Economic pressures and technological change are causing governments across Europe to reassess the role of the state in the economy. Privatization and market liberalization have been embraced by some European Union governments as a way of shaking up sleepy state monopolies, while providing useful government funding at a time when governments need to reduce budget deficits to meet the Maastricht fiscal criteria for a common currency in Europe. This volume discusses privatization in the major European economies. It considers the different perspectives on privatization theory and policy in Europe and thereby identifies different national characteristics in terms of the motivation to privatize, the scale of privatization and its consequences. In the opening chapters there is a detailed overview of the theoretical economic issues involved in privatization and an assessment of privatization across the EU. The remaining ten chapters contain national case studies of EU countries which review the history of state ownership and privatization in each of these countries and evaluate the extent of privatization.

This volume collects Professor Michael Beesley's most important work in the area of privatization. He advised the government on forthcoming legislation on telecoms, buses, and water, as well as advising new regulators. Now in its second edition, the book includes the experience of privatization in Australia, and the lessons we can learn from them. Throughout, the author remains critical of the policies adopted, but always with corresponding suggestions for improvement. This insider view should be a valuable guide for all those interested in current developments in privatization.

This volume collects Professor Michael Beesley's most important work in the area of privatization. He advised the government on forthcoming legislation on telecoms, buses, and water, as well as advising new regulators. Now in its second edition, the book includes the experience of privatization in Australia, and the lessons we can learn from them. Throughout, the author remains critical of the policies adopted, but always with corresponding suggestions for improvement. This insider view should be a valuable guide for all those interested in current developments in privatization.

This title was first published in 2000: This volume is based on papers presented at the sixth International Research Seminar on "Issues in Social Security", held by FISS on 12-15 June 1999 in Sigtuna, Sweden. The book relates to the discussion about the merits of improving the incentive structure of social security programmes by privatization. The first part contains two important chapters - the first looks at the interaction between programmes and how they make one of them to serve the purposes of the other. This mechanism is termed "domain linkage". The second chapter deals with welfare state programmes that contain behavioural risks, like health insurance, sickness benefits, unemployment and disability insurance - where moral hazard is a potential problem. The second part of the book groups a number of international comparative studies. The first three deal with retirement issues, and the fourth looks at the development of poverty and income distribution.

Are resources allocated more efficiently through private ownership than through the public sector? The experiences of eleven newly privatised companies are examined to evaluate this hypothesis. With the Government's pro-privatization policies in place for over a decade, this is a prime time to evaluate theory versus reality.

Privatization creates gainers and losers. Increasingly, governments, particularly those in developing countries, are coming to realize that privatization can have a very severe economic impact and raises problems of equity. Yet remedial actions are often inadequate and unsystematic. In "Privatization and Equity", the authors look at some of the problems brought about by the change to private ownership. They identify factors which can lead to greater inequality, including changes in market structure, foreign ownership and operating policies. They also highlight the consequences of ignoring considerations of equity. In the short term these can discredit privatization programmes, and in the long term might even see them reversed.

Privatization and After discusses the need to monitor privatization. The authors argue that monitoring will show whether or not the process is fulfilling its objectives and contributing to improved economic performance. The book also assesses the need for, and techniques of, regulating privatized enterprises in situations of continuing monopoly or significant market control. This is supported by an in-depth analysis of regulation in the UK and its implications for developing countries. Further illustrative material is drawn from a range of developed, developing and former socialist countries.

This work discusses a transformation of health care delivery that was launched by coalitions of business leaders during the early 1970s. It argues for a single-payer system and considers how public regulation offers the possibility of democratic participation in setting health care policies.

This work discusses a transformation of health care delivery that was launched by coalitions of business leaders during the early 1970s. It argues for a single-payer system and considers how public regulation offers the possibility of democratic participation in setting health care policies.

Privatization has been the spearhead of the moves towards de-regulation that have characterized economic policy in the last decade. "Privatisation - A Global Perspective" documents the developments in privatization in 25 country studies. It presents a comprehensive and detailed survey of the privatization phenomena and focuses on specifics. The main features of each country's privatization programme are outlined and then particular successes and problems are highlighted. Material from developed, developing and formerly socialist countries is included in a comparable format, and the distinguishing features of comparison and contrast, as well as broad conclusions, are presented in the concluding review by the editor. The authors include professors, ministers, public enterprise executives, practising accountants and other specialists.

This title was first published in 2000: This volume is based on papers presented at the sixth International Research Seminar on "Issues in Social Security", held by FISS on 12-15 June 1999 in Sigtuna, Sweden. The book relates to the discussion about the merits of improving the incentive structure of social security programmes by privatization. The first part contains two important chapters - the first looks at the interaction between programmes and how they make one of them to serve the purposes of the other. This mechanism is termed "domain linkage". The second chapter deals with welfare state programmes that contain behavioural risks, like health insurance, sickness benefits, unemployment and disability insurance - where moral hazard is a potential problem. The second part of the book groups a number of international comparative studies. The first three deal with retirement issues, and the fourth looks at the development of poverty and income distribution.

First published in 1989. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs) have constituted a perennial feature of the security landscape. Yet, it is their involvement in and conduct during the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that have transformed the outsourcing of security services into such a pressing public policy and world-order issue. The PMSCs' ubiquitous presence in armed conflict situations, as well as in post-conflict reconstruction, their diverse list of clients (governments in the developed and developing world, non-state armed groups, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, and international corporations) and, in the context of armed conflict situations, involvement in instances of gross misconduct, have raised serious accountability issues. The prominence of PMSCs in conflict zones has generated critical questions concerning the very concept of security and the role of private force, a rethinking of "essential governmental functions," a rearticulation of the distinction between public/private and global/local in the context of the creation of new forms of "security governance," and a consideration of the relevance, as well as limitations, of existing regulatory frameworks that include domestic and international law (in particular international human rights law and international humanitarian law). This book critically examines the growing role of PMSCs in conflict and post-conflict situations, as part of a broader trend towards the outsourcing of security functions. Particular emphasis is placed on key moral, legal, and political considerations involved in the privatization of such functions, on the impact of outsourcing on security governance, and on the main challenges confronting efforts to hold PMSCs accountable through a combination of formal and informal, domestic as well as international, regulatory mechanisms and processes. It will be of interest to scholars, policymakers, practitioners and advocates for a more transparent and humane security order. This book was published as a special issue of Criminal Justice Ethics.

First Published in 1987. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs) have constituted a perennial feature of the security landscape. Yet, it is their involvement in and conduct during the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that have transformed the outsourcing of security services into such a pressing public policy and world-order issue. The PMSCs' ubiquitous presence in armed conflict situations, as well as in post-conflict reconstruction, their diverse list of clients (governments in the developed and developing world, non-state armed groups, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, and international corporations) and, in the context of armed conflict situations, involvement in instances of gross misconduct, have raised serious accountability issues. The prominence of PMSCs in conflict zones has generated critical questions concerning the very concept of security and the role of private force, a rethinking of "essential governmental functions," a rearticulation of the distinction between public/private and global/local in the context of the creation of new forms of "security governance," and a consideration of the relevance, as well as limitations, of existing regulatory frameworks that include domestic and international law (in particular international human rights law and international humanitarian law). This book critically examines the growing role of PMSCs in conflict and post-conflict situations, as part of a broader trend towards the outsourcing of security functions. Particular emphasis is placed on key moral, legal, and political considerations involved in the privatization of such functions, on the impact of outsourcing on security governance, and on the main challenges confronting efforts to hold PMSCs accountable through a combination of formal and informal, domestic as well as international, regulatory mechanisms and processes. It will be of interest to scholars, policymakers, practitioners and advocates for a more transparent and humane security order. This book was published as a special issue of Criminal Justice Ethics.

The transformation of state-owned enterprises into privately owned ones is commonly referred to as 'privatization'. Just as important as this process, though sometimes not given the attention it deserves and requires, is the establishment and expansion of new private firms. This book analyzes new entrepreneurial firms that emerge and occasionally flourish after a period of state communism has come to an end. The authors rightly focus on the aftermath of the end of communism by looking first at the inevitable output decline, followed by an overview of new entrepreneurial firms. Specific East European examples are examined and the lessons which can be learned from these will interest academics and policy-makers alike. Committed and knowledgeable authors in this book treat the sometimes emotive issue of transition-developing economies maturely and expertly. The result is a volume which will interest scholars with an interest in transition economics and politics, as well as those who actively work in transition economies.

Licence To Loot is a fast-paced, hard-hitting investigation into parastatal looting, written by journalist Stephan Hofstatter. At the centre of the story is Eskom, the largest power utility in Africa, which could determine the success or failure of South Africa’s economy.

Hofstatter’s story begins in 2016, with the Guptas’ controversial purchase of Optimum coal mine and Eskom chief executive Brian Molefe’s key role in the deal. From there it takes the reader on a journey from secret meetings in London hotel rooms to a clandestinely purchased bolthole on a Dubai golf estate, uncovering the corrupt acquisition of a private jet along the way. From the diary entries of a Saxonwold security guard to first-hand accounts of backroom dealmaking, it traces the origins of a shadowy network between the Guptas and Eskom that ultimately allowed the family to extract billions of rands from the parastatal.

Licence To Loot reveals the complicated deals and machinations underpinning state capture and the subsequent ministerial and board appointments that ceded the control of the country’s parastatals, including Eskom, Transnet, SAA and Denel, to Gupta-linked moneymen.

The book is particularly relevant in the current political climate as it focuses on the impact of state capture, not just its origins, and takes the story beyond the Zuma presidency.

Discusses the policies, practices and outcomes of privatization in six transition economies: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Russia, Slovenia and Ukraine, paying particular attention to cross-country differences and to interrelations between the processes of privatisation and the political transition from communism to a new system. The analysis is restricted to the privatisation in those fields where its methods have been strongly different from privatisations in advanced market economies and where differences of privatisation principles and techniques among our six countries were also rather various. This is basically the privatisation of middle-sized and large enterprises, not including banks, non-bank financial companies, natural monopolies and agricultural entities.

Grave financial woes swamping many developing world nations have spurred government interest in divestment as a means of reducing the role of the state in economic activity. Gradual ideological change in nations freed from colonial rule and pressures for reform applied by bilateral and international donor agencies have led to a growing acceptance of the trend toward privatization as a means to achieve both higher productivity and lower costs and to reduce the financial burden that subsidy costs to money-losing industries place on developing nations. L. Gray Cowan has created a how-to book for privatizing not only industry but also agriculture and services provided by the governments in developing world nations. Privatization in the Developing World focuses specifically on the privatization process with in-depth discussions, including preparing firms for disposition; making realistic, market-based valuations of the industries to be sold to private buyers; developing alternative methods of carrying out the sales; and creating more sophisticated finance packages for the privatization transaction. Both timely and readable, this handbook will enable officials of developing world states to initiate privatization strategies and to develop their own plans with the help of local civil servants. Following an introduction that provides background material relevant to the concept of privatization and the failure of state-owned enterprises, five chapters supply nuts-and-bolts information necessary to implement the process. Developing a Strategy for Privatization considers political and economic risk factors as well as the means to reduce them and also assesses various impediments and limitations. The emphasis here is on positive ways of overcoming obstacles and making the privatization strategy work. Chapter two discusses the choice of candidates for divestment and the preparation, valuation, sale, and financing of an SOE. Types of ownership, policy objectives, and management are also addressed. Chapter three proposes methods of privatizing municipal services, energy supplies, telecommunication systems, and health and education services. The chapter devoted to the agricultural sector discusses the special aspects of privatizing that sector, such as selling state-owned agricultural estates and privatizing land ownership. Results of experiments in agricultural privatization are also included. The final chapter, which considers the future of privatization in the developing world is followed by four helpful case histories that detail privatization efforts in Jamaica, Costa Rica, Tunisia, and Malawi. Cowan's handbook serves as an invaluable basic text on privatization techniques and methods and will be a most useful tool for government officers in the developing world whose responsibility is devising their government's strategy for a privatization program and implementing the decision to divest. It will be an important addition to college-level courses in economics and economic history.

Driven by ideology, the IMF, the World Bank and powerful business interests, governments all over the world have been privatizing services in a growing number of sectors. Not just industrial utilities like energy, water and transport, but health, education, media, communications, pensions, even prisons and defence. But what have been the results? Have private funds and management produced greater efficiency, better economic performance and higher levels of service everywhere? This book is the first thorough audit of privatizations around the world. It shows how and where they have worked well, and where they have defeated their own aims - with serious impacts on public health, environmental sustainability, democratic accountability and the level of public service. It analyses the factors behind success or failure to establish criteria for future sell-offs, and argues for the fundamental importance of democratic governance of the privatization of publicly owned goods. The result is a book of major importance, challenging one of the orthodoxies of our day - a benchmark for future debate.

The transformation of state-owned enterprises into privately owned ones is commonly referred to as 'privatization'. Just as important as this process, though sometimes not given the attention it deserves and requires, is the establishment and expansion of new private firms.
This book analyzes new entrepreneurial firms that emerge and occasionally flourish after a period of state communism has come to an end. The authors rightly focus on the aftermath of the end of communism by looking first at the inevitable output decline, followed by an overview of new entrepreneurial firms. Specific East European examples are examined and the lessons which can be learned from these will interest academics and policy-makers alike.
Committed and knowledgeable authors in this book treat the sometimes emotive issue of transition-developing economies maturely and expertly. The result is a volume which will interest scholars with an interest in transition economics and politics, as well as those who actively work in transition economies.

The public debate is rife with polarized views of how to deliver essential services such as education, health, and security. While some tout privatization as a way to supplant bad governments, others warn that private firms maximize profits at the expense of socially oriented service attributes. In reality, all forms of service delivery-public, private and hybrid public private-collaborations-have merits and flaws. This book scrutinizes the menu of delivery forms in public services and the conditions that should make them work. It argues that privatization benefits from capable government units committing to well-defined policy objectives, mobilizing critical resources, and incentivizing effective and inclusive delivery. Societies counting on capable governments can also reject single solutions and experiment with plural paths of improvement, where public and private organizations co-exist and learn from each other. This book will appeal to students, academics, managers and policy makers interested in examining the public-private boundary and the many ramifications of this focal issue.

In Eastern Europe privatization is now a mass phenomenon. The authors propose a model of it by means of an illustration from the example of Poland, which envisages the free provision of shares in formerly public undertakings to employees and consumers, and the provision of corporate finance from foreign intermediaries. One danger that emerges is that of bureaucratization. On the broader canvas, mass privatization implies the reform of the whole system, the creation of a suitable economic infrastructure for a market economy and the institutions of corporate governance. The authors point out the need for a delicate balance between evolution - which may be too slow - and design - which brings the risk of more government involvement than it is able to manage. A chapter originating as a European Bank working paper explores the banking implications of setting up a totally new financial sector with interlocking classes of assets. The economic effects merge into politics as the role of the state is investigated. Teachers and graduate students of public/private sector economies, East European affairs; advisers to bankers or commercial companies with Eastern European interests.

This Third Volume in the acclaimed series of CEU Privatization Reports deals with the transition to a free market in retail trade and consumer services in Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. The authors describe and analyze all the programs with the help of which shops, restaurants, and service establishments have been privatized in the three most advanced postcommunist countries and provide detailed quantitative evidence concerning all aspects of the small privatization process. The volume also presents the results of the first extensive empirical survey of privatized establishments in the three countries and draws important conclusions concerning the conditions necessary for a successful privatization of the retail trade and consumer service sectors in Eastern Europe. The authors argue that small privatization is, above all, a transfer of ownership to commercial real estate and that the nature of the rights conveyed to the new owners makes a great difference with respect to postprivatization restructuring. They also show that the presence of outside owners, not connected with predecessor state establishments, is one of the most important factors determining the extent of changes brought about by small privatization.

In this work, comprehensive comparative information on five Central European countries has been collected by teams of researchers from both within the region and from the West. Following an introduction to the economic environment in each country, it provides an overview of the privatization process, including an account of the legal framework of ownership, institutions for state regulation, an overview of privatization programmes and the initial transformation of enterprises. A key feature of the book is the authors' access to hitherto unavailable information and their ability to present a vast amount of material in an easily available format. Aimed at policy makers and business people, the work should provide a strong foundation for future research.