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Explaining Privatization: Notes Towards a Predictive Theory
Author(s) -
Lundqvist Lennart J.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
scandinavian political studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.65
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-9477
pISSN - 0080-6757
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9477.1989.tb00085.x
Subject(s) - argument (complex analysis) , welfare , reductionism , welfare state , economics , positive economics , value (mathematics) , power (physics) , work (physics) , economic system , public economics , political science , market economy , law , epistemology , physics , quantum mechanics , machine learning , politics , mechanical engineering , biochemistry , chemistry , philosophy , computer science , engineering
This article starts from the assumption that some of the theoretical work used to explain welfare‐state expansion can be used ‘in reverse’ to explain privatization, here seen as welfare state contraction, i.e., the transfer from the public to the private sector of the responsibility for certain activities involved in welfare provision. To this end, valiants of the ‘power resources’ approach are examined. Finding that the ‘labour movement’ thesis does not have a strong predictive value, I then discuss the ‘game theoretical’ variant of the ‘power resources’ approach. Its usefulness for predicting privatization patterns seems limited because of the reductionism built into it. Following the neo‐Institutionalists' argument that actor preferences and strategies both reflect and form institutional arrangements of the welfare state, some institutional typologies are developed which are relevant to the course and patterns of privatization. An ideal‐type dichotomy between ‘pluralist’ and ‘corporatist’ institutions is discussed, in connection with a further delineation of decision‐making, financing, and implementing structures. In conclusion, an effort is made to combine actor‐oriented and institutional approaches to formulate some preliminary predictions about when and where certain patterns of privatization will occur.