The personal social services in a Swedish quasi-market context

Since the end of the 1980s, the introduction of quasi-markets in the public sector has been a dominant feature in Sweden. This article describes a stu dy of quasi-markets in the personal social services. The study concludes th at the personal social services are not fully able to achieve the aims of t he quasi-market, and the conditions that must be satisfied to achieve the a ims of the quasi-marker are only being met to a certain extent. The persona l social services partly function as a responsive quasi-market for strong, rational and well-informed clients; however, for the most vulnerable, it is failing in many respects.