Abstract
This book contributes to putting a new type of actor in the welfare state into focus: for-profit firms as providers of social policy. The introduction shows that studying the rise of private sector providers promises insights into the politics of welfare state change. It summarizes the contribution of this book to a controversial scholarly debate about private providers, namely, the argument of constrained business power. The chapter closes with defining the subject of study, that is, markets and private sector providers of social policy, and with providing an overview of the cases, that is, hospitals and pensions in Germany and the UK.
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
Notes
- 1.
Between 2005 and 2009, Walter Riester , while being a member of parliament , earned a minimum of 237,000 EUR from talks for insurers , banks , and other financial industry firms (Deutscher Bundestag 2009).
- 2.
There is some overlap of the concepts of welfare markets and quasi-markets (Le Grand 1991). However, as to the supply side, Le Grand has put a special focus on non-profit providers, while the demand is publicly controlled and guaranteed. This definition of the supply side is not in line with the focus of this study on for-profit providers . Furthermore, Le Grand’s definition of the demand side does not cover pension markets.
- 3.
Note that some welfare markets in pensions include occupational pensions , for instance, when life insurers manage pension funds for employers.
- 4.
Note that the study of NHS policies is limited to England because the National Health Services in the UK largely differ with regard to management and legal rules. Throughout the study I will refer to England when discussing the NHS only, but I will use UK as a summarizing and simplifying label when discussing pensions and healthcare.
- 5.
I use the term ‘private pensions ’ to describe both occupational and individual pensions.
Bibliography
Armingeon, Klaus, Laura Knöpfel, David Weisstanner, Sarah Engler, Panajotis Potolidis, and Marlène Gerber. 2013. Comparative Political Data Set I 1960–2011. Bern: Institute of Political Science, University of Bern.
BBC. 2004. Profile: Alan Milburn. BBC Online, September 7. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3633738.stm last accessed on August 12, 2015.
Béland, Daniel, and Brian Gran. 2008. Public and Private Social Policy. Health and Pension Politics in a New Era. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.
Berner, Frank, Lutz Leisering, and Petra Buhr. 2009. Innenansichten eines Wohlfahrtsmarkts. Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie 61 (1): 56–89.
Bode, Ingo. 2008. The Culture of Welfare Markets. The International Recasting of Pension and Care Systems. New York: Routledge.
Brandt, Torsten, and Thorsten Schulten. 2007. Liberalisation and Privatisation of Public Services and the Impact on Labour Relations: A Comparative View from Six Countries in the Postal, Hospital, Local Public Transport and Electricity Sectors. Düsseldorf: Hans Böckler Stiftung.
Bundesamt für Statistik. 2010. Krankenhausstatistik. Neuchâtel: Bundesamt für Statistik.
Clasen, Jochen. 2005. Reforming European Welfare States. Germany and the United Kingdom Compared. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Davy, Ulrike. 2003. Systeme der nicht-staatlichen Alterssicherung in Großbritannien. Bielefeld: Universität Bielefeld.
Deutscher Bundestag. 2009. Walter Riester. http://webarchiv.bundestag.de/cgi/show.php?fileToLoad=1365&id=1118.
Dixon, John, and Mark Hyde. 2001. The Marketization of Social Security. Westport/London: Quorum Books.
Ebbinghaus, Bernhard. 2011. The Varieties of Pension Governance. Pension Privatization in Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ebbinghaus, Bernhard, and Tobias Wiß. 2011. The Governance and Regulation of Private Pensions in Europe. In The Varieties of Pension Governance. Pension Privatization in Europe, 351–383. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Esping-Andersen, Gøsta. 1985. Politics Against Markets: The Social Democratic Road to Power. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Esping-Andersen, Gosta. 1990. The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Farnsworth, Kevin. 2004. Corporate Power and Social Policy in a Global Economy: British Welfare Under the Influence. Bristol: Policy Press.
Gilbert, Neil. 1983. Capitalism and the Welfare State. Dilemmas of Social Benevolence. New Haven/London: Yale University Press.
Gingrich, Jane R. 2011. Making Markets in the Welfare State. The Politics of Varying Market Reforms. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Häusermann, Silja. 2010. The Politics of Welfare State Reform in Continental Europe: Modernization in Hard Times. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Heclo, Hugh. 1974. Modern Social Politics in Britain and Sweden: From Relief to Income Maintenance. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Kaiser Foundation. 2011. State Health Facts. http://kff.org/statedata/.
Klenk, Tanja, and Frank Nullmeier. 2010. Welfare Industries: Enterprises as Providers of Public Goods. Zeitschrift Für Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft 4 (1): 29–52.
Köppe, Stephan. 2015. Wohlfahrtsmärkte: Die Privatisierung von Bildung und Rente in Deutschland, Schweden und den USA. Frankfurt/New York: Campus Verlag.
Korpi, Walter. 2006. Power Resources and Employer-Centered Approaches in Explanations of Welfare States and Varieties of Capitalism: Protagonists, Consenters, and Antagonists. World Politics 58 (2): 167–206.
Korpi, Walter, and Joakim Palme. 2003. New Politics and Class Politics in the Context of Austerity and Globalization: Welfare State Regress in 18 Countries, 1975–95. American Political Science Review 97 (3): 425–446.
Le Grand, Julian. 1991. Quasi-Markets and Social Policy. The Economic Journal 101 (408): 1256–1267.
Leifeld, Philip. 2011. Discourse Networks and German Pension Politics. Konstanz: Universität Konstanz.
Leimgruber, Matthieu. 2012. The Historical Roots of a Diffusion Process: The Three-Pillar Doctrine and European Pension Debates (1972–1994). Global Social Policy 12 (1): 24–44.
Leisering, Lutz. 2011. The New Regulatory State Regulating Pensions in Germany and the UK. Houndmills: Palgrave.
Naczyk, Marek, and Bruno Palier. 2014. Feed the Beast: Finance Capitalism and the Spread of Pension Privatisation in Europe. In Conference Presentation: Annual Conference of the Society for the Advancement of Socio- Economics, Chicago, July 10–12.
Nullmeier, Frank. 2001. Sozialpolitik als marktregulative Politik. Zeitschrift für Sozialreform 47 (6): 645–667.
Nullmeier, Frank, and Franz-Xaver Kaufmann. 2010. Post-War Welfare State Development. In The Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State, 81–101. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Obinger, Herbert, and Uwe Wagschal. 2010. Social Expenditure and Revenues. In The Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State, ed. Francis G. Castles, Stephan Leibfried, Jane Lewis, Herbert Obinger, and Christopher Pierson, 333–352. New York: Oxford University Press.
OECD. 2011. Health Data: Health Care Resources. Paris: OECD.
———. 2014. OECD Factbook 2014. OECD Factbook. Paris: OECD.
Olesen, Jeppe Dørup. 2010. Adapting the Welfare State: Privatisation in Health Care in Denmark, England and Sweden. EUI PhD Theses, European University Institute, Florence.
Orenstein, Mitchell A. 2008. Privatization Pensions. The Transnational Campaign for Social Security Reform. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Palier, Bruno, and Claude Martin. 2007. From “a Frozen Landscape” to Structural Reforms: The Sequential Transformation of Bismarckian Welfare Systems. Social Policy & Administration 41 (6): 535–554.
Pierson, Paul. 1994. Dismantling the Welfare State? Reagan, Thatcher, and the Politics of Retrenchment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
———. 1996. The New Politics of the Welfare State. World Politics 48 (2): 143–179.
———. 1998. Irresistible Forces, Immovable Objects: Post-industrial Welfare States Confront Permanent Austerity. Journal of European Social Policy 5 (4): 539–560.
PricewaterhouseCoopers. 2013. Alan Milburn Will Chair New PwC Health Industry Oversight Board. May 22. http://pwc.blogs.com/northern-ireland/2013/05/alan-milburn-will-chair-new-pwc-health-industry-oversight-board.html last accessed on August 12, 2015.
Starke, Peter. 2006. The Politics of Welfare State Retrenchment: A Literature Review. Social Policy & Administration 40 (1): 104–120.
Statistisches Bundesamt. 2011. Grunddaten der Krankenhäuser 2010. Wiesbaden: Statistisches Bundesamt.
Streeck, Wolfgang. 2009. Re-forming Capitalism. Institutional Change in the German Political Economy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
———. 2011. The Crises of Democratic Capitalism. New Left Review 71: 5–29.
Svallfors, Stefan. 2010. Public Attitudes. In The Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State, ed. Francis G. Castles, Stephan Leibfried, Jane Lewis, Herbert Obinger, and Christopher Pierson, 241–251. New York: Oxford University Press.
Taylor-Gooby, Peter. 1999. Markets and Motives Trust and Egoism in Welfare Markets. Journal of Social Policy 28 (1): 97–114.
Taylor-Gooby, Peter, Trine P. Larsen, and Johannes Kananen. 2004. Market Means and Welfare Ends: The UK Welfare State Experiment. Journal of Social Policy 33 (4): 573–592.
Wendt, Claus, Lorraine Frisina, and Heinz Rothgang. 2009. Healthcare System Types: A Conceptual Framework for Comparison. Social Policy & Administration 43 (1): 70–90.
Willert, Michaela. 2013. Regulierte Wohlfahrtsmärkte: Private Altersvorsorge in Deutschland und Großbritannien. Frankfurt am Main: Campus.
Zapf, Wolfgang. 1984. Welfare Production: Public Versus Private. Social Indicators Research 14: 263–274.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Pieper, J. (2018). Introduction. In: New Private Sector Providers in the Welfare State. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62563-8_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62563-8_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-62562-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-62563-8
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)