The Political Benefits of Corporatization and Privatization

Abstract

In recent years Denmark has seen a huge corporatization and privatization program. As it is an unlikely reformer, the policy shift makes the country an interesting test case for the analysis of public sector changes. The paper argues that the Danish corporatization and privatization program fits into a general pattern. The program has been successfully implemented because it has allowed the governing coalition to reap important short-term political benefits without compromising a long-term quest for political control. However, these radical changes that together constitute a virtual wave of reforms have been initiated because politicians belonging to the governing coalition have come to the knowledge of new theoretic and empirical insights that open their eyes to short-term political benefits formerly unacknowledged.