AbstractC-level essay in political science, by Frida Orlinder, spring semester 2008Supervisor: Susan Marton?Good contracting? ? A study of contracting in public procurement regarding the transportation of school children?Over the last decades models influenced by the market have been gaining influence in public administration all over the world. New Public Management has been presented as a theoretical ?shopping basket? from which concepts can be applied to the administration of municipal services. The purpose of this essay is to investigate in an explorative way how New Public Management (NPM) views contracting and the role of the internal customer in contracting.

The parrot is a common symbol, or even cliché, in Western literature, going all the way back fromancient Greece to the present date, and in many a genre. This study reads the oeuvre of the NobelPrize winner Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) as being closely related to these certain traditions andconnotations of for example religion, satire, and speaking nonsense, in his frequent use of parrotsand their symbolic potentials, in his writing. Furthermore, it is possible to distinguish a movementin Beckett?s use of parrots, from a more or less traditionally use, to one more philosophicallyprofound.Although the parrot graces us with its presence (or at least may be traced) in almost everywork written by Beckett, from the poem ?Whoroscope? (1930) to How It Is (1961), they are onlymentioned sparsely by his interpreters. Therefore, a brief history of the literary tradition of theparrot will be expounded.

Under de senaste tjugo åren har det blivit vanligt att välfärdstjänster såsom äldreomsorgläggs ut på entreprenad. Kritiker hävdar ofta att uppdagade fall av kvalitetsbristeri samband med att äldreboenden har övergått i privat regi, talar för attäldreomsorg tillhandahålls bäst när produktionen sker av offentliga utförare. Tidigareforskning indikerar dock att det inte finns några systematiska kvalitetsskillnadermellan boenden som drivs i offentlig respektive privat regi. I praktikenfinns exempel på att kontraktering av äldreomsorg har resulterat i ökad kvalitetlikaledes finns exempel på motsatsen. Vad som saknas i tidigare forskning är docken rigorös teoretisk och empirisk analys av hur offentliga beställare kan och böragera för att äldreboenden som bedrivs i privat regi ska genera hög kvalitet.