Welfare State Reforms

Welfare State Reforms: Accountability, Democracy, and Future Challenges

The European Studies Centre has been awarded research support from the Research Council of Norway to collaborate with the Stein Rokkan Research Centre on an interdisciplinary and comparative research project investigating the reforms of hospital care, welfare services, and immigration administration in Germany and Scandinavia. This externally funded project runs from January 2011 until 2014. The European Studies Centre is part of an international network of research centres comprising the University of Bergen (Norway), the University of Potsdam (Germany), and the Danish Institute for Governmental Research (Denmark).

Aims

The central research question of the project is how recent welfare reforms reshape the balance between traditional and new forms of public accountability in Northern Europe. How have the last decades of welfare reforms in Norway, Denmark and Germany affected the democratic system of public accountability and how has the role of elected politicians changed in the governance of social sectors in those countries? Is welfare politics becoming an increasingly technocratic and depoliticised process?
Our central aim is to understand how recent welfare reforms affect the link between democracy and the welfare state through the conceptual lenses of public accountability.

Research Team

	Dr Paola Mattei Principal Investigator Dr Paola Mattei is University Lecturer in Comparative Social Policy and Governing Body Fellow at St Antony’s College since 2010. She has published on health care reforms in West European Politics, Public Administration, and other international journals. She is the author of “Restructuring Welfare Organisations in Europe” (Palgrave, 2008). Her current research interests include also higher education reform and she co-convenes a weekly seminar series on that topic. Contact: paola.mattei@sant.ox.ac.uk
	Mahima Mitra Project Director Mahima is reading for a DPhil in Social Policy at the University of Oxford’s Department of Social Policy and Intervention since 2010. She completed the MPhil in Comparative Social Policy at Oxford in 2010 and the M.Sc. in Child Development at the University of Delhi (India) in 2006. She has worked as a Qualitative Research Analyst for the World Bank’s New Delhi office for over two years. She has also worked as a Research Consultant with the Global Development Network (New Delhi) and as a lecturer for undergraduates in Human Development and Childhood Studies at the University of Delhi. Her research interests span family welfare policy, early years and higher education policy, and healthcare. Contact: mahima.mitra@exeter.ox.ac.uk
	Therese Feiler Research Associate Therese is completing a D.Phil. in Theology at the University of Oxford. She studied English and Religious Studies in Berlin and Aberdeen before coming to Oxford for a M.St. in the Study of Religion in 2007. She has worked in journalism as well as political consulting. Her research focuses on political ethics, specifically the ethics of war between theology and philosophy. Apart from the ethical dimension of the healthcare sector, she is also interested in modern intellectual history and the theology of films. Contact: therese.feiler@exeter.ox.ac.uk
	Valerie Caton Senior Associate Member Dr Valerie Caton’s diplomatic career includes postings to Brussels, Paris (twice), Stockholm and, most recently, as British Ambassador to Finland (2006-10). She has gained direct experience of the workings of EU Governments and institutions across a range of political, economic and social issues. Her most recent assignment has been the organisation in London in 2011 of a UK Nordic Baltic Summit, where nine Prime Ministers explored the latest economic, social and technological innovations with businesses, policy experts and NGOs from across the region. Dr Caton’s research interests are in the field of the political management of economic reform in Europe, with a particular focus on France and the Nordic countries. Her publications include a St Antony’s College Discussion Paper on ‘France and the Politics of EMU’, written whilst she was a Senior Associate Member in 2001-2. Contact: valerie.caton@btinternet.com

Research Activities

Mattei, P., Mitra, M., Vrangbæk, K., Neby, S. & Byrkjeflot, H. (forthcoming) "Reshaping public accountability: Hospital reforms in Germany, Norway and Denmark, International Review of Administrative Sciences.", Special Issue, Forthcoming 2013.
Ongoing:"Parliamentary accountability and participatory citizenship theories - Analysis of the 2012 NHS reform and the Health and Social Care Act 2012 "
PhD symposium on "Reforming Welfare Organisations in Europe", Bergen, Norway, September 2012. Call for papers here.
An international workshop on "Healthcare Funding in Germany Norway and Denmark", Scancor, Stanford University, May 2012.
An international workshop on “Researching Accountability - Conceptual and Methodological Challenges” was held at the European Studies Centre from December 16-17, 2011. The workshop aimed to bring out parallels and contrasts in the interpretation of democratic accountability in mature European welfare states and discuss approaches to comparative study in this field. Upload presentation

International Conferences

26^th - 27^th May 2013	Presentation of paper on "Reshaping Public Accountability: Hospital Reforms In Germany, Norway and Denmark" 2013 International Conference organised by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, Shanghai, China.
13^th - 14^th May 2013	Presentation of paper on "Reshaping Public Accountability: Hospital Reforms In Germany, Norway and Denmark" 38th Annual Conference of the International Association for the Study of German Politics (IASGP), London, UK.
July 2012	Presentation of paper on "Different Forms of Accountability in Hospital Reform" XXII World Congress of Political Science, International Political Studies Association, Madrid.
April 2012	Presentation of paper on "Hospital Reforms and Accountability Regimes in Norway, Denmark and Germany" Midwest Political Science Association's National Conference, Chicago. Upload papers here.
November 2011	Presentation of paper on "Hospital Investment Funding Reform in Germany: Pressures, Policy Reforms, Outcomes" at the conference "The changing organization of the welfare state - between efficiency and accountability" in Potsdam. (See the conference programme here.)

Background

The current project builds on earlier work by Dr Paola Mattei, including her 2009 book:

Links to our project partners

The Stanford Scancor
The Stein Rokkan Centre
The Norwegian Research Council
The Department of Administration and Organization Theory at the University of Bergen
The Department of Political Science, Administration and Organization at the University of Potsdam
The Danish Institute of Governmental Research in Copenhagen
The Department of Political Science at the University of Oslo
Ingo Bode, Department of Social Policy, Law and Sociology at Universität Kassel, Germany
For further information, see the international project website.

Updated: 18^th February, 2013.

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