Beyond the market versus planning dichotomy: Understanding privatisation and its reverse in US cities

Abstract

City service delivery requires planners and city managers to move beyond the public–private dichotomy and explore the benefits of interaction between markets and planning. Using International City County Management survey data on US local governments from 1992, 1997 and 2002, we find a shift where reverse contracting (re-internalisation) now exceeds the level of new contracting out (privatisation). We model how a theoretical shift from new public management to new public service in public administration mirrors a behavioural shift among city managers. Results confirm the need to balance economic concerns with political engagement of citizens and lend empirical support to a theory of social choice that links communicative planning with market management.