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The free unfolding of market forces through deregulation and privatization has become a key issue of socio-economic policies all over the world. The policy initiatives have brought about a lively debate on the pros and cons of markets, state regulations and associational activity. The public policy debate has, however, been cut off from the related discussions in a variety of academic disciplines on the relation between institutions, markets and economic performance. As Boyer and Hollingsworth note: We are witnessing a major paradox. Governments are relying more and more upon markets in order to solve the many difficult issues which they are confronting, at the very moment when theorists are discovering that the efficiency of markets is restricted to a very small set of products.' This book is an interdisciplinary theoretical reflection on the relation between social institutions and societal cultures on the one hand and the (economic) performance of markets on the other. We will use findings and insights from different disciplines to discuss the deregulation policy program. Firstlyl, we will critical investigat on some of the assumptions that underlie these neo-liberal politics. Secondly, we will present the findings of some policy studies that have compared deregulation policies in different countries and policy fields: two policy fields taken from social policy (occupational health and safety, and vocational training) and one case study of a country that has gone far with deregulation policies, New Zealand. Thirdly, we will analyze some possibly unforeseen consequences of deregulation policies.
