Public Services in Comparative and Historical Perspective
Short description
This project investigated the underlying causes and consequences of how public services, such as policing, education, and healthcare, were organized in different countries during the 19th and 20th centuries. The research spanned seven years and was funded by a Consolidator Grant from the Swedish Research Council. The project was led by Professor Johannes Lindvall at the Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg.
Research questions
Our research was concerned with the causes and consequences of how crucial public services such as policing, schooling, and public health have been organized across countries and throughout nineteenth- and twentieth-century history. Some of the work we did examine long-run trends and enduring differences between countries. In other parts of the project, we concentrated on critical events, periods, and settings.
Among the topics we studied were:
- judicial reform in hybrid regimes
- vaccine hesitancy during the Covid-19 pandemic
- the evolution of everyday interactions between citizens and public officials
- the effects of women’s political representation on development in corrupt environments
- the historical relationship between transport infrastructure
- the quality of public services and health-care reforms in the post-war era.
Publications
To access our publications, see: Publications - PUBLIC SERVICES IN COMPARATIVE AND HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE.
Researchers
The project involved a team of scholars at the University of Gothenburg and Lund University as well as partners at other universities in Sweden and abroad.
For more information: Team - PUBLIC SERVICES IN COMPARATIVE AND HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE.