24 research outputs found
En pluralistisk maktordning? : om pensionÀrsorganisationernas politiska inflytande
In 1991, the Swedish Social Democratic government established the Pensionersâ Council at the Ministry of Social Affairs. The Councilâs purpose and structure were spelled out by the Government in a Commission of Inquiry Directive. According to this, the Council is to be a forum for deliberations between the Government and pensionersâ organizations. At the municipal level, Senior Citizens Councils have existed since the 1970s. They fill a similar purpose to that of the Pensionersâ Council at the central level, namely to be an arena for political discussions between representatives from pensionersâ organizations and the municipality. The purpose of this dissertation is two-fold. First, I describe the influence of pensionersâ organizations on the establishment of the pensionersâ councils and their political influence â potential as well as actual â in these councils. Second, I seek to explain the influence of pensionersâ organizations from a power resources perspective. By doing so, I hope to contribute to our knowledge of the relationship between the welfare state and organized interests. Does this relationship imply the existence of a corporatist or pluralistic power structure? Finally, I also hope to contribute to our understanding of the future development of the welfare state in the light of a global economy and aging population. The empirical investigation on the central level suggests that pensionersâ organizations influenced the decision to establish the Pensionersâ Council. Moreover, they had actual as well as potential political influence through the council since the early 1990s. There success in influencing government policy is due to the fact that pensionersâ organizations represent an important voting group and their employees have expert knowledge. At the local level, the empirical investigation suggests that pensionersâ organizations had influence on decisions made by municipalities to establish Senior Citizens Councils. However, opportunities to influence vary at the local level, and pensionersâ organizations actual political influence is limited. This limited influence can be explained as a consequence of pensionersâ organizations lack of an important power resource at the local level â employed expertise. It is argued in the dissertation that the empirical results do not suggest an existence of a corporatist power structure in social issues. Rather, they point to a pluralistic power structure â i.e. along side producer organizations, other organizations (such as those for welfare consumers) also have an important power position. This, in turn, limits the ability of politicians to cut welfare spending. The case of pensionersâ organizations therefore suggests that we cannot expect any drastic downsizing of the Swedish welfare state due to factors such as the globalization of the economy. In light of the aging population, the empirical results suggest that politicians will have to seek other solutions to be able to meet the challenge of financing welfare programs targeting the elderly than making drastic cutbacks in those programs
Decentraliserad Àldreomsorg under förvaltning
<p>Ăldreomsorgen i Sverige frĂ„n tidigt 1980-tal och framĂ„t prĂ€glas av en decentralisering av makt och ansvar frĂ„n central till lokal nivĂ„. FrĂ„n slutet av 1990-talet och framĂ„t finns det emellertid tecken pĂ„ att den statliga styrningen intensifierats genom regeringens utarbetande av handlings- och utvecklingsplaner. I studien undersöks under vilka former denna styrning Ă€ger rum. Handlar det om en styrning genom âmjukaâ typer av styrmedel, eller âhĂ„rdaâ styrmedel som lagstiftning? Hur skall valet av styrmedel förklaras? Enligt litteraturen om governance kan staten svĂ„rligen Ă„tergĂ„ till att styra genom traditionella styrmedel som lagstiftning. IstĂ€llet kan det förvĂ€ntas att staten anvĂ€nder âmjukaâ typer av styrmedel som âinformationâ, âöverenskommelserâ och âprojektpolitikâ. Detta antagande erhĂ„ller stöd frĂ„n slutsatserna av en empirisk studie av regeringens handlings- och utvecklingsplaner. Studien visar dessutom att regeringens val av dessa styrmedel kan förklaras i termer av en kompromiss mellan tvĂ„ disparata mĂ„l: Ă
ena sidan att Ästadkomma en ökad statlig styrning för att komma till rÀtta med de problem som fanns inom Àldreomsorgen, Ä andra sidan att respektera den ansvarsfördelning som upprÀttats mellan stat och kommun. Denna slutsats har dragits utifrÄn intervjuer med nyckelaktörer i arbetet med att utforma handlings- och utvecklingsplanerna.</p>
BokanmÀlan : Kommunala folkhemmet: Uppbyggnad, de gyllene Ären, nedmontering
Recension av Jan Sundberg, Stefan Sjöblom och Ingemar Wörlund, Kommunala folkhemmet: Uppbyggnad, de gyllene Ären, nedmontering, Santérus Academic Press, 2011. 336 sidor, hÀftad. ISBN: 9789173350273.</p
Conservation or disappearance? The public provider of home care services in a system of choice
This article aims to analyse the position of the public provider (i.e. share of recipients) of home-care services in Swedish municipalities with marketization: a system of choice. Following the literature, an assumption is that the public provider has difficulties in surviving the competition with private home-care providers. In addition, the relevancy of this assumption could differ between different municipal settings. To test this assumption, we use statistical analysis. The main result is that the public provider is a 'strong player' in most municipalities experiencing marketization. However, there exists a variation in this respect â the position varies between municipalities