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Where Is Municipal Marketisation Heading? Experiences from England and Scandinavia

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The Future of Local Self-Government

Abstract

Negative experiences, newer reform trends and local circumstances have challenged the reform doctrines of the New Public Management (NPM) and raised the question of whether reforms have entered a post-NPM era. We explore this question in a comparison of experiences with marketisation—a key doctrine in the NPM—within local park and road services in England, Sweden, Denmark and Norway. The comparison draws upon survey data collected from mid-level managers in 2014–16. We conclude that although marketisation is widespread it is not dominant. Also, the practices of marketisation are partly transformed by newer reform trends. In perspective, we find that marketisation is an evolving practice, which trajectories depend on local contextual circumstances and adaption of newer reform ideas.

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Correspondence to Andrej Christian Lindholst .

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Lindholst, A.C., Bretzer, Y.N., Dempsey, N., Leiren, M.D., Hansen, M.B. (2021). Where Is Municipal Marketisation Heading? Experiences from England and Scandinavia. In: Bergström, T., Franzke, J., Kuhlmann, S., Wayenberg, E. (eds) The Future of Local Self-Government. Palgrave Studies in Sub-National Governance. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56059-1_12

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