Making Markets in the Welfare State: The Politics of Varying Market Reforms(Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics)

Over the past three decades, market reforms have transformed public services such as education, health, and care of the elderly. Whereas previous studies present markets as having similar and largely non-political effects, this book shows that political parties structure markets in diverse ways to achieve distinct political aims. Left-wing attempts to sustain the legitimacy of the welfare state are compared with right-wing wishes to limit the state and empower the private sector. Examining a broad range of countries, time periods, and policy areas, Jane R. Gingrich helps readers make sense of the complexity of market reforms in the industrialized world. The use of innovative multi-case studies and in-depth interviews with senior European policymakers enriches the debate and brings clarity to this multifaceted topic. Scholars and students working on the policymaking process in this central area will be interested in this new conceptualization of market reform.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction; 2. Markets and politics; 3. The rise of markets; 4. Health care markets; 5. Education markets; 6. Markets in elderly care; 7. Conclusion.

About the Author :
Jane Gingrich is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota. She received her PhD in 2007 from the University of California, Berkeley, and was a Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute from 2008 to 2009. Her research interests focus on comparative social policy, political parties and administrative reform.

Review :
'[Making Markets in the Welfare State] is a path-breaking work that turns conventional wisdom about health reform on its head. Its argument resonates in any policy area where market incentives are under discussion.' Robert Henry Cox, University of Oklahoma 'How governments deliver public services is being transformed across the modern world. Jane Gingrich's excellent book [Making Markets in the Welfare State] helps us understand how this transformation is changing the lives of both the recipients of public services and those who produce those services. Examining the modern evolution of market principles, Gingrich offers a nuanced and powerful analysis of one of the most important and misunderstood public policy innovations of our time.' Sven Steinmo, European University Institute 'This theoretically astute and carefully crafted study of market-oriented public-sector reforms fills a huge lacuna in our understanding of the changes that West European welfare states have undergone over the last 30 years. Gingrich's terrific book also makes original and important contributions to the literature on partisan politics and to the literature on the institutional embeddedness of markets.' Jonas Pontusson, Professor of Comparative Politics, University of Geneva