Exit and voice: an investigation of care service users in Austria, Belgium, Italy, and Northern Ireland.

The past decades have seen an introduction of market elements in the provision of social care services (Finer 1999; Mabbett and Bolderson 1999). Welfare state reforms all over Europe have produced welfare pluralism and claims that the increased choice will enhance user participation, promote older persons' autonomy, and improve the quality of services. Within the Fifth FP Research Project CARMA (Care for the Aged at Risk of Marginalization) a case study among users of care services in Austria, Belgium, Italy, and Northern Ireland was conducted that focussed on friction and conflict between clients and service providers and investigated the reasons for discharge and denial of admission to a service. The data from this study can be interpreted in terms of Hirschman's (Exit, voice, and loyalty: responses to decline in firms, organizations, and states. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1970) theory on 'exit' and 'voice' as expressions of consumers' dissatisfaction with the quality of a product. Data were collected in different systems offering a variety of procedures for exit from one provider and the choice of a competitor. Also different practices of handling voice i.e., complaints have been documented. The paper questions to what extent various possibilities for exit and voice can enhance users' autonomy and increase the quality of the service supply. It thus contributes empirical findings to a debate that often emphasizes ideological arguments.