Conditions and impacts of welfare mix

• Segaard, Signe Bock (2022). Political changemakers in Norway: The strategies and political ideas of welfare providers. Acta Sociologica. p. 1–17. doi: 10.1177/00016993221088785. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This article contributes to the knowledge of interest groups’ political power. It examines how interest groups shape political debates and decision-making, and what strategies are most successful to this end, through an in-depth case study analysis of the Norwegian transposition of the revised EU policy on public procurement. The case is unique as it illustrates a policy process that changed direction at the eleventh hour, embodies an ideational fight between different views of a good society, and—surprisingly—concludes in favour of non-profit interests. Based on hearing statements, media items, transcripts from the final parliamentary debate on the matter, and interviews with leaders of interest groups, the article demonstrates that the ability to coordinate action and frame and control the public and political debate was a vital power resource for non-profit interests, who did so using a broad range of both direct and indirect strategies. The political ideas advanced through these two strategies were nearly identical; however, the indirect strategy was more personified and strongly emphasised normative conflict.

• Sivesind, Karl Henrik; Trætteberg, Håkon Solbu & Fladmoe, Audun (2022). Active citizenship in public and nonprofit schools – the case of Norway. Journal of Educational Administration & History. 55(4), p. 361–380. doi: 10.1080/00220620.2022.2081135. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Countries increasingly out-contract public education to private providers to inspire competition and development, but there is limited research on the consequences. This article compares the parents’ room for active citizenship in public and nonprofit compulsory schools in Norway. It analyses a large-scale parental survey by multi-level regressions (OLS) of school-choice, internal empowerment, external participation in governance, and satisfaction with dialogue and collaboration, while controlling for school- and municipality-level factors. Parents’ reasons for choosing free schools are mainly perceived quality, profile, or previous dissatisfaction — not location as in public schools. Although parents are in general satisfied, there is a small but significantly higher level in free schools related to internal empowerment. Thus, stakeholder influence makes a difference, even in a society promoting active citizenship more broadly. The Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training conducted the survey in 2018–2019, targeting more than 20,000 parents in 160 public and 25 free schools.

• Trætteberg, Håkon Solbu & Fladmoe, Audun (2020). Does educational inequality predict exercise of users' choice? Survey evidence from domiciliary care services among elderly in Oslo, Norway. Social Policy & Administration. doi: 10.1111/spol.12589. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The traditional goal of equality in services remains at the heart of the Scandinavian welfare model; however, in recent decades, policymakers have also placed increased emphasis on user influence over services. Voice and choice are two channels to achieve this goal. The possibility to give feedback and voicing dissatisfaction to service providers (voice) is a well‐established channel of service users' influence, however it is increasingly supplemented by user choice schemes (choice), where one can choose between different public and private service providers. We use the case of domiciliary care for the elderly to examine how the traditional goal of user equality is associated with the growing emphasis on user influence through voice and choice. The analyses are based on user surveys carried out by the municipality in the city of Oslo, which is arguably the only municipality in Norway where user choice plays a significant role in elderly care. Since the municipality subsidizes the private providers, individual economic resources should have less relevance. However, voicing dissatisfaction and choosing between different providers may anticipate cognitive resources that are not equally distributed among the users. The survey data indicate that there is an association between level of education and propensity to exploit all channels of user influence. Expanding user influence by introducing user choice thus confirms the differences between highly educated and less educated.

• Segaard, Signe Bock; Brookes, Nadia & Pahl, Joachim Benedikt (2020). What Shapes National Responses to EU Public Procurement Policy? The Case of Health and Social Services in Norway, Germany and England. Scandinavian Journal of Public Administration (SPJA). 24(1), p. 25–48. doi: 10.58235/sjpa.v24i1.8623. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This article investigates responses to EU public procurement directives in Norway, England and Germany, with a particular focus on health and social services. We used a comparative national patterns approach to analyse parliamentary debates, consultative statements, the media and interviews with stakeholders. The literature contains prominent arguments suggesting that health and social service governance regimes are converging on the liberal model. Some authors argue that with its focus on policies which create markets, the EU is a driving force with an increasing relevance for market-based governance practices. However, the role of EU legislation is unclear as procurement regimes in relation to the governance of health and social services constitute a highly ambiguous terrain. Our study enabled us to show that the form of the debate is highly dependent on path-dependent mechanisms and the degree of openness of the national political system that provides channels for interests to be articulated. Indeed, the Norwegian case study serves as an excellent example of why marketisation has not advanced to the degree predicted in the literature: an inclusive and open political system and a strong non-profit health and service sector meant that the non-profit groups managed to turn the debate in their favour.

• Trætteberg, Håkon Solbu & Fladmoe, Audun (2020). Quality differences of public, for-profit and non-profit providers in Scandinavian welfare? User satisfaction in kindergartens. VOLUNTAS - International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations. 31(1), p. 153–167. doi: 10.1007/s11266-019-00169-6. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Research on differences between public, for-profit, and nonprofit providers of welfare services have provided mixed findings, depending on welfare state arrangement, regulation, and service area. This paper’s objective is to study the differences between public, nonprofit (cooperatives and other nonprofits), and for-profit welfare providers from the perspective of the users in the tightly regulated Scandinavian context. We ask how the users perceive the providers from different sectors differently, and how this variation can be explained. The study relies on a large-scale survey carried out in 2015 in the city of Oslo, Norway. From the survey, we identify two main results. First, despite limited differences, users of nonprofit kindergartens are generally more satisfied than users of for-profit and public kindergartens. Second, an important explanation for variations in user satisfaction among kindergartens is identified in a pocket of regulatory leniency: the quality of food service. This is the only expense that varies among kindergartens in Norway. These results indicate that more lenient regulations could potentially increase provider distinctiveness. Based on existing literature we discuss why nonprofit providers seem to fare better in the minds of users than public and for-profit providers.

• Segaard, Signe Bock; Brookes, Nadia & Benedikt, Pahl Joachim (2019). Tre tolkningar av EU-direktivet om offentlig upphandling: Norge, Tyskland och England. In Larsson, Ola Segnestam (Eds.), Upphandlad. Forskarperspektiv på offentlig upphandling inom vård och omsorg. Idealistas Förlag. p. 53–85. Full text in Research Archive
• Saglie, Jo & Sivesind, Karl Henrik (2018). Civil society institutions or semi-public agencies? State regulation of parties and voluntary organizations in Norway. Journal of Civil Society. 14(4), p. 292–310. doi: 10.1080/17448689.2018.1518769. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The relationship between the Norwegian State on the one hand, and political parties and voluntary organizations on the other, has traditionally been based on mutual trust. To assess the claim that civil society institutions are developing towards ‘semi-public agencies’, we review state regulation of Norwegian voluntary organizations and political parties. The State does demand more accountability and transparency in return for public funding, but many aspects are also regulated scarcely or not at all. This indicates that substantial mutual trust remains. This relationship might be characterized as a partnership based on interdependence, rather than colonization.

• Trætteberg, Håkon Solbu (2018). Stability and Change in Scandinavian Welfare: The Nonprofit Sector as a Buffer against For-Profit Expansion. In Engelstad, Fredrik; Holst, Cathrine & Aakvaag, Gunnar C. (Ed.), Democratic State and Democratic Society. De Gruyter Open. p. 273–295. doi: 10.1515/9783110634082-014. Full text in Research Archive
• Lindén, Tord Skogedal; Fladmoe, Audun & Christensen, Dag Arne (2017). Does the Type of Service Provider Affect User Satisfaction? Public, For-Profit and Nonprofit Kindergartens, Schools and Nursing Homes in Norway. In Sivesind, Karl Henrik & Saglie, Jo (Ed.), Promoting Active Citizenship : Markets and Choice in Scandinavian Welfare. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 261–284. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-55381-8_7. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Does the type of service provider affect user satisfaction? This chapter compares public, for-profit and nonprofit kindergartens, schools and nursing homes in Norway based on recent survey data. Our data allow us to identify respondents with actual experience with specific services and to distinguish between different welfare providers. We found that user satisfaction with private schools and kindergartens is higher than with corresponding public providers. Similarly, for-profit kindergartens enjoy slightly higher levels of user satisfaction than nonprofit providers. In sum, however, differences in user satisfaction are small, and given an overall high level of satisfaction, one should be careful placing too much emphasis on variations between different providers of welfare services in Norway.

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• Sivesind, Karl Henrik; Trætteberg, Håkon Solbu & Fladmoe, Audun (2021). Active citizenship in public and nonprofit schools – the case of Norway. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Countries increasingly out-contract public education to private providers to inspire competition and development, but there is limited research on the consequences. This article compares the parents’ room for active citizenship in public and nonprofit compulsory schools in Norway. First, it reviews previous research, theoretical perspectives, and legal and institutional context. Second, it analyses a large-scale parental survey by multi-level regressions (OLS) of school-choice, internal empowerment, external participation in governance, and satisfaction with dialogue and collaboration, while controlling for school- and municipality-level factors. Although parents are in general satisfied, there is a small but significantly higher level in free schoo related to internal empowerment. This indicates that stakeholder influence makes a difference, even in a society promoting active citizenship more broadly in welfare services. Parents’ reasons for choosing free schoo are mainly perceived quality, profile, or previous dissatisfaction, and not location as in public schools. Although just 4.2 percent go to free schoo, the reported motives indicate that the opportunity to choose has strong implications for active citizenship. The Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training conducted the survey in 2018–2019, targeting more than 20 000 parents or guardians of pupils in 160 public and 25 free schools in 45 municipalities.

• Sivesind, Karl Henrik; Trætteberg, Håkon Solbu & Fladmoe, Audun (2021). Active citizenship in public and nonprofit schools. Full text in Research Archive
• Sivesind, Karl Henrik (2020). Idéburen välfärd i Norden och Europa. Var sker tillväxt och vilka är de institutionella tillväxtfaktorerna? Full text in Research Archive
• Sivesind, Karl Henrik (2019). Nye tall om ideelle velferd og frivillig sektor. Full text in Research Archive
• Trætteberg, Håkon Solbu (2019). Ideelle organisasjoner i norsk velferd. Full text in Research Archive
• Sivesind, Karl Henrik (2019). Konsekvenser av markedsstyring for ideelle velferdsaktører. Norge sammenlignet med Storbritannia og Tyskland. Full text in Research Archive
• Trætteberg, Håkon Solbu & Fladmoe, Audun (2019). Private, ideelle barnehager har de mest fornøyde foreldrene. Full text in Research Archive
• Trætteberg, Håkon Solbu & Fladmoe, Audun (2019). Active citizenship for all? Evidence from home care services in Oslo, Norway. Full text in Research Archive
• Trætteberg, Håkon Solbu (2019). Endringer i ideelle velferdsaktørers sysselsetting og rolle. Full text in Research Archive
• Sivesind, Karl Henrik (2019). Om ideelle velferdsaktører og endringer på feltet. Full text in Research Archive
• Sivesind, Karl Henrik (2018). Konsekvenser av markedsstyring for ideelle velferdsaktører. Norge sammenlignet med Storbritannia og Tyskland. Full text in Research Archive
• Sivesind, Karl Henrik (2018). Will user choice reduce equal opportunities in Scandinavian compulsory education? Full text in Research Archive
• Sivesind, Karl Henrik (2018). Endringer i ideelle velferdsaktørers sysselsetting og rolle. Full text in Research Archive
• Sivesind, Karl Henrik (2018). Organized panel: "Third Sector Organizations in Health and Social Care Services in Norway, UK and Germany". Full text in Research Archive
• Segaard, Signe Bock; Brookes, Nadia & Pahl, Joachim Benedikt (2018). Decisive factors for national political discourses on EU policies for public procurement. The conditions for non-profit health and social service providers. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This paper investigates responses to the 2014 EU public procurement directives in Norway, Germany and the UK, representing three distinctive welfare paradigms. The research question is: What are the decisive factors for national discourses in the implementation process of the EU public procurement regulation? Based on the content of national parliament debates, consultation statements and media coverage, with a particular focus on discourses on the conditions for non-profit providers of publicly funded health and social services, the study explores the extent national discourses are driven by institutional and ideological path dependency or political conflict among national political actors. The paper concludes with a discussion on EU as a driver for policy harmonization across borders. The paper shows that the influence of the welfare context, its norms and values (path dependency) are important in understanding how supranational policies for public procurement are interpreted, but that the existence or absence of intra-national political conflict is also a factor. Thus, harmonization of policy areas is challenging

• Sivesind, Karl Henrik; Zimmer, Annette & Kendall, Jeremy (2018). Differences in Third Sector Welfare Models in Norway, UK and Germany. Full text in Research Archive
• Segaard, Signe Bock & Sivesind, Karl Henrik (2018). The Power of Nonprofit Actors in Policy Making Process.Analyzing Interest Group Strategies that Changed the Implementation of an EU Directive in Norway. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The focus of this paper is on the role and power of nonprofit actors during the implementation process of the new EU policies for public procurement in the health and social service area. Norway has one of the smallest nonprofit shares of welfare employment in Western Europe. It has been a blind spot in the debate about out-contracting of public services to private actors. In line with this, the conservative coalition government proposed a more restrictive law than the EU-directive that would increase competition for contracts between nonprofit and for-profit providers. The nonprofit stakeholders and umbrella organizations strongly opposed this in media-discussions and hearings, and they succeeded in getting a majority of the parliament committee to support their view. The new law embraces the EU-directive’s full potential for promoting nonprofit providers with reserved contracts, higher threshold values, and in services that involve exercise of official authority. We ask: How did the Norwegian nonprofit welfare providers succeed in promoting their interests through the debate, resulting in the parliament passing a more supportive law than the government proposed? We answer the question by means of a research design based on content analysis of national parliament debates, consultative statements from stakeholders, and the media coverage in connection to the Norwegian implementation processes of the new EU directives on public procurement and concession contracts. Additionally, the design includes interviews with key actors in the implementation process. These data make it possible to identify the strategies of the non-profit sector umbrella organizations, which can be related to previous research on different interest group strategies: direct contacts to bureaucrats and parliamentarians and indirect activities such as media campaigns and mobilizations of members. The minority government meant that it was possible to get influence by appealing to general interests in order to build broader coalitions in the parliament. The most important outcome was that the third sector welfare providers are recognized as distinctive and valuable contributors in the welfare service area. The same recognition was not achieved in Sweden that went through a similar legal process at the same time. This makes it important to analyze the interest group strategies and the relations that was built with the administration in the ministries, with politician in different parties, and how media were brought in to play.

• Sivesind, Karl Henrik (2018). Endringer i ideelle velferdsaktørers rolle og politiske rammebetingelser. Full text in Research Archive
• Trætteberg, Håkon Solbu & Fladmoe, Audun (2018). User satisfaction with public, for-profit and nonprofit providers in the Scandinavian welfare model: The case of kindergartens in the City of Oslo. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  One of the most noteworthy developments in recent years in the Scandinavian welfare mix is the growth of non-public welfare providers. This change is politically contested, and a rapid increase in for-profit providers of welfare services has spurred talks of a potential marginalization of the nonprofit sector as the main partner to public providers of welfare. The aim of this paper is to study differences between public, nonprofit and for-profit welfare providers in the Scandinavian welfare context through the opinions of users of kindergartens in Oslo, the capital of Norway. Kindergartens in Norway, irrespective of service provider, are strictly regulated, and the potential for distinctiveness is limited. Relying on a large scale survey on user satisfaction carried out in 2015, satisfaction with different aspects of kindergartens is analyzed. The results suggest that, firstly, a majority of the users are satisfied with kindergartens, and variations between users of public, for-profit and nonprofit providers are limited. Second, although the differences between providers are limited users of nonprofit kindergartens are generally more satisfied than users of for-profit and public kindergartens, and the differences are largest when it comes to satisfaction with physical infrastructure. Third, an important explanation for variations in user satisfaction between kindergartens is the quality of the food service. Food service is of particular interest because food cost is the only cost that varies between kindergartens in Norway. This result therefore indicates that a more lenient regulation could potentially increase provider distinctiveness. The paper ends with a discussion of different theories of why nonprofit kindergartens seem to outperform public and for-profits when it comes to user satisfaction.

• Sivesind, Karl Henrik (2018). Blir skandinaviske velferdstjenester svekket av markedsreformer? Forholdet mellom offentlige, kommersielle og ideelle velferdstilbydere. Tidsskrift for velferdsforskning. 21(1), p. 70–76. doi: 10.18261/issn.2464-3076-2018-01-05. Full text in Research Archive
• Sivesind, Karl Henrik (2018). Will user choice reduce equal opportunities in Scandinavian compulsory education? Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Compulsory education in Scandinavia is known for its strong emphasis on a unitary, publicly funded and regulated school system, designed to promote social mobility and equal access to high quality education. While these welfare goals remain more or less unchanged, there are currently increasing divergences among the Scandinavian countries in the regulation of how compulsory education can get public approval and funding with implications for education as a comprehensive project. The Scandinavian model of education after World War II was built on the assumption that equal opportunities would put all human resources at full use and develop a sense of belonging and mutual understanding, with a special emphasis on supporting people in remote regions. These goals implied strong political coordination with a public trust within a professional-bureaucratic state (Maroy, 2012). In contrast, in a user choice model with simplified rules for establishment of private service units, and funding per user along with a quasi-market model, more weight was put on individual responsibility for choosing services with the suitable profile and quality. Sweden is a latecomer among the Scandinavian countries when it comes to private alternatives in education. In Denmark, almost 20 percent of students attend private schools in a user-choice system that has existed for 150 years (Wiborg, 2013). The free schools are nonprofit organizations that receive financial support from the government but have few legal restrictions on the educational content. Norway has a similar but less liberal system for nonprofit private schools, in which only 3 percent of the student population attends (Volckmar, 2008). In order to obtain public funding, these schools must offer established alternatives to the public school system in terms of pedagogies, religion, or an international dimension. At the same time, the core curriculum must be equivalent to that of public schools. Also in Sweden, teaching in private and public schools is subject to the same laws, which does not encourage diversity in educational profiles as in Denmark, which indicates a highly regulated system despite implementing a quasi-market model. Being a country in lead, during the nineties, Sweden adopted quasi-market principles and introduced a voucher system that allowed for-profit schools to compete with the public system. A goal was to create the best school system in Europe, but a drop in PISA results indicated that this has not yet been accomplished (Blossing & Söderström 2014). The reform did succeed in raising the share of students in private schools from 1 to 15 percent. This was a radical break with a social democratic policy of using public service provision to combat poverty and social inequality. This paper argues that different implementations of school choice have important consequences for the private schools,’ not merely in terms of educational programs, but by the relations with parents, civil society organizations, public authorities, and owners. Therefore, the Scandinavian countries may be seen as a ‘natural experiment’; the school systems are regulated by the same overall goal to provide equal opportunities for all, but use different organizational structures and governance modes to accomplish this overall goal, which begs the question: Which of the three implementation models of school choice in Sweden, Norway and Denmark has the best potential for achieving the promise of equal opportunity for all? The comparative study demonstrates that parents with high levels of social capital are more concerned about choosing schools with the best results, while others may be more concerned to associate with social networks (peer effects). This is in particular a trait of the Swedish education system which has introduced vouchers within compulsory education. This pattern of user choice makes it more difficult to accomplish equal access to high quality education for all.

• Trætteberg, Håkon Solbu (2018). Ideelle aktører i den skandinaviske velferdsmodellen. Full text in Research Archive
• Trætteberg, Håkon Solbu (2017). Ideelles merverdi - hva er den og hvordan vises den i dag? Full text in Research Archive
• Sivesind, Karl Henrik & Trætteberg, Håkon Solbu (2017). God privat velferd mulig? Undervurderer hindre for effektive velferdsmarkeder. Full text in Research Archive
• Trætteberg, Håkon Solbu (2017). Ideelles merverdi - hva er den og hvordan vises den i dag? Full text in Research Archive
• Sivesind, Karl Henrik (2017). Ideelle velferdsaktørers omfang og rolle. Full text in Research Archive
• Sivesind, Karl Henrik (2017). De ideelles handlingsrom og påvirkningsmuligheter i utformingen av ny velferdspolitikk. Full text in Research Archive
• Sivesind, Karl Henrik (2017). Nyere forskning om ideelle organisasjoner. Full text in Research Archive
• Sivesind, Karl Henrik (2017). The role of nonprofit organizations in the modern welfare society. Full text in Research Archive
• Sivesind, Karl Henrik (2017). Hva er en ideell aktør. Full text in Research Archive
• Sivesind, Karl Henrik (2017). Velferdskapitalismen. [Journal]. Dag og tid. Full text in Research Archive
• Sivesind, Karl Henrik (2016). Ideell og snill? Velferd på anbud. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Hva skjer i møtet mellom offentlig og private tilbydere på velferdsfeltet? Hvilken rolle spiller de ideelle aktørene? Og hva skjer når tjenestene blir rekommunalisert? Deltakere: Karl Henrik Sivesind, forsker ved Institutt for samfunnsforskning, Jon Mathias Hippe, Fafo, Mette Kalve, direktør N.K.S. Kløverinstitusjoner og koordinator for Ideelt nettverk, Petter Furulund, administrerende direktør i NHO Service, Bård Hoksrud, stortingsrepresentant FrP (bildet), Torgeir Micaelsen, stortingsrepresentant AP Møteleder er Inger Lise Skog Hansen, Fafo.

• Sivesind, Karl Henrik (2016). Sivilsamfunnets rolle i et fremtidsperspektiv. Full text in Research Archive
• Sivesind, Karl Henrik (2016). Velferdsstaten i et nordisk lys. Full text in Research Archive

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