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.

摘要

本文通过研究 1984 年及以后禁止公立私立幼儿园的重要政治决定，分析了在瑞典福利国家的背景下如何引入儿童保育券。基于我们关于政治制度和历史制度主义理论的论点，我们认为学前教育政策的这种显着转变是由于一系列特定的历史前提，包括不断扩大的学前教育部门和渐进式改革，这些改革并未废除公立幼儿园，而只是对其进行了补充。与私立幼儿园。与其将育儿券视为市场化意识形态的单纯结果，我们将这一改革解读为一系列决策、制度分层、既得利益和正反馈机制的结果，其中，早期护理和教育部门的扩张发挥了重要作用。在这种情况下，我们认为市场化可以被视为对瑞典快速增长的公立学前教育部门的成功支持。尽管社会民主党输掉了市场化的战斗，但他们肯定赢得了全民公费幼儿园的战争。