Guest editorial

摘要

This special issue sets out to explore the contingencies and dynamics of different policy flows emerging when new (post) public management regimes meet the "healthcare state" across different countries in Europe and beyond. Managerialism and the market logic characteristically act at the meso level of organisations and professionals, in particular through performance measurements, contractualisation, standard setting and quality assurance (for an overview see, Blank and Burau, 2007; Harrison and McDonald, 2008; Roberts et al, 2008). Managerial regimes are based on the logic of generic applicability and therefore do not take account of context. By contrast, the healthcare state is strongly shaped by historically developed welfare state arrangements (Moran, 1999; see also Freeman, 2000), including economic and cultural conditions, the specific mode of citizenship and the state-professions relationship. The new managerial governance practices therefore are likely to impact differently on healthcare states (Burau et al, 2007; Burau and Vrangbaek, 2008; Greer, 2008; Kuhlmann and Allsop, 2008).