The electricity market has experienced enormous setbacks in delivering on the promise of deregulation. In theory, deregulating the electricity market would increase the efficiency of the industry by producing electricity at lower costs and passing those cost savings on to customers. However, deregulation poses substantial risks if the market is not designed properly, as the recent California crisis demonstrated. As "Electricity Deregulation "shows, successful deregulation is possible, although it is by no means a hands-off process--in fact, it requires a substantial amount of design and regulatory oversight.
This collection brings together leading experts from academia, government, and big business to discuss the lessons learned from experiences such as California's market meltdown as well as the ill-conceived policy choices that contribute to such failures. More importantly, the essays that comprise "Electricity Deregulation" offer a number of innovative prescriptions for the successful design of deregulated electricity markets. Written with economists and professionals associated with each of the network industries in mind, this comprehensive volume provides a timely and astute deliberation on the many risks and rewards of electricity deregulation.

Every year the Institute of Economic Affairs and the London Business School publish a volume of essays about Britain's system of utility regulation, with additional discussion of regulation in other countries. The book is a must for those interested in regulation, because it is an up-to-date review of the major issues in the field and includes the views of the sector regulators and the general competition authorities. Two papers are presented on each issue: the first by a distinguished academic or other expert and the second, a shorter comment, usually by the relevant regulator.

How do we provide effective public services in a deeply neoliberal world? In the wake of the widespread failure of privatisation efforts, societies in the global south are increasingly seeking progressive ways of recreating the public sector. With contributors ranging from cutting-edge scholars to activists working in health, water, and energy provision, and with case studies covering a broad spectrum of localities and actors, Making Public in a Privatized World uncovers the radically different ways in which public services are being reshaped from the grassroots up. From communities holding the state accountable for public health in rural Guatemala, to waste pickers in India and decentralized solar electricity initiatives in Africa, the essays in this collection offer probing insights into the complex ways in which people are building genuine alternatives to privatization, while also illustrating the challenges which communities face in creating public services which are not subordinated to the logic of the market, or to the monolithic state entities of the past.

With the dissolution of the Soviet Empire, it seemed that market capitalism had triumphed and that democracy might replace authoritarian regimes. Economic reformers in the former Eastern Bloc rushed to liberalize prices and transfer state assets to private hands. They assumed that private owners in a market setting would have no choice but to behave rationally-that is, to invest in restructuring privatized enterprises so as to maximize profits. They also assumed that these owners would perceive a stable institutional environment as conducive to economic success and thus become a powerful lobby in favor of the rule of law, paving the way for democracy. The post-communist reality turned out to be very different. Private owners found that in a weak state with limited laws and regulations and ineffective corporate governance structures, it was more lucrative to steal enterprise assets and exploit opportunities for arbitrage than to restructure enterprises. The lesson learned is that not all forms of private ownership are the same. As this book's in-depth political history of privatization in Central and Eastern Europe demonstrates, the way that assets are privatized matters, both with respect to national economic performance and the successful development of the rule of law. Andrew Harrison Schwartz had unprecedented access to high-level Czech government officials during the Czech Republic's privatization process. This book is the result of the unique insights he gained and the innovative analytical framework he subsequently developed-ownership regime theory-which for the first time places ownership structures at the center of political transition analysis. Engaging and important, The Politics of Greed applies ownership regime theory to a broad range of post-communist privatization cases, including those of the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Russia, and Ukraine.

In Privatization in the City, E .S. Savas comprehensively examines the evolution and implementation of former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani's aggressive privatization program in the face of a city council generally hostile to privatization. Savas identifies, examines, evaluates, and documents all forms of privatization employed, including contracting, competitive sourcing, divestment, leases, vouchers, franchises, default, withdrawal, and voluntarism. He contrasts these efforts in New York with privatization in several other cities across the country, ranging from Indianapolis to Phoenix. After analyzing the costs and benefits-both quantitative and qualitative-of New York's privatization program, Savas concludes that significant savings were achieved during Giuliani's eight years in office.

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.

Privatization - the transfer of responsibility for public services from the public to the private sector - currently evokes intense interest from policy makers. To its advocates, privatization conjures up visions of a lean, streamlined public sector reliant upon the private market-place for the delivery of public services. To opponents, it conjures up visions of a beleaguered government bureaucracy ceding vital public services to unreliable entrepreneurs. At best, privatization can reduce the costs of government and introduce new possibilities for the better delivery of services. At worst, it may undermine equity, quality, and accountability. In this book, scholars from several social science disciplines evaluate privatization efforts in the United States and abroad, and at different levels of government: federal, state, and local. They look primarily at three important policy areas - education, housing, and law enforcement - that sharply illustrate the dilemmas facing policy makers as the debate about privatization shifts from the delivery of ""hard"" services, such as refuse collection, to human services. Contributors have very different perspectives: some are enthusiastic about privatization, others are very skeptical indeed. None of these papers has been published elsewhere; the volume developed from a 1987 conference on privatization sponsored by the La Follette Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A strength of this collection lies in its consideration of alternative forms of service delivery. The privatization of public housing, for instance, may involve subsidies to the poor (vouchers), tenant management (a hybrid form of privatization), or outright sale. How, and how well, have such policies worked? Examples from other countries may prove especially enlightening: the English sale of public housing to tenants is one of the largest asset sales in the entire privatization movement; Australia has experimented with the privatization of law enforcement and corrections. These issues are the subject of lively public debate in the United States today and are discussed at length in this volume. ""Privatization and its Alternatives"" speaks not only to scholars of public policy but also to a wide range of practitioners who must decide whether or how to privatize.

Written to help school board members, administrators, parents, and other community residents involved in the privatization debate, this volume maintains a useful balance of scholarship and craft. It provides both theory and practice, presenting practical information to guide those who must deal with policy and procedural issues related to privatizing one or more school district functions.

"The world's most prominent radical scientist." The Guardian Vandana Shiva, a world-renowned environmentalist and campaigner, examines the 'water wars' of the twenty-first century: the aggressive privatization by the multinationals of communal water rights. While drought and desertification are intensifying around the world, corporations are aggressively converting free-flowing water into bottled profits. The water wars of the twenty-first century may match -- or even surpass -- the oil wars of the twentieth. In Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution and Profit, acclaimed author Vandana Shiva sheds light on the activists who are fighting corporate manoeuvres to convert this life-sustaining resource into more gold for the elites. In Water Wars, Shiva uses her remarkable knowledge of science and society to outline the emergence of corporate culture and the historical erosion of communal water rights. Using the international water trade and industrial activities such as damming, mining, and aquafarming as her lens, Shiva exposes the destruction of the earth and the disenfranchisement of the world's poor as they are stripped of rights to a precious common good. Shiva calls for a movement to preserve water access for all, and offers a blueprint for global resistance based on examples of successful campaigns.

Providing therapists practical solutions to managed care's erosion of their freedom to practice, this book presents a working blueprint for a private-pay psychotherapy practice. Dana C. Ackley casts out the distortions that have crept into many clinicians' thinking as a result of reliance on third-party reimbursement. Based on his own experience, he shows how you can serve clients--and yourself--better by developing real alternatives to the pressures and bureaucracy of managed care. In clear step-by-step detail, including practical exercises and checklists, sample marketing materials, and payment plans, the volume shows you how to: *Rediscover the economic and clinical value of your work *Discard assumptions that might block your progress *Educate yourself about the needs of potential clients *Market and sell your services effectively *Learn ethical, reasonable business-of-practice skills *Diversify into the rewarding area of psychological consultation to businesses. No matter what your clinical style, theoretical orientation, or practice history, you will benefit from the hard-won lessons Dr. Ackley shares in this book.

From one of its leading international proponents comes this comprehensive, coherent guide to privatization -- its background, theory, and practical reality. In this new book, E.S. Savas explains --using a straightforward, all-inclusive approach --what, why, when, and how to privatize. Contracting services, using franchises and vouchers, divesting government-owned businesses, privatizing infrastructure through public-private partnerships, reforming education, privatizing the welfare state, and overcoming opposition to privatization are just some of the many aspects discussed in detail.

This book studies the effects of incorporating market incentives into the public goods arena. Carol Graham examines the effects of market-based strategies on the performance of public institutions, the political sustainability of market reforms, and equity. In so doing, she examines a variety of reform experiences in the realms of education, health, social security, and state- owned enterprises and across a range of country and income contexts, with case studies drawn from Latin America, Africa, and Eastern Europe.

The studies show that the incorporation of new market incentives, such as vouchers in education and private social security systems, can have positive effects on the performance of public institutions. The effects on equity are less clear, however, and in many cases efficiency gains entail short-term equity losses. The poorest sectors are usually least equipped to take advantage of new incentives and may be marginalized from the reforms and lose access to essential services. Yet in the long-term, negative equity effects are usually counter-balanced by the benefits of enhancing the performance of public institutions. As this book makes clear, the issues explored have relevance for advanced industrial societies as well as for developing economies.

This book makes public, for the first time, a full account of the development of the privatization of prisons, centred on the only full-scale empirical study yet to have been undertaken in Britain. After providing an up-to-date overview of the development of private sector involvement in penal practice in the United Kingdom, North America, Europe and Australia, the authors go on to describe the first two years in the life of Wolds Remand Prison - the first private prison in Britain. They look at the daily life for remand prisoners, assess the duties and morale of staff and compare the workings of Wolds to a new local prison in the public sector. The authors conclude by discussing some of the practical and theoretical issues to have emerged from contracting out, ethical issues surrounding the whole privatization debate and implications for the future of the prison system and penal policy.

The negotiation of the Canada-U.S. Free Trade agreement in 1985-88 initiated a period of substantially increased North American, and later, global economic integration. However, events since the election of Donald Trump in 2016 have created the potential for major policy shifts arising from NAFTA's renegotiation and continuing political uncertainties in the United States and with Canada's other major trading partners. Navigating a Changing World draws together scholars from both countries to examine Canada-U.S. policy relations, the evolution of various processes for regulating market and human movements across national borders, and the specific application of these dynamics to a cross-section of policy fields with significant implications for Canadian public policy. It explores the impact of territorial institutions and extra-territorial forces - institutional, economic, and technological, among others - on interactions across national borders, both within North America and, where relevant, in broader economic relationships affecting the movement of goods, services, people, and capital. Above all, Navigating a Changing World represents the first major study to address Canada's international policy relations within and beyond North America since the elections of Justin Trudeau in 2015 and Donald Trump in 2016 and the renegotiation of NAFTA.

Privatisation is supposed to bring about the retreat of the state. But what happens when the state privatises itself and even its core functions - tax collection, internal security, customs - are auctioned to the highest bidder? Does this imply a weakening of the state? Or, rather, does it lead to a scrutiny and control? The contributors to this work examine these phenomena in the former "Second" and "Third World" (Central and Eastern Europe, China and other parts of Asia and Africa) highlighting the very different ways in which continuing state interference and privatisation are implemented. What we are witnessing, according to this study, is not the eclipse of the state under the impact of globalisation but the end of the relatively short era of the "development state" and its commanding role. privatisation does not necessarily lead to a weakening of state control; it leads to new, and often more informal, forms of interference and influence, and it is these that are the book's central theme.