Privatization Of Public Services Research Articles

The discursive legitimation of profit in public-private service delivery

Abstract Public-private partnerships are a topic of continuing interest for accounting researchers. However, as yet there are only a few studies focusing on the post-implementation phase of PPPs. In particular, even though scholars have criticized PPPs for inflating the profits of private partners at the expense of the public sector and citizens, they have rarely scrutinized the public debates whereby the legitimacy of PPP organizations’ profits are societally contested and debated. The purpose of this article is to shed light on the processes of profit (de)legitimation by examining the construction of senses of (il)legitimacy in public-private service delivery. These processes are examined in the case of Tallinn Water, an Estonian public-private water company. Our findings suggest that the main themes debated revolved around the following questions: What is a normal profit for a public-private monopoly? Who or what is the ultimate authority in such matters? What is morally appropriate behaviour for such a company? Our findings also indicate that even relatively affordable prices and high performance levels do not suffice to create legitimacy for an organization that tries to make excessive gains from the provision of something that is generally regarded as a human right.

Social Control Meets New Public Management: Examining the Diffusion of State Prison Privatization, 1979‐2010

While the merits and perils of privatization have remained a contentious and often polarizing debate, privatization of public services remains commonplace throughout the world. For instance, over the last several decades, U.S. governments at all levels have routinely pursued contracting arrangements for corrections management, known popularly as prison privatization. In this article, state prison privatization (SPP) is examined in three ways. First, we use an externally focused policy diffusion framework to help explain the adoption of SPP‐enabling legislation across U.S. states. Second, we explore the extent to which the American Legislative Exchange Council has influenced the adoption of prison privatization legislation. Third, we explore the role of state wealth inequality in determining a state's propensity to adopt prison privatization policies. Examining state‐level data from 1979 to 2010, this article finds empirical support for each of these key theoretical assertions. Furthermore, we find evidence that the external diffusion effect may vary depending on the political orientation of the state.Related ArticlesButz, Adam M., Michael P. Fix, and Joshua L. Mitchell. 2005. “Policy Learning and the Diffusion of Stand‐Your‐Ground Laws.” Politics & Policy 43 (3): 347‐377. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12116Gerlach, John David, Laron K. Williams, and Colleen E. Forcina. 2013. “The Science‐Natural Resource Policy Relationship: How Aspects of Diffusion Theory Explain Data Selection for Making Biodiversity Management Decisions.” Politics & Policy 41 (3): 326‐354. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12017Morris, John C. 2007. “Government and Market Pathologies of Privatization: The Case of Prison Privatization.” Politics & Policy 35 (2): 318‐341. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1747-1346.2007.00062.xRelated MediaAmerican Civil Liberties Union of Ohio. 2015. “Prisons for Profit: 18 Months in the Life of the Nation's First Prison Sold for Profit.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQcZzS7eqfYNow on PBS. 2008. “Prisons for Profit.” https://www.pbs.org/now/shows/419/video.htmlSullivan, Eileen. 2016. “PBS News Hour: Obama Administration Set to End Use of Private Prisons.” https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/obama-administration-end-use-private-prisons

Vivienda social y segregación: Una aproximación para entender las diferencias entre grandes y pequeñas ciudades

This work is a critique to specialized approaches according to which urban segregation is per se less pernicious in small cities. Through semi-structured interviews and non-participant observation applied in two quarters of segregated social housing in cities of different sizes, the argument is made in favor of an approach that acknowledges that the perniciousness of segregation is not only explained by spatial factors but by aspects linked to the policy of mobility and public-private services and infrastructure in urban peripheries. The conclusion is reached that this approach will help better understand the impacts of social housing policies in cities of different sizes.

Citizen Initiatives in the Post-Welfare State

Recently we have seen the emergence of citizen-led community initiatives and civic enterprises, taking over governmental tasks in providing public services in various sectors, such as energy, care, landscape maintenance, and culture. This phenomenon can be explained by a renewed interest in community, place, and ‘local identity’; the erosion of the welfare state; the privatization of public services; a re-emergence of the social economy; and tensions between ‘bottom-up’ initiatives and the changing role of the state. The co-production of governments and initiatives can potentially result in a shift from government-led to community-led planning. This, however, raises questions about their innovative potential, the democratic consequences, and the potential roles of governments in enabling these societal dynamics. This article discusses these issues theoretically, illustrated with empirical examples from Portugal, the Netherlands, and Wales, in a context of uncertainty regarding the future of the traditional European welfare state.

Commissioning of public services: cooperation and strategic approaches

Because of increasing complexity and pressure on services, from both financial and delivery perspectives, public administrators increasingly explore new public-private service delivery approaches. This article undertakes a review of the commissioning literature and compares the approach with traditional procurement. It is argued that commissioning goes beyond traditional procurement and outsourcing agendas by prioritizing on cooperation and strategic outcome enablement, two forces that shape both service delivery on one side and procurement on the other.

Austerity and the Politics of Becoming

In this short contribution, we attempt to explore the ways in which austerity measures – deficit reductions through tax increases and cuts to public spending – generate unexpected political subjectivities among women of colour activists in Britain. In particular, we ex- amine how the dramatic cuts to public spending and the privatization of public services simultaneously subject women of colour by further destabilizing their already precarious economic position and create new possibilities for women becoming radical agents for social change. We argue that the dynamic for mapping this process of women of colour becoming new (or, at least, different) political agents is found in the oftentimes disrespected and devalued social relations of caring and care work (Erel, 2011). We argue that caring for and about Others is a dual process of subjectivation through the (re) privat- ization of care through the roll back of the social welfare state and a politics of becoming which generates new solidarities for collective action among women of colour.

Squatting: The Fight for Decent Shelter, 1970s–1980s

During the twenty years after the Second World War, housing began to be seen as a basic right among many in the west, and the British welfare state included many policies and provisions to provide decent shelter for its citizens. This article focuses on the period circa 1968–85, because this was a time in England when the lack of affordable, secure-tenured housing reached a crisis level at the same time that central and local governmental housing policies received wider scrutiny for their ineffectiveness. My argument is that despite post-war laws and rhetoric, many Britons lived through a housing disaster and for many the most rational way they could solve their housing needs was to exploit loopholes in the law (as well as to break them out right). While the main focus of the article is on young British squatters, there is scope for transnational comparison. Squatters in other parts of the world looked to their example to address the housing needs in their own countries, especially as privatization of public services spread globally in the 1980s and 1990s. Dutch, Spanish, German and American squatters were involved in a symbiotic exchange of ideas and sometimes people with the British squatters and each other, and practices and rhetoric from one place were quickly adopted or rejected based on the success or failure in each place.

Data-Driven Regulation and Governance in Smart Cities

This paper discusses the concept of data-driven regulation and governance in the context of smart cities by describing how these urban centres harness these technologies to collect and process information about citizens, traffic, urban planning or waste production. It describes how several smart cities throughout the world currently employ data science, big data, AI, Internet of Things (‘IoT’), and predictive analytics to improve the efficiency of their services and decision-making. Furthermore, this paper analyses the legal challenges of employing these technologies to influence or determine the content of local regulation and governance. It explores in particular three specific challenges: the disconnect between traditional administrative law frameworks and data-driven regulation and governance, the effects of the privatization of public services and citizen needs due to the growing outsourcing of smart cities technologies to private companies; and the limited transparency and accountability that characterizes data-driven administrative processes. This paper draws on a review of interdisciplinary literature on smart cities and offers illustrations of data-driven regulation and governance practices from different jurisdictions.

Analyzing Moroccan ‘Youth’ in Historical Context: Rethinking the Significance of Social Entrepreneurship

Popular analyses of political discontent among young people converged on a global level after the advent of the economic crisis in 2007-08. They have referred to pervasive alienation, frustration, disappointment, and fear, depicting a generation exploited by ruthless business owners, neglected by policy elites, and abandoned by older generations. The analyses likewise share an understanding of the meaning of ‘youth’, namely a population defined by narrowing economic opportunities under global market capitalism and subsequent protest. This paper attempts to go beyond this conception to explore the emergence of a new framework for agency. More specifically, the paper aims to go beyond interpreting the behavior of ‘youth’ in the Arab World, especially among educated young men and women, as simply about protest. Instead, the paper posits that concurrent trends in privatization of public services, increasing individual and local responsibility for social problems and job creation, job insecurity, and greater exposure to rights and government accountability are influencing capacity to influence local change and likewise, challenging boundaries between social, political, and economic agency. Drawing on longstanding research on social activism in Morocco, the paper adapts the language of theorists of generational formation and consciousness (see Edmunds and Turner 2002, 2005) to argue that the initial consequence of market reform in the eighties and nineties was the formation of an ‘interval generation’, disenfranchised economically and unrepresented politically. Over the past 5-10 years, though, the entrenchment of globalization and neoliberal ideology have led to the emergence of an ‘active generation’ maneuvering to influence policy and liberal market capitalism through altering local economic and social opportunities. This maneuvering is particularly apparent in the rise of social entrepreneurship, not just as an employment policy, but also as an indicator of how the boundaries between economic, political, and social agency at a local level have blurred.

Market Orientation in Public Service—A Comparison Between Buyers and Providers

ABSTRACTPublic services have been subjected to processes of deregulation, competition, and privatization in many countries worldwide. One popular reform has involved focusing on competitive procurement. This context, where public and private organizations jointly deliver the service in a dyad, makes the market orientation of public services highly complex. The main elements of market orientation – intelligence generation, intelligence dissemination and responsiveness– have shown themselves to be valid and of significance in both the private and public sectors. Nevertheless, the empirical context of the public sector involves a complexity that has been poorly addressed in market orientation research. In this study, we research the Swedish public transport industry and survey buyer and provider organizations in order to determine how market-orientated activities are approached in public-private service dyads. We present three theoretically-underpinned relationship types - buyer dominated, provider dominated and collaborative - which we suggest as having implications for market-oriented activities. A survey of public transport authorities’ (buyers, n = 48) and operators’ (providers, n = 49) market orientation activities reveals the concurrent prevalence of characteristics from all three relationship types, as both parties try to dominate the relationship while also engaging in collaborative efforts. Drawing on our theoretical framework and our empirical results, we conclude that there are legitimate differences in the perspectives of buyers and providers, and that these differences, if acknowledged and properly managed, can provide valuable resources in the development of a joint market orientation in complex public-private settings.

Perceptions of Privatization in Michigan

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the attitudes of elected local officials toward the use of privatization of public services by local governments. We examined a number of factors to see whether they are significantly associated with elected officials’ attitude toward privatization as a method of cost savings and service delivery. The survey examined the elected officials’ perception of community support for privatization, the perception that the private sector is more efficient with regard to both cost and quality of service delivery, the perception that administrators faithfully carry out policy, the relationship to general revenue sharing dollars, and the type of city.

Explanatory factors in the renewal of contracts for the privatisation of public services

After analysing the explanatory factors underlying the renewal of privatisation contracts, this paper examines the likelihood of local authorities renewing their contracts with private entities for the provision of public services, by studying a sample of 623 Spanish municipalities for the period 2002–2013, using a logit model. The type of service, the duration of the contract and certain political and economic factors were all found to influence the renewal or otherwise of this type of contract. Moreover, this effect differed between initial privatisation and subsequent contract renewal.

A critical insight into practitioners’ lived experience of payment by results in the alcohol and drug treatment sector

Since former Chancellor George Osborne described reducing public spending as ‘the great national challenge of our generation’ (Her Majesty’s Treasury, 2010: 12) the UK Government have demonstrated a profound interest in Payment by Results (PbR) as a mechanism to improve service quality, value for money and innovation (Audit Commission, 2012). Although PbR is not a new initiative, it has been rebranded and sold as a vehicle that can steer ongoing strategies for reform, particularly in the field of criminal justice and drug/alcohol treatment (Her Majesty’s Government, 2010; Ministry of Justice 2013). Despite such assertions, the initiative has become synonymous with budget cuts (Community Links, 2015), the privatisation of public services (Policy Exchange, 2013) and controversy. Drawing upon the findings of a focus group with staff who work in a Therapeutic Community, this article highlights the lived experience of practitioners as PbR takes hold of the alcohol and drug treatment sector. The findings suggest that outcome-orientated incentives, such as PbR, hold the potential to transform welfare-orientated sectors into a financial, market-focused milieu.

Water Privatization Aftermath in Armenia: Scale, Public Perception and Willingness to Pay

La globalización, la liberalización de los mercados internacionales y la intensificación de la cooperación internacional impulsaron la expansión generalizada de la privatización de los servicios públicos, aunque no está claro si la privatización sirvió al interés público o no. El documento presenta el casode Armenia, un país en transición que pasó por un intenso proceso de privatización en el sector del agua. Las evaluaciones, de arriba hacia abajo, muestran que las empresas de servicios públicos armenios alcanzaron una posición superior a la media en las comparaciones internacionales. Se utilizaron las encuestas hechas en los hogares para proporcionar evidencia empírica sobre las experiencias reales de los usuarios, a través de la medición de la percepción que ellos tienen sobre los servicios de agua, la disposición a pagar y las acciones de conservación. Los resultados muestran que los usuarios en sus hogares, en general, están satisfechos con los servicios de agua. La proporción más alta de los que están dispuestos a pagar por mejoras está en las zonas rurales que refleja la mayor necesidad de mejores servicios de agua. Como era de esperar, la situación financiera de los hogares y la percepción del precio del agua afectan la disposición a pagar. Los resultados de la investigación proporcionaron evidencia de la teoría de la comparación social según la cual la menorsatisfacción del público con los servicios de agua puede derivarse en áreas que colindan con otras áreas con mejores servicios de abastecimiento de agua. El estudio también encuentra que la medición universal del agua afectó el comportamiento del consumo de agua de las familias.

Privatization of Public Services: Impacts for Employment, Working Conditions, and Service Quality in Europe Christoph Hermann and Jorg Flecker , eds.New York, NY: Routledge, 2012, pp. 214.

Privatization of Public Services: Impacts for Employment, Working Conditions, and Service Quality in Europe Christoph Hermann and Jorg Flecker , eds.New York, NY: Routledge, 2012, pp. 214.

Tax Justice in Austerity: Logics, Residues and Attachments

In the wake of the UK government’s post-2010 spending cuts, talk about tax justice has become more audible and urgent. Campaigning groups such as UK Uncut have sought to bring the contested tax affairs of a number of multinational corporations, and notably Vodafone, to wider public attention, and have called for the introduction of a ‘Tax Dodging Bill’. In the House of Commons, the Public Accounts Committee scrutinised the avoidance of corporation tax by multinationals during the 2010-15 parliament, leading to widely reported interrogations of representatives from Amazon, Google and Starbucks. This article examines the moral reasoning that prevails in post-2010 tax justice discourse. Drawing on data from an online ‘occupation’ of Vodafone’s Twitter feed in 2014, during which UK Uncut supporters were invited to ‘[t]ell Vodafone what you think their dodged tax should be spent on’, it explores how the ‘injustice’ of tax avoidance is established within the context of austerity. It goes on to examine the ways in which tax justice discourse activates economic imaginaries in austerity, with a specific focus on the ‘tax and spend’ cycle. I develop the argument that tax justice rhetoric tends to perpetuate a residual conception of taxation that emphasises its function as a mechanism of redistributive justice, and tends not to take account of the intensification of neoliberal marketisation and privatisation of public services. The article concludes by evaluating the opportunities and challenges that these residual conceptions afford – both for the tax justice movement and for a politics of public ownership.

A ‘Problem of Fairness’ in the Making: The Transformation of Public Services from the Perspective of Postal Workers

AbstractDuring the last two decades public administration and public services have undergone profound changes with far‐reaching impacts on employment relations and working conditions. The paper presents the perceptions and lived experiences of workers affected by liberalization and privatization of public services. In doing so it focuses on workers’ ideas of fairness and dignity at work using the concepts of distribution, recognition and the public ethos of the common good and linking them to fundamental principles of justice. It is argued that the perception of inequalities as fair, while it is shaped by custom, is also being socially constructed during far‐reaching changes. The analysis is based on a series of qualitative interviews conducted in Austria, Germany and Switzerland with postal‐service workers, a sector well suited for the analysis because of the far‐reaching changes in terms of market regulation, ownership of organizations, labour regulation, employment and working conditions.

Teaching the Transformative Agenda of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Neoliberalism has dominated the world for over three decades and now permeates our laws, policies and practices at the international, national and local levels. The International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization, the European Union, the United States and China all support trade liberalization, privatization of public services and the primacy of markets over people. Indeed, neoliberalism has become so ingrained that it has become invisible and many of us no longer notice when new agendas conflict with international human rights laws and principles to which almost all countries in the world have committed themselves. Adopted in 1948, immediately after World War II, to implement one of the four goals of the new United Nations Organization, the norms and aspirations elaborated in the UDHR provide a framework for a radically different world than the one we have today. In this article, we revisit the content of the UDHR, beginning with the right to a social and international order in which everyone’s rights can be realized, and consider other key provisions that conflict with neoliberalism, including the rights to the benefits of science, to full employment and decent work, to progressive realization of free higher education, to nondiscrimination on the grounds of economic status and to solidarity. We also share some activities that we use in the classroom and online to make the transformative agenda of the UDHR visible to students and demonstrate how far we have strayed from the aspiration of a world in which everyone enjoys their human rights. The article concludes that teaching a holistic vision of the UDHR in a neoliberal world is a radical human rights curriculum.

Financial and Political Factors Motivating the Privatisation of Municipal Water Services

Financial and political factors are widely considered to be an explanatory factor of the privatisation of public services. However, the empirical evidence in this respect is not convincing. This paper considers elements of long-term financial condition and ideological and political strength, together with other socio-economic factors and the effects of the current global financial crisis, to address the financial stress–privatisation relationship, with respect to urban water services, observed during the period 2002–2012 in Spanish municipalities. A discrete time survival model is applied, and the results obtained show that certain elements of financial condition, together with political and ideological factors, are decisive influences in decisions to privatise urban water services. We also highlight the major impact of the Great Recession and its effect on the financial stress–privatisation relationship.

Politics of scale and strategic selectivity in the liberalisation of public services – the role of trade in services

ABSTRACTOne of the most contentious issues of the neoliberal agenda has been the privatisation of public services. The WTO GATS negotiations over the liberalisation of trade in services, which commenced in the year 2000, led to a strongly contested debate over whether the international level would provide an additional channel for the privatisation of public services. In particular, the position of the European Union was criticised for promoting this agenda. More recently, this question has regained its significance with the start of negotiations for the Trade in Services Agreement and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. Thus, this article seeks to analyse the politics of scale in the field of trade in services and its specific impact upon the liberalisation of public services. By applying a Neo-Poulantzian IPE approach, we propose a typology of (i) scalar forms in trade policy and (ii) of particular liberalisation strategies. Our results suggest that the multilateral level is but one element in a strategic politics of scale, with the former primarily fulfilling the role of locking-in liberalisation gains achieved at other levels, while other scalar forms, in particular bi- and plurilateralism, are primarily used to progressively advance the liberalisation agenda.