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IMPLEMENTING CHANGE IN HEALTH SYSTEMS: MARKET REFORMS IN HEALTH SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM, SWEDEN AND THE NETHERLANDS

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
Published date01 June 2006
AuthorJudith Allsop
Date01 June 2006
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.2006.00015.x
REVIEWS 491
© Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2006 Public Administration Vol. 84, No. 2, 2006 (479–515)
IMPLEMENTING CHANGE IN HEALTH SYSTEMS: MARKET
REFORMS IN HEALTH SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM,
SWEDEN AND THE NETHERLANDS
Michael I . Harrison
Sage, 2004, 256 pp., £21.99 (pb) ISBN: 0761961763
Michael Harrison has written a book that is wide in scope and boldly ambi-
tious. It addresses the big questions about the genesis and effect of policy
change – in this case the market reforms in health care – and does so com-
paratively, looking at the United Kingdom, Sweden and The Netherlands.
Moreover, for his analysis, Harrison constructs what he claims to be a new
theoretical framework that can be used to provide a rounded and multi-
layered analysis of the implementation process in any setting. The more
direct question addressed in the research is whether markets have contrib-
uted to the eff‌i ciency and quality of publicly funded and publicly regulated
health services across the three countries, all of which have relatively cen-
tralized health systems.
It is worth outlining Harrison ’ s framework and research method in detail
since it drives the analysis and determines the structure of the book. The
author claims to have combined a ‘ top-down ’ approach with a ‘ bottom-up ’
bargaining perspective that takes account of both policy-makers ’ intent and

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