Privatization has spread worldwide during the 1980s and 1990s, reshaping the balance between state and market in many countries. This book provides a comparative political analysis of privatization in the UK, United States and France. The authors argue that privatization is a political phenomenon and should be analyzed as such, rather than as an economic response to the growth of the state and the cost of state provision. The book will be of interest to students of politics, economics, public policy and business studies, as well as to policy-makers and business consultants.

This book challenges readers to consider the consequences of commercialism and business influences on and in schools. Critical essays examine the central theme of commercialism via a unique multiplicity of real-world examples. Topics include: *privatization of school food services; *oil company ads that act as educational policy statements; *a parent's view of his child's experiences in a school that encourages school-business partnerships; *commercialization and school administration; *teacher union involvement in the school-business partnership craze currently sweeping the nation; *links between education policy and the military-industrial complex; *commercialism in higher education, including marketing to high school students, intellectual property rights of professors and students, and the bind in which professional proprietary schools find themselves; and *the influence of conservative think tanks on information citizens receive, especially concerning educational issues and policy. Schools or Markets?: Commercialism, Privatization, and School-Business Partnerships is compelling reading for all researchers, faculty, students, and education professionals interested in the connections between public schools and private interests. The breadth and variety of topics addressed make it a uniquely relevant text for courses in social and cultural foundations of education, sociology of education, educational politics and policy, economics of education, philosophy of education, introduction to education, and cultural studies in education.

This book addresses two different but related topics that can arise during the development of equity capital markets and which could possibly hinder their development: partial privatisation and shareholder rights. Both issues are developed in the context of transition economies in general and Russia in particular. Chapter 2 puts forward a theory of partial privatisation, i. e. a model that aims to explain why the state keeps some residual shares. Several recent surveys for Russia have shown that the state does often not actively use the voting rights of its residual shares. If this was true, partial privati sation could entrench management and hinder restructuring. It would also limit the supply of shares, which could lead to low liquidity. This would be likely to slow down the development of the equity capital market. However, the model in chapter 2 shows that it can be rational to hold back shares from sale in order to maximise privatisation receipts. Another issue which holds back the development of this market is the fact that shareholder rights can not be guaranteed by the state due to weak institutions. Chapter 3 contains an empirical examination of which firms honour shareholder rights and also provides a direct link between this problem and partial privatisation. Maybe surprisingly, some weak evidence is presented that shows that the residual state holding does not exert a negative influence with respect to the introduc tion of shareholder rights, but might even be a weak positive force."

Why government outsourcing of public powers is making us less free Many governmental functions today-from the management of prisons and welfare offices to warfare and financial regulation-are outsourced to private entities. Education and health care are funded in part through private philanthropy rather than taxation. Can a privatized government rule legitimately? The Privatized State argues that it cannot. In this boldly provocative book, Chiara Cordelli argues that privatization constitutes a regression to a precivil condition-what philosophers centuries ago called "a state of nature." Developing a compelling case for the democratic state and its administrative apparatus, she shows how privatization reproduces the very same defects that Enlightenment thinkers attributed to the precivil condition, and which only properly constituted political institutions can overcome-defects such as provisional justice, undue dependence, and unfreedom. Cordelli advocates for constitutional limits on privatization and a more democratic system of public administration, and lays out the central responsibilities of private actors in contexts where governance is already extensively privatized. Charting a way forward, she presents a new conceptual account of political representation and novel philosophical theories of democratic authority and legitimate lawmaking. The Privatized State shows how privatization undermines the very reason political institutions exist in the first place, and advocates for a new way of administering public affairs that is more democratic and just.

This timely new book provides an international perspective on Public Private Partnerships. Through 21 case studies, it investigates the existing and fast developing body of principles and practices from a wide range of countries and is the first book to bring together leading international academics and practitioners under a common framework that enables convenient cross-country comparisons. The authors focus on the impact of the financial crisis has had on how governments have reviewed and overhauled their PPP policies as they have examined or tested new ways of partnering more effectively, efficiently and sustainably with the private sector. Readers will be able to gauge the level of maturity of PPP development in the book's case studies, understand similarities and differences in their practices, and gain useful insights into the regulatory framework and institutional infrastructure in place to support implementation of PPP. Finally, the book offers insights into the future challenges and opportunities that PPP offers stakeholders.

American prisons and jails are overflowing with inmates. To relieve the pressure, courts have imposed fines on overcrowded facilities and fiscally strapped governments have been forced to release numerous prisoners prematurely. In this study, noted criminologist Charles Logan makes the case for commercial operation of prisons and jails as an alternative to the government's monopoly. On philosophical, economic, legal, and practical grounds, Logan argues a compelling case for the private and commercial operation of prisons. He critically examines all objections raised by opponents, and concludes that while private prisons face many potential problems, they do so primarily because they are prisons, not because they are private. Historically, the record of private ownership and operation of corrections facilities has been bleak--ridden with political corruption, physical abuse of prisoners, and the single-minded pursuit of profits. This study demonstrates that this need not be the case. Critiquing the tendency to contrast private prisons with a hypothetical ideal, Logan instead compares them with existing public institutions, arguing that the potential problems attributed to private prisons are experienced by their public counterparts. The work examines ten sets of issues, including the propriety, cost, security, and quantity of prisons, to set out a strong case for the viability of proprietary prisons.

Nursing homes are where some of the most vulnerable live and work. In too many homes, the conditions of work make it difficult to make care as good as it can be. For the last eight years an international team from Germany, Sweden, Norway, the UK, the US and Canada have been searching for promising practices that treat residents, families and staff with dignity and respect in ways that can also bring joy. While we did find ideas worth sharing, we also saw a disturbing trend toward privatization. Privatization is the process of moving away not only from public delivery and public payment for health services but also from a commitment to shared responsibility, democratic decision-making, and the idea that the public sector operates according to a logic of service to all. This book documents moves toward privatization in the six countries and their consequences for families, staff, residents, and, eventually, us all. None of the countries has escaped pressure from powerful forces in and outside government pushing for privatization in all its forms. However, the wide variations in the extent and nature of privatization indicate privatization is not inevitable and our research shows there are alternatives.

Public services throughout Europe have undergone dramatic restructuring processes in recent years in connection with liberalization and privatization. While evaluations of the successes of public services have focused on prices and efficiency, much less attention has been paid to the impacts of liberalization and privatization on employment, labor relations, and working conditions. This book addresses this gap by illustrating the ways in which liberalization has contributed to increasing private and foreign ownership of public services, the decentralization of labor relations has amplified pressure on wages, and decreasing employment numbers and increasing workloads have improved productivity partly at the cost of service quality. Examining diverse public-service sectors including network industries, public transportation, and hospitals, and using international case studies, Privatization of Public Services covers a wide range of aspects of service provision, with particular emphasis on companies and workers. The result is a unique picture of the changes created by the liberalization processes in Europe.

Human Rights after Corporate Personhood offers a rich overview of current debates, and seeks to transcend the "outrage response" often found in public discourse and corporate legal theory. Through original and innovative analyses, the volume offers an alternative account of corporate juridical personality and its relation to the human, one that departs from accounts offered by public law. In addition, it explores opportunities for the application of legal personality to assist progressive projects, including, but not limited to, environmental justice, animal rights, and Indigenous land claims. Presented accessibly for the benefit of non-specialist readers, the volume offers original arguments and draws on eclectic sources, from law and poetry to fiction and film. At the same time, it is firmly grounded in legal scholarship and, thus, serves as an essential reference for scholars, students, lawmakers, and anyone seeking a better understanding of the interface between corporations and the law in the twenty-first century.

Chapter One discusses the elements that caused the latest and current problems in the European economies and also, the imposed privatisation (expropriation of the public wealth), as the remedy. This crisis started from the US and consequently, it was expanded to all economies of the world due to the systemic risk that globalisation has induced to the developed and dependent nations. Thus, this European debt crisis is a crisis of capitalism. Chapter Two analyses different factors that may explain the changes in firms' performance after privatisation in Europe. The final chapter explores how the American-based agro-industrial company Herakles Farm has thoroughly disregarded state and international laws and codes of conduct in the setting up of its contentious oil palm plantation that is largely located in-between protected areas in the ever-green forest of Southwest Cameroon.

Since 1981, over 100 governments around the world have raised over $1 trillion through the sale of SOEs to private investors. Privatization programs have transformed the role of the state in virtually all-major economies, and have massively increased the capitalization and liquidity of all non-U.S. stock markets. The focus of this book lies on where privatization stands today and what are the next frontiers, the why and how behind countries who privatize certain industries, whether privatization works as an economic tool and important insights relevant to financial institutions such as how to value privatized industries, how share offerings differ from private offerings, and how countries go about harnessing private capital. The book will also represent a key and unique source for information related to the details of asset sales privatization, a summary of statistics of privatized companies from 54 international stock exchanges, regulatory changes and sources for privatization information for investors, government officials, bankers and financial specialists. The volume will serve as an invaluable reference for professionals and as a core or supplementary text in privatization courses.

Much has been written about Britain's trailblazing post-1970s privatization program, but the biggest privatization of them all has until now escaped scrutiny: the privatization of land. Since Margaret Thatcher took power in 1979, and hidden from the public eye, about 10 per cent of the entire British land mass, including some of its most valuable real estate, has passed from public to private hands. Forest land, defence land, health service land and above all else local authority land- for farming and school sports, for recreation and housing - has been sold off en masse. Why? How? And with what social, economic and political consequences? The New Enclosure provides the first ever study of this profoundly significant phenomenon, situating it as a centrepiece of neoliberalism in Britain and as a successor programme to the original eighteenth-century enclosures. With more public land still slated for disposal, the book identifies the stakes and asks what, if anything, can and should be done.

There has been much speculation about the introduction of the contract culture in the public services and its consequences for those involved (including service users). This book, which is based on original research, sets out to examine the impact of contracts in three areas of the public service: health, social services, and other government activities. These findings are set in the context of policy development for the public sector as a whole. Detailed case studies in selected areas reveal the varying different patterns that have emerged. A study of the attitudes of those involved illuminates the different perspectives of participants. In the concluding chapters the authors review the policy implications of the study and identify likely future developments.

One of the most enduring legacies of the 1980s has been the programme of privatizations that the Thatcher government set in train, and which has influenced economic policy throughout the world - most recently in Eastern Europe as it moves away from socialism towards capitalism. This book stands back and examines what has been learnt from the privatization programme mnow completed, and considers what remains to be done.

The trend towards privatization has been particularly strong in the 1980s and 1990s. In the UK, some of the most important public utilities such as telecommunications, gas, and electricity have been privatized. Following unification, Germany is having to privatize an entire economy. This book examines the form of privatization, a topic which has not previously been subjected to rigorous economic analysis, and provides a comprehensive and thorough survey of arguments both for and against it. Both positive and welfare-economic approaches to deal with the complex problems of the transition from public to private ownership are discussed. The author also examines the central issues of privatization such as why efficiency increases can be expected as a result of privatization, whether full privatization coupled with subsequent regulation is better than partial privatization with the government regulating from within the firm. He also looks at the role of trade unions in the privatization process.

Britain's privatised railways continure to provoke debate about the organisation, financing, and development of the railway system. This important book, written by Britain's leading railway historian, provides an authoritative account of the progress made by British Rail prior to privatisation, and a unique insight into its difficult role in the government's privatisation planning from 1989. Based on free access to the British Railway Board's rich archives, the book provides a comprehensive analysis of the main themes: a process of continuous organisational change; the existence of a persistent government audit; perennial investment restraints; the directive to reduce operating costs and improve productivity; a concern with financial performance, technological change, service quality, and the management of industrial relations; and the Board's ambiguous position as the Conservative government pressed home its privatisation programme. The introduction of sector management from 1982 and the 'Organising for Quality' initiative of the early 1990s, the Serpell Report on railway finances of 1983, the sale of the subsidiary businesses, the large-scale investment in the Channel Tunnel, and the obsession with safety which followed the Clapham accident of 1988, are all examined in depth. In the conclusion, the author reviews the successes and failures of the public sector, rehearses the arguments for and against integration in the railway industry, and contrasts what many have termed 'the golden age' of the mid-late 1980s, when the British Rail-government relationship was arguably at its most effective, with what has happened since 1994.

This book, written by Britain's leading railway historian, provides an authoritative account of the progress made by British Rail prior to privatisation and a unique insight into its difficult role in the government's privatisation planning from 1989. Based on privileged access to the British Railway Board's rich archives, Terry Gourvish presents a comprehensive analysis which traces the external pressures on British Rail and its own changing internal organization between 1974 and 1997.

This is the first book to use a comparative approach to examine the effects of different constitutional and legal traditions on privatization. Cosmo Graham and Tony Prosser focus on privatization in the UK and France. They suggest that the British Government was remarkably free from constitutional limitation, whereas in France the written constitution imposed important restrictions on the scope of privatization and on the arrangements of the pricing of shares. They go on to describe the links created between privatized enterprises and government by devices such a golden shares and analyse the constraints of competition law and the regulatory arrangements in Britain. They also compare the British regulatory agencies with those in the US, looking in particular at the way in which the influence of Federal and State constitutions has led to the incorporation of significant elements of openness in decision-making procedures. This detailed analysis of the effect of legal constraints on economic policy adds a constitutional dimension to what has primarily been seen as an economic issue, and will make a unique and valuable contribution to current debates in political studies.

Ziel der Autoren ist, die bisherigen internationalen Erfahrungen mit Privatisierungsprozessen in kompakter und ubersichtlicher Form zusammenzustellen und daraus adaquate Vorgehensweisen abzuleiten."

""Territory, Authority, Rights" takes up pivotal sources of friction in a process of globalization too often seen as simple and inexorable. With clarity and insight Sassen shows how the meaning of each is reconfigured in contemporary social change. Her work is essential to making sense of practical problems as well as theoretical issues."--Craig Calhoun, Social Science Research Council

"Saskia Sassen is a spectacularly original thinker. She offers us not only new concepts, but often a new vocabulary. Her central insight in "Territory, Authority, Rights," that understanding globalization actually requires focusing on the national-or more precisely, the phenomenon of 'denationalization' of many familiar domestic institutions and processes-opens the door to reimagining and retheorizing some of the most fundamental physical and political elements of our world."--Anne-Marie Slaughter, Princeton University

"In this brilliant and pioneering work, Saskia Sassen provides a whole new way of thinking about globalization and political development generally. This is a stunning achievement. One of the beauties of the book is its careful historical analysis that puts the globalizing present in the contexts of the past. However, not only is the message important, but also the author's way of illustrating the story in wonderful detail, so we are reading specifics as well as sweeping abstract ideas."--Yale H. Ferguson, Rutgers University, Newark

""Territory, Authority, Rights" is a bold new work by the leading scholar of globalization. It will undoubtedly engage the author's many fans, renewing the conversation about globalization that Sassen has shaped in such substantial ways over the pasttwenty years. But far more than merely bringing her readers up to date with her thinking, the book also represents a major new theorization of globalization. Profoundly multidisciplinary, it will reach new audiences, and in the process redefine the issues, possibilities, and theoretical stakes in globalization. Sassen responds to globalization's critics from both right and left, carving out a distinctive analytical path with critical foundations of its own. The result is persuasive and compelling--a brilliant achievement that will define the research agenda with respect to globalization for years to come."--Alfred Aman, Indiana University School of Law

On the 14th June 2017, a fire engulfed a tower block in West London, seventy-two people lost their lives and hundreds of others were left displaced and traumatised. The Grenfell Tower fire is the epicentre of a long history of violence enacted by government and corporations. On its second anniversary activists, artists and academics come together to respond, remember and recover the disaster. The Grenfell Tower fire illustrates Britain's symbolic order; the continued logic of colonialism, the disposability of working class lives, the marketisation of social provision and global austerity politics, and the negligence and malfeasance of multinational contractors. Exploring these topics and more, the contributors construct critical analysis from legal, cultural, media, community and government responses to the fire, asking whether, without remedy for multifaceted power and violence, we will ever really be 'after' Grenfell? With poetry by Ben Okri and Tony Walsh, and photographs by Parveen Ali, Sam Boal and Yolanthe Fawehinmi. With contributions from Phil Scraton, Daniel Renwick, Nadine El-Enany, Sarah Keenan, Gracie Mae Bradley and The Radical Housing Network.

The late Honourable Michael Wilson was a Canadian politician and business professional. As Minister of Finance under Brian Mulroney, Wilson was one of the key negotiators of the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement - one of Canada's most important economic agreements in the last 50 years, later superseded by NAFTA. In addition, Wilson was responsible for implementing the controversial Goods and Services Tax (GST), which remains key to the federal government today. After his life in Parliament, Wilson served as Ambassador to the United States and Chancellor of the University of Toronto. Outside of politics, Wilson was active in raising awareness of mental health issues following the traumatic loss of his son, Cameron, to suicide. Devoting considerable time to advocacy, he established the Cameron Parker Holcombe Wilson Chair in Depression Studies at the University of Toronto and served as Board Chair for the Mental Health Commission of Canada. Something within Me highlights how Wilson's personal life blended with his political life and accomplishments, detailing his advocacy for mental health awareness as well his involvement in important pieces of legislation that made significant impacts in Canadian political and economic history. These deeply personal stories, particularly those of a father grappling with his son's illness and death, remind us of the lives behind the political personas that shape our world.

From 1978 through the turn of the century, China was transformed from a state-owned economy into a predominantly private economy. This fundamental change took place under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which has been ideologically and politically predisposed to suppress private ownership. In Dancing with the Devil, Yi-min Lin explains how and why such a paradoxical reality came about. He shows that private ownership became a necessary evil for the CCP because the public sector was increasingly unable to address two essential concerns for regime survival: employment and revenue. Focusing on political actors as major change agents, Lin examines how their self-interested behavior led to the decline of public ownership in the context of China's evolving demographics and fiscal system. The constraints and incentives associated with these factors help explain CCP leaders' initial decision to allow limited private economic activities at the outset of reform. They also shed light on the ballooning opportunism among lower officials, which undermined the vitality of public enterprises. Furthermore, they hold a key to understanding the timing of the massive privatization in the late 1990s, as well as its tempo and spread thereafter. Dancing with the Devil illustrates how the driving forces developed and played out in these intertwined episodes of the story. In so doing, it offers new insights into the mechanisms of China's economic transformation and enriches theories of institutional change.

The Electrification of Russia, 1880-1926 is the first full account of the widespread adoption of electricity in Russia, from the beginning in the 1880s to its early years as a state technology under Soviet rule. Jonathan Coopersmith has mined the archives for both the tsarist and the Soviet periods to examine a crucial element in the modernization of Russia. Coopersmith shows how the Communist Party forged an alliance with engineers to harness the socially transformative power of this science-based enterprise. A centralized plan of electrification triumphed, to the benefit of the Communist Party and the detriment of local governments and the electrical engineers. Coopersmith's narrative of how this came to be elucidates the deep-seated and chronic conflict between the utopianism of Soviet ideology and the reality of Soviet politics and economics.