Winning the war by losing the battle? The marketization of the expanding preschool sector in Sweden

Abstract

This article analyzes how childcare vouchers were introduced in the context of the Swedish welfare state by examining vital political decisions from the prohibition of publicly funded private preschools in 1984 and onwards. Basing our argument on theories of political institutions and historical institutionalism, we argue that this remarkable shift in preschool policy was due to a set of specific historical premises that included an expanding preschool sector and incremental reforms that did not abolish public preschools, but merely complemented them with private preschools. Instead of perceiving childcare vouchers as the mere results of marketization ideology, we interpret this reform as the result of a sequence of decisions, institutional layering, vested interests, and positive feedback mechanisms, where the expansion of the early care and education sector played a significant role. In this context, we argue that the marketization may be seen as a successful support of the rapidly growing sector of publicly funded preschools in Sweden. Although the Social Democrats lost the battle of marketization, they certainly won the war on publicly funded preschools for all.

Quasi-Market Regulation in Early Childhood Education and Care: Does a Nordic Welfare Dimension Prevail?

“…The original struggle over for-profit provision occurred in Sweden, where this became a highly ideologised issue that began in 1984 when the Social Democrats introduced a law -Lex Pysslingen -to ban for-profit ECEC. Over the course of time, ECEC was gradually opened to for-profits (Westberg & Larsson, 2020). Figure 1 shows that as the demand became saturated, growth in the percentage of children in ECEC gradually slowed down until it reached 98% in 2007.…”

“…From 1994, only for-profit institutions that were included in the municipalities' plans were allowed, which meant that municipalities had the option to ban for-profits. However, in 2008, the law granting free right to establishment was passed (Westberg & Larsson, 2020).…”

“…, has seen more modest development, as it reached full coverage before vouchers were fully implemented in 2008(Westberg & Larsson, 2020). The pattern of seeking the same goals with different means thus adds complexity to governance schemes.…”

”Kvinnor – ta hand om privatiseringen av offentliga sektorn”: Marknaden som lösning på jämställdhetsproblemet

“…Moderaterna har fortsatt att argumentera för rätten att etablera privata förskolor, med hänvisning till föräldrars rätt att välja förskola liksom till ekonomiska och pedagogiska fördelar med förskolor som inte drivs av kommunen. 49 Jämställdhetspolitiken kom på 90-talet att alltmer integreras i den näringslivspolitiska sfären, från att tidigare ha handlat om fördelningsoch arbetsmarknadspolitik. 50 Internationell forskning visar att högerns kvinnor på flera håll vid denna tid alltmer riktade in sig på att utveckla ekonomisk policy.…”

What We Can Learn From Studying The Past: The Wonderful Usefulness of History in Educational Research

“…The fact that history matters is also evident in processes of change. To understand why childcare vouchers were introduced in the welfare state of Sweden-what may seem to be an apparent contradiction-one cannot just study the decision of 2009, but must study the incremental process from the banning of private preschools from the public system of preschools in 1984 (Westberg & Larsson, 2020). In order to explain the phenomena of international large-scale assessment, we cannot merely examine the current situation, but have to examine the history of comparative education, the creation of international networks and organizations in education, and the developments in applied psychology (Ydesen & Andreasen, 2020).…”