Centre of protective custody, 6th mile Kuching-Serian road,Kuching/Sarawak

This paper begins with a theoretical perspective on privatisation which links it with systemic tendencies towards over-accumulation in the global capitalist economy. To analyse health system dynamics, the health system is conceptualised as an articulation of component sub-systems (provision, financing, treatment accessories, support services, research and product development, education and training, etc.). These sub-systems are increasingly brought within the circuit of capital, in the process re-configuring the fine structure of the system along with its built-in incentives and disincentives which interactively modulate the system's overall operating characteristics. The rest of the paper provides an update on the evolving role of the Malaysian state as provider, as financier, as investor and as regulator of the health system.     

Privatising war: assessing the decision to hire private military contractors

There has been a huge growth in the size and number of Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs) in the last decade or so. In this context, the question of when, if ever, states should hire PMSCs to carry out military operations has gained particular urgency. In this paper, I defend the answer that states should do so whenever PMSCs will be the most effective agents available against a number of recent objections. All of these objections claim that considerations aside from the relative effectiveness of PMSCs should bear on the question. Some argue that there is something inherently morally problematic with hiring PMSCs, and thus infer that they should sometimes not be hired even when they are the most effective agents available. Others point to undesirable side-effects that hiring PMSCs is thought to cause, and claim that these should be taken into account when deciding whether to hire them. I argue, however, that all of these further considerations are either irrelevant to the decision or reducible to effectiveness.     

From public to mixed ownership in local public services provision: an empirical analysis

There is a long tradition of companies that provide local public services, such as energy distribution or solid waste collection, being strategically important for the promotion of the development of areas where they are present and having a great influence on citizens’ quality of life. This article examines the determinants of the choice of ownership structure for Italian companies that provide local public services, and the effects that this choice has on their performance. Economic and financial data at company level was merged with economic, political, financial and territorial data on the municipality with the majority of shares in it. A two-stage multinomial selection model was employed, in order to carry out the analysis with more than two alternative ownership structures and to control for endogeneity. The empirical evidence indicates that the municipality’s political and budgetary conditions matter in the choice of ownership structure. Although the computed Average Treatment Effects seem to indicate that mixed ownership increases operating efficiency, the profitability indicators provide evidence to the contrary.     

Economic Actors' Political Activity in 'Overlap Issues': Privatisation and EU State Aid Control

This article considers the political activity of economic actors in what we refer to as 'overlap issues'. The cases examined here are the domestic level privatisation policy-making processes in Spain, France and Ireland, and the subsequent European Commission decisions on state aids given during the sales. Although the influence of economic actors is crucial in understanding the domestic-level privatisation aid negotiations, such actors' participation is absent in the supranational decision-making process. In order to explain this limited political activity of firms at the EU level, attention is focused on both the role of the member states and the paradoxes in EU policies that simultaneously guide and constrain the Commission from making a decision against capital.     

Privatisations in Spain: Process, Policies and Goals

This paper analyses the privatisation process carried out in Spain through the period 1985–1998. Firstly, an updated overview of the magnitude of the process is presented, paying also attention to the legal background, the economic features of the privatised firms, and the ways and procedures. And secondly, the paper provides a critical assessment of the objectives that the successive governments have actually pursued through privatisations; so, we attempt to verify to which extent privatisations carried out could be related to the usual explanatory hypotheses based in the property rights theory. As a result it is argued here that the main goals actually pursued by Spanish governments (given the features of the privatised firms) do not fit well with such hypotheses.     

Can alternative service delivery save cities after the Great Recession? Barriers to privatisation and cooperation

ABSTRACT

Cities continue to face fiscal challenges after the Great Recession and alternative service delivery is being emphasised as a solution. How promising is alternative service delivery as a solution and what are its barriers? Regression analyses using 2012 survey data of US local governments show that local governments manage procedural barriers, but structural barriers of economy and demography hinder privatisation and cooperation. Places with a housing bust (measured as decline in home values) can use privatisation, but not places with more or increased poverty. Cooperation is more promising for places with increased poverty, but lack of a willing partner hinders this spatially constrained tool. Neither cooperation nor privatisation is promising for places with low home values. State governments must level the playing field for localities with weak economies if market approaches to service delivery are the main tools for local governments to survive fiscal stress.     

Rethinking Chile’s ‘Chicago Boys’: neoliberal technocrats or revolutionary vanguard?

The term ‘Chicago Boys’ remains closely associated with the orthodox neoliberal adjustment implemented in Chile by the Pinochet dictatorship. The conventional portrayal of the Chicago Boys is of a group of US-trained, technocratic economists who institutionalised neoliberal principles and technocratic prerogatives in public policymaking in Chile. This article will contend the Chicago Boys were much more than neoliberal technocrats: they were a revolutionary vanguard that designed and led a capitalist revolution and radically altered the material and ideological foundations of the nation.     

The Welfare State in Transition Economies and Accession to the EU

Welfare state reform in East-Central Europe can be divided into two phases: in the first phase, when liberalisation, stabilisation and privatisation were of primary importance, only minor or absolutely necessary reform steps were taken. This soon led many countries into fiscal problems that triggered the second phase of substantial pension and health system reforms. Having been already part of the European welfare state tradition in the pre-communist period, the countries of East-Central Europe were not prepared to take over the essentially private three pillar model of the World Bank. Instead the forerunners of reform, such as Hungary, Poland and Latvia, are developing, together with some incumbent EU members, a new European four pillar model with a specific public-private mix. Even if the social acquis communautaire is not very restrictive for the candidate states, they seem keen to join the European welfare state culture.     

‘When I find myself in times of trouble …’ : The conditional effect of international organisations on policy convergence

Most quantitative analyses of policy convergence treat transnational communication in international organisations and domestic economic problems as additive factors. By contrast, this article argues that domestic economic problems motivate governments to search for successful policies, while international organisations offer channels for policy learning. Thus, both factors interact, magnifying each other's effects. The argument is corroborated by a quantitative analysis of the privatisation of telecommunications providers in the Western OECD world. A dyadic logit model shows that joint membership in international organisations increases the likelihood of policy convergence if governments face budget deficits. The argument of the article builds a bridge between theories of international organisations and domestic theories of policy making. Theories of the former gain an important scope condition specifying the conditions under which transnational communication works, while exploring the latter gains a theory specifying where new policy ideas come from.     

Privatisation and regulation in an Asian transitional economy: the case of Mongolia

Mongolia's transition to a market economy has entailed rapid and extensive privatisation accompanied by, inter alia, stabilisation, liberalisation and de‐regulation. The primary objective of this strategy was to cement the new political and economic order. Little weight was given to the problems created by the privatisation programme and only limited consideration given to questions of regulation in the economic, social and environmental spheres. However, the failure of the economy to translate economic growth into poverty reduction and the acceleration of the privatisation programme, which includes the progressive transfer of land, and proposals to privatise health, educational and cultural assets, have made regulation a more pressing issue. New, powerful social classes and interest groups have emerged, which have contributed to regulatory failure and capture and have undermined public policy. We identify a range of issues relating to privatisation and regulation and discuss the degree to which they are being addressed by the post‐1990 political class. Although there exist a number of regulatory agencies, there is a lack of political commitment, and only piecemeal implementation and enforcement. The scarcity of experienced and technically competent staff capable of establishing and operating effective regulatory agencies and ensuring compliance is also a major problem. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.