Performative policy

The case of Swedish healthcare reforms

Bibliographic Data

ID12985288
AuthorsHans Hasselbladh (0000-0002-0298-896X, Örebro University, corresponding author), Eva Bejerot (Stockholm University)
Year2016
Volume11
Issue3
Pages291-310
Publication date2016-05-17
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCritical Policy Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1946-0171 • E-ISSN: 1946-018X
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/19460171.2016.1166973
OpenAlexW2407052931
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited24

In this article we analyze public sector change as a profoundly constructed phenomenon – as performative reforms. Public sector reforms, of which policy processes are an integral part, are constituted and realized through long chains of interventions. Communicative–discursive interventions posit and constitute problems as real and important, while technocratic interventions, such as plans, analyses, and schemes construct new imagined worlds for possible and attractive instrumental solutions. Our empirical results display circular movements of three modes of change, making up a continuous policy cycle in the transformation of Swedish health, reiterated on different levels of the system, in different scales, and with different actors involved. The continuity of the reforms is to a large extent the result of a successful institutionalization of the policy cycle and its content. It is stabilized as a set of discourse and social technologies, distributed throughout the entire healthcare system and almost impossible to question

Construct (python library · Epistemology · Institutionalisation · Performative utterance · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Psychological intervention · Public policy · Public sector · Sociology · Technocracy · Computer Science · Law · Management and Organizational Studies · Policy Transfer and Learning · Psychology · Public Administration · Public Policy and Administration Research

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