The McDonaldization of Public Services: A Case Study of City Hospitals in Turkey

Year 2022, Volume: 6 Issue: 2, 81 - 92, 22.07.2022

Mert SÖYLER

https://doi.org/10.47478/lectio.1112548

Abstract

A huge-scale transformation and neoliberalization of the Turkish healthcare system is happening under the rule of AKP, and the city hospitals as a public-private partnership model constitutes the centerpiece of this transformation. The “effectiveness” argument is utilized both by politicians and financial actors to promote the role of the private sector in the management of public services as in the case of city hospitals. This paper argues that the McDonaldization thesis of George Ritzer can help analyze the transnational nature of neoliberalization of the Turkish healthcare system, and features of McDonaldization, most notably the irrationality of rationality through the argument of effectiveness can explain the transformative role of city hospitals in the healthcare system. Moreover, as a general theoretical observation, it is argued that neoliberal transformation and McDonaldization of public services lead to broader sociopolitical consequences by deteriorating the public service ethos.

Keywords

McDonaldization, neoliberalization, public services, healthcare, Turkey

References

• Arı, H. O. (2021). Evaluation of the Opinions and Suggestions of the Health Personnel Towards City Hospitals as a Public-Private Partnership Practice in the Turkish Health System [Doctoral dissertation in Healthcare Management, Hacettepe University].
• Augé, M. (1995). Non-places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity (J. Howe, Trans.) (1st ed.). London, UK: Verso. (Original work published 1992)
• Bender, C., & Poggi, G. (1999). Golden Arches and Iron Cages: McDonaldization and the Poverty of Cultural Pessimism at the End of the Twentieth Century. In B. Smart (Ed.), Resisting McDonaldization (pp. 22-40). London, UK: SAGE Publications.
• Boas, T., & Gans-Morse, J. (2009). Neoliberalism: From New Liberal Philosophy to Anti-Liberal Slogan. Studies in Comparative International Development, 44(2), 137–161.
• Bohm, R. M. (2006). “McJustice”: On the McDonaldization of Criminal Justice’. Justice Quarterly, 23(1), 127–146.
• Dustin, D. (2007). The McDonaldization of Social Work. Hampshire, UK: Ashgate Publishing.
• Gerth, H., & Mills. C. W. (1946). From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (1st ed.) New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
• Gün, Ç. (2019). Public-Private Partnership in Turkish Healthcare Provision: The City Hospital Model [Master’s Thesis in Social Policy, Boğaziçi University].
• Harvey, D. (2005). A Brief History of Neoliberalism (1st ed.) New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
• Hebson, G., Grimshaw, D., & Marchington, M. (2003). “PPPs and the Changing Public Sector Ethos: Case-Study Evidence from the Health and Local Authority Sectors”. Work, Employment and Society, 17(3), 481–501.
• Heslop, R. (2011). “The British Police Service: Professionalisation or “McDonaldization”?”. International Journal of Police Science & Management, 13(4), 312–321.
• Hughes, J., Kale, N., & Day, P. (2019). “OxyContin and the McDonaldization of chronic pain therapy in the USA”, Family Medicine and Community Health, 7(1), 1-3.
• Lethbridge, J. (2011). Public Sector ‘Ethos’. In S. Corby, & G. Symon (Eds.), Working for the State: Employment Relations in the Public Services (pp. 66-83). Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Pala, K., Erbaş, Ö., Bilaloğlu, E., İlhan, B., Tükel, R., & Adıyaman, S. (2018). Public-Private Partnership in Health Care: Case of Turkey. World Medical Journal, 64, 44–48.
• Posnett, J. (1999). Are bigger hospitals better?. In M. McKee, & J. Healy (Eds.), Hospitals in a Changing Europe (pp. 100-118). Philadelphia, PA: Open University Press.
• Presidency of the Republic of Turkey. (2017). City Hospitals Upgrade Our Country’s Level in the Field of Healthcare. Retrieved from https://www.tccb.gov.tr/en/news/542/70905/city-hospitals-upgrade-our-countrys-level-in-the-field-of-healthcare (Accessed: 23 March 2022).
• Presidency of the Republic of Turkey. (2020). Our city hospitals have become a model on a global scale. Retrieved from https://www.tccb.gov.tr/en/news/542/120345/-our-city-hospitals-have-become-a-model-on-a-global-scale- (Accessed: 23 March 2022).
• Republic of Turkey Ministry of Health. (2017). Şehir Hastaneleri Bir Başarı Hikayesidir. Retrieved from https://www.saglik.gov.tr/TR,19871/sehir-hastaneleri-bir-basari-hikayesidir.html (Accessed: 21 March 2022).
• Republic of Turkey Ministry of Health. (2018). The greatest hospital of Turkey to be inaugurated soon. Retrieved from https://www.saglik.gov.tr/EN,49779/the-greatest-hospital-of-turkey-to-be-inaugurated-soon.html (Accessed: 21 March 2022).
• Republic of Turkey Ministry of Health. (2019). Ankara City Hospital started admitting patients. Retrieved from https://www.saglik.gov.tr/EN,53195/ankara-city-hospital-started-admitting-patients.html (Accessed: 21 March 2022).
• Republic of Turkey Ministry of Health. (2019). Europe’s biggest hospital opened in Ankara. Retrieved from https://www.saglik.gov.tr/EN,53852/europes-biggest-hospital-opened-in-ankara.html (Accessed: 21 March 2022).
• Republic of Turkey Ministry of Health. (2019). Health Minister of Romania visited Ankara City Hospital. Retrieved from https://www.saglik.gov.tr/EN,54801/health-minister-of-romania-visited-ankara-city-hospital.html (Accessed: 24 March 2022).
• Ritzer, G. (1975). Professionalization, Bureaucratization and Rationalization: The Views of Max Weber. Social Forces, 53(4), 627-634.
• Ritzer, G. (2002). An Introduction to McDonaldization. In G. Ritzer (Ed.), McDonaldization: The Reader (pp. 9-23). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
• Ritzer, G. (2019). The McDonaldization of Society: Into the Digital Age (9th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
• Ritzer, G., & Ryan, M. (2002). The Globalization of Nothing. Social Thought & Research, 25(1/2), 51-81.
• Ritzer, G., & Walczak, D. (1986). The Changing Nature of American Medicine. The Journal of American Culture, 9(4), 43–51.
• Ritzer, G., & Walczak, D. (1988). Rationalization and the Deprofessionalization of Physicians. Social Forces, 67(1), 1–22.
• Robinson, M. B. (2002). McDonaldization of America’s Police, Courts, and Corrections. In G. Ritzer (Ed.), McDonaldization: The Reader (pp. 77-90). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
• Vervynckt, M., & Romero, M., J. (2017). Public-Private Partnerships: Defusing the ticking time bomb. Retrieved from https://assets.nationbuilder.com/eurodad/pages/243/attachments/original/1591967865/Defusing_the_ticking_time_bomb.pdf?1591967865 (Brussels, Belgium: Eurodad).