Public and Personal Social Services in European Countries from Public/Municipal to Private—and Back to Municipal and “Third Sector” Provision

Abstract

This article discusses the provision of public services (public utilities) and personal social services in European countries. In pursuing a historical perspective, four stages are discerned: the pre-welfare state of the late nineteenth century; the advanced welfare state climaxing in the 1970s; the neo-liberal policy phase since the early 1980s; and the recent phase since the mid-2000s. It is argued that, during each phase, the prevalent organizational form of service provision (whether municipal/public, private, or third sector) was shaped by the current dominant political beliefs and discourse; that is, by the "social democratic" assumption of the operational preference of public/municipal sector provision until the 1970s and the neo-liberal trust in the operational superiority of market liberalization and privatization. In the recent phase since the mid-2000s, divergent trends are observed. On the one hand, the neo-liberal market and privatization drive has persisted while, on the other, in reaction to the downturn of the neo-liberal policy tenets and the socio-economic fallout of fiscal austerity policies, a comeback of the public/municipal sector (remunicipalization) in public service provision and a (re-)emergence of third sector organizations and actors in the provision of personal social services and care have taken shape, somewhat reminiscent of the pre-welfare state engagement of societal actors.

Comparing user and community co-production approaches in local ‘welfare’ and ‘law and order’ services: Does the governance mode matter?

“…However, the new social insurance scheme in the mid-1990s meant a reduced role for both welfare associations and local authorities as providers of social services for elderly people with care needs (Bönker et al., 2010). This legislation implied an increasing role of private providers and partly replaced the old corporatist structures by more market-like contracts (Wollmann, 2018: 419). However, traditional corporatist structures remained more resilient in childcare and other services for children and young people (Grohs, 2010) so that, ‘despite all the attempts to create a level playing field, the welfare associations kept their strong voice in local decision-making’ (Bönker et al., 2016: 78).…”

“…The research in this paper focuses on co-production of social services and public safety at local government level. In an administrative law country such as Germany, all public services are shaped by the constraints of the ‘law and order state’; however, this is not the whole picture – historically, personal social services have also been shaped by the opportunities offered by the strong focus on subsidiarity in the ‘social welfare state’ (Wollmann, 2018: 416). This research therefore builds on and extends the research by Voorberg et al.…”

Corporate governance and sustainability in water utilities. The effects of decorporatisation in the city of Naples, Italy

“…Although the involvement of the private sector in public utilities has sometimes generated positive results in terms of efficiency, moreover, privatisations do not always allow to achieve environmental and social sustainability (Lieberherr & Truffer, 2015). Such problems led to remunicipalisation (Mayne & Vigoda‐Gadot, 2018; Wollmann, 2018), reverse privatisation, contracting back in and decorporatisation (McDonald, 2016a, 2016b). In other words, when privatisations failed to achieve the targets set, local authorities were forced to reintroduce some form of public provision of the services that had previously been contracted out (Hailu, Osorio, & Tsukada, 2012; Hefetz & Warner, 2004; Warner et al, 2003).…”

The rise and fall (?) of public-private partnerships in Israel’s local government

“…Remunicipalization of local service delivery -the transfer of privatised services back to direct municipal provision -has attracted growing attention in the second decade of the 21 st century (Wollmann, Koprić, and Marcou 2016). Remunicipalization was identified initially in water and sewage services (Pigeon et al 2012) and in the energy sector (Hall, Lobina, and Terhorst 2013), followed by diverse services in many countries (Reynolds, Royer, and Beresford 2016;Wollmann 2018). A retreat from MPP by not extending concessions or through buybacks before the end of term can be viewed as remunicipalization.…”