An essay on the local consequences of global competition in two different welfare professions

The paper studies how the discourse of ‘competition state’ (see Hirsch, 1997, Pedersen 2011) as a political and fantasmatic logic (Glynos & Howarth 2007) emerges in the new era of globalization (1960-), and influence the area of policy making within the field of education and health management. We look at how it influence the policymaking on two forms of welfare institutions and their professionals making a fixation by listing historical nodal points, making in- and exclusion of political and fantasmatic logics visible (Thomasson 2008, Hansen 2005: 392). We illustrate how politics within education and health management are influenced by the impact of a global competing environment. And how the same political instruments of necessity with increased governmental intervention (i.e. neoliberal policy as outlined by Williamson as ‘the Washington consensus (1990)) are implemented as active state welfare management in order to increase productivity and lower expenditure, while attempting to raise quality and performance. Furthermore, we see the discourse of the competition state in relation to the theory of societies under heavy social acceleration (Rosa, 2010, 2013). We identify some of the transformations in logics following the rationale and arguments idealised by the competition state in recent reforms, and on that background list hypotheses for further investigation.