Embedded Marketization as Transnational Path Departure. Assessing Recent Change in Home Care Systems Comparatively

AbstractDrawing on a distinctive model for qualitative comparison, this article assesses four different home care systems with an eye on the nature of change affecting these systems over the last three decades. Developments of national configurations are labeled in the light of situations found in other countries. It is argued that there is embedded convergence: Internationally, the multi-dimensional reorganization of home care systems takes shape with an encompassing ‘marketisation of care’ while, at national level, the factual adoption of characteristics typical of foreign home care systems proceeds within pre-existing traditions that are not completely ruled out by this process of mutual adjustment.