Privatization Of Public Services Research Articles

School health services in the Southern District of Israel—between privatization and nationalization

BackgroundFor decades, Israel’s economic policy has favored either outsourcing or privatization of public services, including healthcare, generating an ongoing and prolonged debate of this approach. In 1997 school health services (SHS) for elementary and middle school pupils was outsourced to a sub-contractor firm, reducing budget, but also standards, for nurses and physicians. Consequently, the service has dwindled and was focused more and more on vaccinations. Between 2007 and 2012, under full private contractor delivery, SHS quality diminished substantially, leading to a significant decline in vaccination coverage in the Southern District. In 2012, a decision was made to return SHS to state control.MethodsThis study analyzes the delivery parameters of SHS between the period when the service was operated by a private contractor from 2011to 2/2012, and the subsequent provision of the service directly by Ministry of Health (MoH) between 3/2012 and 2013. We compared the rates of vaccination coverage, screening tests and health education programs.ResultsA statistically significant increase in SHS delivery for vaccinations and screening was observed in the Southern District of MoH after the transfer of service from contractor. The increase was variable in different population subgroups, and especially notable in the Bedouin schools of the District, where the MMRV vaccination rose from 19.3% to 96.8%. However, a substantial and significant reduction in health education activities was also noted, overall from 24.9% to 5.0%.ConclusionsThe findings suggest that substantial benefits can be derived from direct provision of SHS by MoH and its regional offices, especially in the areas of reduced accessibility and lower socio-economic status. The case study of SHS in the Southern District of Israel can serve as an important example highlighting the impacts of privatization vs nationalization, with potential implications in other fields. These insights should be integral to future discussions of healthcare service provision.

The welfare state as a child of the growth economy and a troubled midwife of an eco-social transformation

In Raphael et al (2024) the authors discuss very well how encompassing (Nordic) welfare states can both facilitate a transition to sustainable, post-growth societies, yet are also fundamentally challenged by such a transition. However, I emphasise room for better elaboration in terms of: 1. Emphasising the structural challenges induced by ‘the new politics of the welfare state’ rather than ascribing inequality to the privatisation of public services. 2. Better elaboration of the ‘synergy hypothesis’ from other literature on potential intersections between welfare regimes, varieties of capitalism, and sustainability transformations. 3. Discussing the specific economic, monetary and fiscal policies needed to aid societal transformations and abolish the growth dependencies of established welfare states.

Connecting the Dots: Are the New Public Management and Policy capacity related?

The New Public Management (NPM) and Policy Capacity (PC) have garnered significant attention in the field of public administration. NPM is frequently associated with market-based reforms and the privatisation of public services, whereas PC pertains to a government's ability to design, implement, and evaluate policies effectively. Despite the vast literature on these concepts, there remains a dearth of studies examining their connection. This paper seeks to bridge this gap by exploring the linkages between NPM and PC. Drawing from a comprehensive review of articles and journals, most studies revealed that the two concepts are indeed related in some way.

Making Big Business Everybody’s Business: Aboriginal leaders’ perspectives on commercial activities influencing Aboriginal health in Victoria, Australia

BackgroundThe commercial determinants of health is a rapidly expanding field of research; however Indigenous perspectives remain notably underrepresented. For Indigenous peoples the intersection of globalisation, colonialism and capitalism may amplify commercially-driven health inequities. This study aimed to explore the perspectives of Aboriginal leaders regarding the influence of commercial activities on Aboriginal health and wellbeing in Victoria, Australia.MethodsSemi-structured interviews with 23 Aboriginal leaders from across five sectors (n = 15 urban, n = 8 rural/regional) were analysed through reflexive thematic analysis.ResultsThree overarching themes were identified encompassing (i) harmful commercial practices and processes, (ii) improving corporate engagement and (iii) opportunities for self-determination through business. Participants expressed concern over aggressive marketing by the gambling industry, commercial exploitation of Aboriginal culture, the privatisation of public services, and lack of oversignt of corporate social responsibility strategies. Simultaneously, Aboriginal-led businesses were viewed as opportunities for cultural connection, and financial empowerment and self-determination.ConclusionNumerous commercial entities and activities are perceived to influence Aboriginal health and wellbeing. This study highlights the need for stronger policy and regulation to mitigate harmful industry practices while incentivising the potential positive impacts of the commercial activities on Aboriginal health and wellbeing.

Modeling political mimetic isomorphism versus economic and quality factors in local government privatizations

AbstractNumerous studies have considered the economic impact and political influence of privatization. However, the theoretical approaches previously applied to model privatization, whether economic or political, have not obtained robust results. To address this question, we present a new political approach, based on mimetic isomorphism, which enables us to more accurately define the relationship between privatization, political theory and economic aspects. This new focus, termed political mimetic isomorphism, hypothesizes that the privatization of public services is influenced by an imitation effect between neighboring municipalities that share a common political ideology. In our study, this approach is applied, using geostatistical tools and logistic regression analysis with spatial variables, to a sample of municipalities that privatized their water and/or waste collection services during the period 2014–2019. The results obtained demonstrate the validity of the theoretical model of political mimetic isomorphism and show that this factor exerts a stronger influence on privatization than certain economic variables.

Study on Government Regulation in the Process of Privatization of Public Services

Our government gradually implemented the privatization reform in the field of public services in the early 1990s, although the time is relatively short, but it can not be denied that the reform has shown us the effect of a new way of government governance. We cannot deny the benefits brought by the privatization of public services, but in the process of implementation, there are still some problems in the transformation of the government's functions, and in terms of regulation, the government needs to think from a holistic perspective and recognize the shortcomings of the current system. This paper focuses on the government's regulatory role in the privatization of public services, looks for loopholes in the regulatory system and the causes of various problems, and makes recommendations.

Revisiting the Second Shift – Rethinking Value in the Outsourcing of Social Reproduction

ABSTRACT This article examines the link between outsourcing social reproduction and the valuation of time by approaching the employers of domestic workers as workers who themselves labour to produce surplus value. It contributes to current research on outsourcing social reproduction, which emphasizes the (re)privatization of public services, by situating outsourcing within the sphere of production. The analysis is based on in-depth qualitative research on employers of migrant care and domestic workers in Finland (N = 31). Developing an integrated link between migrant workers’ labour-power and employers’ labour-power, we demonstrate that the employers work a second shift of paid employment in the evening, enabled by the outsourcing of reproductive labour. We argue that outsourcing social reproduction often takes the form of purchasing inexpensive time, enabled by hiring migrant domestic workers, which those who outsource convert into productive labour-time, thereby subsidizing their own labour to increment economic value for capital. We analyse the ways in which outsourcing reproduction is organized to enhance the amount of productive social labour-time in a context where capital places increasing demands on labour.

Sector-Switching, Bureaucratic Reputation, and Citizen Evaluation of Performance: Evidence From a Large-Scale Experiment in India

Amid crises of trust in government, the legitimacy of public organizations has never been more important. In this context, access to performance information ensures democratic control and thus legitimacy. However, performance evaluation is hindered by transaction costs in accessing and cognitive biases in interpreting performance. We examine two antecedents of citizen evaluations of performance: sector and bureaucratic reputation. Utilizing two experiments on a representative sample of Indian citizens, we situate our paper amid the increasing privatization of public services, and reputation management strategies used to influence performance evaluations. We discuss our findings and their implications for public management theory and practice.

Neoliberalism and ELT Policy in México: Analysis and implications from a Political Economy stance

The influence of Neoliberalism on domestic policies has been well documented in the literature. Broadly speaking, there is evidence that many countries have adapted their policies to neoliberal principles which, among other aspects, require governments to promote ‘the privatization of public services, the capitalization and commodification of humanity’ (Kumar and Hill, 2009p. 1). In terms of language learning and teaching, ‘there is little doubt that language is now treated as a skill that, in effect, can be bought and sold in job markets’ (Block, 2018 p. 14). Under this scope, Block, Gray and Holborow (2014 p.1) suggest “one blind spot in the interdisciplinarism of applied linguistics has been political economy and in particular a detailed critique of neoliberalism as the ideology driving the practice of economics by governments and international organizations today. This article derives from a broader study which aims at analyzing a) the orientations, enactment and social/institutional practices of the ELT policies in Mexico under the light of neoliberal ideologies. Here, the analysis -and results- focus on the identification of the relationship of neoliberal ideology and Mexico’s ELT policy. For the purposes of this delivery, the analysis consisted on the identification of the role that macro international organizations have played in shaping Mexico’s domestic education policy over the past three decades. Developing from this, an identification and description of the specific public policies which have emanated from the macro-organizations’ suggestions is also part of the analysis. Results confirm that there is a direct relationship between international recommendations and local policies. These results are discussed under the light of the political economy strand of research in linguistics.

World Literature, Neoliberalism, and the Culture of Discontent ed. by Sharae Deckard and Stephen Shapiro

Reviewed by: World Literature, Neoliberalism, and the Culture of Discontent ed. by Sharae Deckard and Stephen Shapiro Shahab Nadimi Deckard, Sharae, and Stephen Shapiro, eds. World Literature, Neoliberalism, and the Culture of Discontent. Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. Pp. 269. CDN$166.24 hardcover. As the term neoliberalism, with its lack of unequivocal definition, is applied across diverse contexts, it has become more and more contested over the last few decades. However, financialization, deregulation of markets, privatization of public services, and wealth accumulation through dispossession remain some of the features associated with this concept. Within this context, World Literature, Neoliberalism, and the Culture of Discontent asks two important questions: are the cultural and ideological implications of neoliberalism experienced only in the US and Europe? How does neoliberalism function in a globalized setting? As editors Sharae Deckard and Stephen Shapiro note, the major goal of this collection is to forge a term that best characterizes the distinctive features of the last few decades that also include contexts beyond the Euro-American capitalist model of neoliberalism. The editors ask the reader to think through a broader framework of the capitalist world system within which neoliberalism is situated. The essays in this collection seek to reexamine the historical formulation of the term, periodize different phases of neoliberalism up to the present, and restore capitalism as the major object of critique to fully understand the shifting temporalities within these phases (4). Eleven chapters explore how neoliberalism is practiced in the core zones, semiperipheries, and peripheries. In their introductory essay, the editors address the difficulties and complexities of defining the term in diverse contexts while trying to provide a full-fledged approach that links different accounts of neoliberalism. They use a comparative framework to discuss these global zones and integrate three methodologies: a world-historical perspective; a world-ecological dimension; and a world-literary/cultural conception. Using the first methodology, the editors begin with “rehistoricizing” the development of neoliberalism within a “long spiral” of world-system perspectives. This method provides a comprehensive historical approach and focuses on the role of regions beyond Europe and North America. More than just undertaking a genealogical method, Deckard and Shapiro succeed in differentiating various phases of neoliberalism within capitalism’s longue durée. Following Duménil and Lévy’s The Crisis of Neoliberalism, the editors further divide the approximately 90-year neoliberal period into two major cycles of 40–50 years with an overlapping minor period in between. The neoliberal period is characterized by “a cluster of different, sequential conjunctural moments, a longer generational shift, and a longer duration of more expansive economic changes and processes” (40). Nested in the late nineteenth century, the first phase of neoliberalism runs from the 1930s through the mid-1960s as a reaction to the economic crisis [End Page 440] of the Great Depression along with the emergence of right-wing politics (Kennedy and Shapiro). Before entering the second major phase, this period saw an overlapping and transitional decade from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s as a key condition for neoliberalism to attack the working class and become a dominant force. In this period, social welfare protection began to be cut within the capitalist cores (Deckard and Shapiro 41). The second phase, from the late 1970s to 2008–11, began to hollow out the middle classes by forcing them into personal debts. A cluster of mini-cycles runs through this longer period that marks the growth of neoliberal strategies (42). The current phase, also called “late” neoliberalism, may indicate the movement of neoliberalism toward the supremacy of East and South Asia (6). Within their second methodology, the editors examine neoliberalism from a world-ecology perspective. As such, the process of neoliberalization is seen as a dynamic process/phenomenon “that registers the changing global composition of class relations governing the exploitation of peoples and the appropriation of natural resources” (25). Kerstin Oloff’s essay “From ‘Section 936’ to ‘Junk’: Neoliberalism, Ecology, and Puerto Rican Literature” explores the work of novelists such as Rafael Sánchez, Mayra Santos-Febres, Josué Montijo, and Rafael Acevedo from the 1970s onward, offering sharp-witted ways to lay bare “shifting socio-ecological realities...

Benefits of Economic Liberalization in Growth and Development of Industry: With Reference to Butwal Industrial Area of Nepal

Economic liberalization policy is important to speed up the development activities. Nepal has been following the policy of economic liberalization since the mid-1980s which was accelerated with the start of 1990s. Nepal adopted economic liberalization to minimize public expenditure burden of loss-making public enterprises, mobilize private savings, investments, and FDI (Foreign Domestic Investment) as well as to meet Multilateral Donors conditions of economic reform. The study was conducted to identify the benefit of economic liberalization in industrial growth and development in Nepal. The study was conducted in the Butwal area of Province 5. It was a cross-section study based on the quantitative design. There was total 385 respondents selected from among the industrialists, traders, and bankers. The result shows that there were positive impactson the various economic indicators of industry like quantitative restrictions in trade had been removed, bilateral trade agreement facilitated free flow of goods and services, deregulated the monopoly of market, controlling in price structure, privatization of public services, flexibility in the exchange rate, elimination of import license and quotas, liberalization of foreign investments, High and sustained growth through market-based resource allocation, infusion of competition in the economy, reduction of state domination, and encouragement of private participation in economic activities were the added advantages of liberalization. There was significant difference in the response of industrialists, traders and bankers on benefit of economic liberalization in industrial growth and development in Nepal such as promotion of free trade, deregulation of the monopoly market, elimination of subsidies, price controls and other more benefits.

Privatization of Public Services: A Systematic Review of Quality Differences between Public and Private Daycare Providers

ABSTRACT While the past decades have witnessed a growing proportion of publicly funded services delivered by private providers, analyses of the consequences for service quality are scarce. Economic theories promote privatization in markets that are competitive and when service quality is relatively easy to define and monitor, however, quasi-markets for public services seldom fulfill these assumptions. This article extends previous research by presenting the findings of an international systematic review of cross-sectoral studies on quality differences between public, non-profit and for-profit providers of daycare services. We find no indication in the literature of higher quality with private providers; if anything, the evaluative evidence suggests that public providers tend to offer slightly higher service quality. We discuss how these insights contribute to theoretical and empirical debates about public and private delivery of services and consider lessons for practice.

Military and Financial Expenses Commit Combat to COVID 19

This article deals with the relationship between the growing military and financial expenditures of the states and how this process led to the sacrifice of public policies, facilitating the spread of this pandemic throughout the world. All this results from the deepening of neoliberalism, which in a synchronized manner contributed to the process of privatization and dismantling of the public machinery. We point out that the wealthiest countries that have higher military spending experienced the highest number of deaths and infections. In this direction, we observe that the USA has the largest military expenditure on the planet, while the health sector is privatized, which makes it difficult to combat the covid 19. At the same time, we observe that part of the countries' public debt results from the effects of the 2008 crisis that used public money to save private enterprises while deepening the privatization of public services.

The Aging Enterprise: A 40-Year Retrospective

Dr. Carroll Estes has long been recognized as one of our most influential social gerontologists beginning with the publication of the Aging Enterprise over 40 years ago. This book quickly achieved iconic status among gerontologists and other social scientists as one of the founding texts in critical gerontology, which Dr. Estes has played a leading role in developing with numerous publications over the course of her illustrious career. The panelists will focus on Dr. Estes’ application of the theoretical frameworks offered by the social construction of reality and the political economy of aging to a critique of federal and state policies designed to improve the quality of life of older Americans. Many of the programs and policies included in Dr. Estes’ critique are still in place, including the Older Americans Act and the nonprofit aging network. On the other hand, much about the aging enterprise has changed since 1979. The panelists, Drs. Chris Phillipson, Pamela Herd and Larry Polivka, will discuss the value of and challenges to these theoretical and empirical perspectives within the current contemporary neoliberal political economy that has gradually displaced the welfare state capitalism of the postwar period. As this shift has occurred in the political economy, a neoliberal policy agenda featuring for-profit privatization of public services, including aging services, has become dominant at the federal and state levels. Dr. Estes will respond to the panelists’ presentations and discuss the future of critical gerontology. Women's Issues Interest Group Sponsored Symposium.

A panacea gone awry: A review of water privatization policy in the Philippines

AbstractIn 1997, the Philippine government privatized the operations of its publicly owned water service provider for Metro Manila. This was part of the global trend toward privatization of public services that started in the 1980s following a global economic crisis. The aims were to reduce government's role in economic development and in the provision of public services. Two decades later, however, the goals of Philippine water privatization continue to fall short of what it promised to do to the detriment of the consumers, particularly the urban poor. This article argues that the neoliberal development framework of privatization, deregulation, and economic liberalization and the market economy have generally favored corporate interests. The result has produced perennial problems such as the rising price of water and excessive profit taking and the limited and poor water services and sanitation coverage among others.

متطلبات تفعیل الشراکة (PPP) بین القطاع العام والخاص مدخلًا لإصلاح التعلیم قبل الجامعی

الملخص العربى : يعد التوجه نحو خصخصة الخدمات العامة جزءا من إطار عام للإصلاح، يهدف إلى التقليل من حجم النفقات العامة في المجتمع، وإتاحة التنوع من الجهات المقدمة للخدمات، وتحقيق الأهداف العامة من خلال مشارکة القطاع الخاص في تحقيقها، وقيام الدولة بمنحه بعض الصلاحيات لتقديم بعض الخدمات وفقا لضوابط وحدود معينة. ويهدف البحث إلى التوصل إلى تصور مقترح لتفعيل الشراکة (PPP) بين القطاع العام والخاص لإصلاح التعليم قبل الجامعي، وذلک من خلال التعرف على الإطار المفاهيمي لإصلاح التعليم، ومفهوم نظام الشراکة بين القطاع العام والخاص (PPP)، وأهدافه وخصائصه، ومزاياه، ودواعي اللجوء إليه، والتطرق إلى بعض ملامح تجارب الدول في مجال الشراکة بين القطاع العام والخاص (PPP)، وأهم نماذجه. منهج البحث اعتمد البحث على المنهج الوصفي. نتائج البحث توصل البحث إلى تصور مقترح لتفعيل الشراکة (PPP) بين القطاع العام والخاص لإصلاح التعليم قبل الجامعي، وتمثلت أهم آليات تفعيل الشراکة بين القطاع العام والخاص في التعليم قبل الجامعي، في الآتي: - إضافة تشريعية فيما يخص المتابعة والرقابة والمساءلة وإسنادها على مشروعات الشراکة التعليمية بين القطاعين العام والخاص، وإسنادها لجهة سيادية محايدة، تستطيع من خلال القانون أن تتابع وتراقب وتحاسب جميع الأطراف في عقود الشراکة، وذلک بداية من طرح المشروع مرورا بتنفيذه وتشغيله، وحتى انتهاء المدة وتسليمه للجهة الإدارية بالحالة المتفق عليها في عقد الشراکة. - ضررة وجود دعم سياسي قوي للشراکة بين القطاع العام والخاص فهذا الدعم، يشجع المستثمر المحلى أو الأجنبي، على الدخول في مشروعات شراکة مع القطاع العام، حيث أن دعم القيادات السياسية لتلک المشروعات يبعث بالثقة والاطمئنان في نفوس المستثمرين. -العمل على توفير قاعدة بيانات سليمة يمکن الاعتماد عليها والوثوق بها تمکن من التخطيط الجيد لمشروعات الشراکة وتحديد الاحتياجات وإدراجها في الخطة الاستثمارية. الملخص الانجليزى : The Direction towards privatization of public services is considered part from public framework for reformation, it's aimed at reducing the public expendure in society. It also gives chance for diversity of services and achieving public goals through private participation, in addition to granting certain Prowers from country to provide some services according to special limits. This research aims to making suggested framework for activating public private partnership (PPP) to reform pre-university education through recognizing the conceptual frame of education reform, concept of public private partnership system and its aims, characteristics and mentioning some of experiments of countries in the field of public private partnership. Search methodology: The research depended on descriptive method. The results of research The research resulted in suggested framework for activating public private partnership for reforming pre-university education. - The most important mechanisms of activating public private partnership in pre-university education are: 1) Monitoring and accountability for educational partnership projects between public and private sectors, which can monitor and accountability from the law and control all the parties of partnership contracts from the beginning of project to the implementation and operation. 2) Necessity of political support for public-private partnership in which this support encourage political authorities for these projects. - working on availability of data base which we can depend on in good planning of partnership projects and determining the needs and putting them in investment plan.

As políticas de avaliação e responsabilização no Brasil: uma análise da Educação Básica nos estados da região Nordeste

Este artigo analisa as políticas educacionais dos nove estados da região Nordeste do Brasil. A partir de estudos documentais, buscou-se estabelecer, por meio do método comparativo, algumas semelhanças e diferenças entre os programas e políticas dirigidos ao corpo docente e funcional, à gestão da escola e à avaliação. Os estudos documentais foram realizados no âmbito de uma pesquisa em desenvolvimento que busca compreender em que medida a Nova Gestão Pública tem sedimentado um modelo transnacional de privatização dos serviços públicos, em especial a educação. A análise aponta uma forte presença das políticas de avaliação como uma característica comum entre os estados como estratégia para a melhoria da educação, mas a forma de conduzi-las varia consideravelmente. Foram classificados em três diferentes grupos os estados de acordo com as formas de condução dessas políticas, a partir dos sistemas de responsabilização que desenvolvem.

Intelectuais coletivos e o processo de contrarreforma na política de saúde brasileira

Este artigo analisa as influências do Banco Mundial e da Organização Mundial da Saúde, como intelectuais coletivos e instrumentos do capital imperialista, em países de economia dependentes. Tal processodesencadeia na contrarreforma da política de saúde brasileira, que impõe mudanças significativas ao Sistema Único de Saúde, através da abertura do mercado e da privatização dos serviços públicos via publicização. Desse modo, tece críticas aos relatórios produzidos por esses intelectuais noperíodo do governo de cunho neoliberal ortodoxo de Michel Temer. A partir de um referencial crítico-dialético, utilizam-se revisão bibliográfica e pesquisa documental. Assim, aponta como esses intelectuais integram um projeto orquestrado de dominação na garantia dos interesses docapital em escala mundial, com ênfase na política de saúde brasileira. O processo de publicização visa aprofundar o apoio a um sistema de saúde na lógica do lucro e do mercado, garantindo, com tais orientações, a hegemonia do capital financeiro.

PRECARITY AND LATER LIFE: UNDERSTANDING NEW INEQUALITIES AND RISKS IN LATER LIFE

This symposium addresses debates around the theme of precarity and its implications for understanding social and economic changes affecting the lives of older people. To date, the concept of precarity has been applied to several subpopulations by various academic disciplines but has yet to be systematically applied to later life. The symposium will give particular attention to the extent to which the lens provided by precarity can illuminate different types of inequalities experienced through the life course and reflected in public policies directed at older people. Chris Phillipson reviews theoretical perspectives relating to precarity, examining their potential contribution for the development of critical gerontology. His paper also considers the extent to which the concept of ‘precarious ageing’ offers a competing or complementary view to theories of ‘active’ and ‘successful ageing’. Larry Polivka examines the growing precarity of life for older Americans emanating from austerity budgets and privatization of public services. The paper suggests that policies such as health care and long term care are in jeopardy, creating a glide path toward the extension of precarious employment into a precarious retirement for millions of older people. Wenxuan Huang examines how the focus on agency and other individual-level foci obscure understanding of social dynamics. Finally, Amanda Grenier draws on a scoping review of precarity to outline conceptual distinctions between frailty, vulnerability, and precarity. She presents reflections on what these concepts offer in terms of understandings of late life the study of disadvantage across the life course.

PRECARITY IN OLD AGE IN AMERICA

This presentation will analyze the growing precarity of life for older Americans emanating from austerity budgets and privatization of public services. As governments at every level continue to look for ways to reduce social and health spending and cut taxes they are also pursuing privatization through contracts with for-profit firms to provide regulated social and health services. The presentation will discuss how these trends toward greater precarity in old age relate to Streecks’ concept of the Consolidation State in Western neoliberal political economies. The Consolidation State serve the interest of capital, especially finance capital by implementing austerity budgets, preserving low taxes on wealth, prioritizing the financing of deficits/debt and privatizing public services and assets. Such policies put health care, long term care and other programs supporting older persons in jeopardy, creating a glide path toward the extension of precarious employment into a precarious retirement for millions of older people.