Frihetsretorik och marknadslogik : En analys av den svenska högskolepolitiken 1970–2014

Abstract

In Frihetretorik och markandslogik Johanna Ringarp investigates the impact that market liberal ideas have had on Swedish universities. The focal point is the political reforms in education during the 1990s, which were put into practice by the Swedish right-wing coalition government during 1991-1994. Ringarp examines the arguments put forward in the political debate, how the reforms were implemented and how they have affected the education system in the 21st century. Contrary to what is often claimed, she shows how the shift in education policy in the 1990s can be linked to political ambitions from the 1970s. What took place was an ideologically charged political struggle that came to entail a discursive systemic shift in the view of welfare policy. In this struggle, concepts such as freedom and autonomy were given different meanings to legitimise the changes the political representatives wanted to achieve. In this work, the experiences of the centre-right parties of previous reforms and the Social Democrats' long tenure in government, as well as the failure of the centre-right governments in the 1970s, were important driving forces.