At the Heart of Neoliberalism

The Privatisation of Long-term Care for Older People and the Everyday History of Economic Policy Ideas in the Federal Republic of Germany and Great Britain

Abstract

The 1980s and 1990s saw significant growth in the private sector for long-term care for older people in both Great Britain and Germany. Until then, care policy in both countries had tended to be incidental to welfare state expansion. Among those involved in this privatisation boom were professional carers and nurses who were looking for new career paths. This article examines this early phase of the privatisation of care for older people and asks questions about the economic ideas espoused by the new care service and home operators, who reflected on the market and the opportunities it offered them as entrepreneurs. They advocated ideas based on a harmonious relationship between the market and morality. The aim is to link historical healthcare research and the history of marketisation.