits in the United States. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Konkurrenslagsutredningen. (1997). Konkurrenslagen 1993–1996: betänkande av Konkurrenslagsutredningen. Stockholm: Fritze.
Lapidus, J. (2015). An odd couple: Individual wage setting and the largest Swedish trade union. Labor History,56(1), 1–21.
Pierson, P. (1996). The new politics of the welfare state. World Politics,48(2), 143–179.
Powell, M. (2000). New Labour and the third way in the British welfare state: A new and distinctive approach? Critical Social Policy,20(1), 39–60.
Salamon, L. M. (1987). Of market failure, voluntary failure, and third-party government: Toward a theory of government-nonprofit relations in the modern welfare state. Journal of Voluntary Action Research,16(1–2), 29–49.
Salamon, L. M. (1995). Partners in public service: Government-nonprofit relations in the modern welfare state. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Soss, J., & Schram, S. F. (2007). A public transformed? Welfare reform as policy feedback. American Political Science Review,101(1), 111–127.
Starr, P. (2008). The social transformation of American medicine: The rise of a sovereign profession and the making of a vast industry. New York: Basic Books.
Valentinov, V. (2012). Toward a critical systems perspective on the nonprofit sector. Systemic Practice and Action Research,25(4), 355–364.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lapidus, J. (2019). The Ambivalent Actors. In: The Quest for a Divided Welfare State. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24784-3_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24784-3_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-24783-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-24784-3
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)