Significant efforts have been made to promote competition in public service sectors, expanding the reach of competition into non-economic fields. Surprisingly little is, however, known about the process by which competition is introduced into such settings. We examine this process, focusing on a Swedish municipality’s efforts to implement competition for students among its schools. By incorporating recent theoretical advancements regarding competition as an organized relationship, and utilizing a combination of qualitative and quantitative data, we shed light on the organizational efforts undertaken by politicians and bureaucrats to teach their schools to compete. We find that introducing competition can be complex, time-consuming and that it requires substantial organizational commitment. We highlight the existence of varying perceptions of competition among different stakeholders following its introduction. These findings suggest the need for future research that addresses questions about the costs of, and interests behind, introducing competition, as well as questions about responsibility for the subsequent effects of competition.

中文翻译：

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教学学校竞争：瑞典高中教育案例

大力促进公共服务领域竞争，竞争向非经济领域拓展。然而，令人惊讶的是，人们对将竞争引入此类环境的过程知之甚少。我们研究了这一过程，重点关注瑞典某市政府在其学校之间实施学生竞争的努力。通过纳入关于竞争作为一种有组织关系的最新理论进展，并利用定性和定量数据的结合，我们揭示了政治家和官僚为教会学校竞争而进行的组织努力。我们发现引入竞争可能很复杂、耗时，并且需要大量的组织承诺。我们强调，在其推出后，不同利益相关者之间存在着不同的竞争观念。这些发现表明，未来的研究需要解决引入竞争的成本和背后的利益问题，以及竞争后续影响的责任问题。