Limits to Privatization

Limits to Privatization is the first thorough audit of privatizations from around the world. It outlines the historical emergence of globalization and liberalization, and from analyses of over 50 case studies of best- and worst-case experiences of privatization, it provides guidance for policy and action that will restore and maintain the right balance between the powers and responsibilities of the state, the private sector and the increasingly important role of civil society. The result is a book of major importance that challenges one of the orthodoxies of our day and provides a benchmark for future debate.

Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker is dean of the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, UC Santa Barbara and a former member of the German Bundestag. Oran R. Young is a professor in the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management. Matthias Finger is chair and professor of Management of Network Industries at the College of Management, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, as well as dean of the School of Continuing Education, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland. Marianne Barheim is assistant professor at the Free University Berlin, Institute for Political Science.

PART I INTRODUCTION * Limits to Privatization * PART II PRIVATIZATION IN MANY SECTORS: CASE STUDIES AND SNAPSHOTS * Initial remarks * NATURAL RESOURCES AND RELATED INDUSTRIES * Water * Metals and Cement * Other Resources * NETWORK INDUSTRIES * Energy * Telecommunication and Postal Services * Transportation * OTHER SERVICES * Waste Disposal * Insurance * Culture and Media * Health * Education * Pensions * Police and Security * PART III PRIVATIZATION IN CONTEXT * Initial remarks * The General Context * The Regional Context * Special Issues * PART IV GOVERNANCE OF PRIVATIZATION * Initial remarks * Regulation * Privatization and Municipal Democracy * Financing Global Public Goods: Challenges * Escaping Pernicious Dualism: Civil Society between the State and the Firm * Private Governance: Private Rules for Privatization? * 'Co-evolution' between State Regulation and the Private Sector * PART V CONCLUSION * Lessons Learned from Privatization *