(The Difficult Art of) Outsourcing Welfare Services: Experiences from Sweden and New Zealand

A main enduring element of New Public Management-type reforms seems to be a new division of labour between the state and other societal sectors, notably the market and civil society. This was reflected in a report from the OECD (OECD 2005) that summarized the ongoing modernization of the public sector. One of the five areas covered in the report was ‘The Use of Market-type Mechanisms to Provide Government Services’. The report divided these market-type mechanisms into three categories: outsourcing, public-private partnerships (PPPs) and vouchers.