Marketization in Local Government

Book excerpt: Marketization is one of the most powerful reform doctrines reshaping the organization of public service delivery throughout the last four decades. This book revisits conventional ideas and models of marketization and compares how these have diffused and evolved across municipalities in England and Scandinavia. The book highlights the paths and impacts of marketization as diverse and dynamic and asks us to reconsider what and how we think about marketization. The content of the book is co-authored by researchers from four countries and builds upon comparable surveys and case-studies from two longstanding ‘spearhead’ services – parks and roads – for the implementation of marketization. The book appeals to scholars and policy makers with interests in discussions about the history and future of marketization in an international perspective.