The Political Economy of Privatization in Rich Democracies

The Political Economy of Privatization in Rich Democracies PDF Author: Herbert Obinger
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191648434
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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Book Description
Almost all advanced democracies have launched significant privatization programs over the last three decades. However, while there was a global run into privatization, substantial cross-national differences in the divesture of state-owned enterprises can be observed. This book focuses on the political economy of privatization, and addresses the questions 'What are the driving forces behind this development and how can the variation be explained?' which are of both theoretical and empirical interest. While the topic itself is not new, the existing comparative literature on the political economy of privatization suffers from at least two major shortcomings: First, recent macro-quantitative analysis in political science and economics has only focused on material privatization; formal privatization has hitherto been neglected due to an absence of data, even though this type of privatization is of eminent relevance in the public utility sectors. Second, most of the empirical studies in this area treat countries as independent units. In reality, however, policy decisions are likely to be interdependent. Policy decisions taken in one country influence the decision-making process in others. Given these shortcomings in the existing literature, the idea of this volume is to supply a fresh and comprehensive overview of the political economy of privatization using a new data set, the REST database. The empirical analysis covers 20 OECD countries in the period between 1980 and the advent of the global economic crisis in 2008. The recent economic crisis provides a good opportunity to take stock of the changing role of government in economic over the last three decades.

The Political Economy of Privatization in Rich Democracies

The Political Economy of Privatization in Rich Democracies PDF Author: Herbert Obinger
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191648434
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 156

Get Book Here

Book Description
Almost all advanced democracies have launched significant privatization programs over the last three decades. However, while there was a global run into privatization, substantial cross-national differences in the divesture of state-owned enterprises can be observed. This book focuses on the political economy of privatization, and addresses the questions 'What are the driving forces behind this development and how can the variation be explained?' which are of both theoretical and empirical interest. While the topic itself is not new, the existing comparative literature on the political economy of privatization suffers from at least two major shortcomings: First, recent macro-quantitative analysis in political science and economics has only focused on material privatization; formal privatization has hitherto been neglected due to an absence of data, even though this type of privatization is of eminent relevance in the public utility sectors. Second, most of the empirical studies in this area treat countries as independent units. In reality, however, policy decisions are likely to be interdependent. Policy decisions taken in one country influence the decision-making process in others. Given these shortcomings in the existing literature, the idea of this volume is to supply a fresh and comprehensive overview of the political economy of privatization using a new data set, the REST database. The empirical analysis covers 20 OECD countries in the period between 1980 and the advent of the global economic crisis in 2008. The recent economic crisis provides a good opportunity to take stock of the changing role of government in economic over the last three decades.

The Privatization of Education

The Privatization of Education PDF Author: Antoni Verger
Publisher: Teachers College Press
ISBN: 0807774723
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 393

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Book Description
Education privatization is a global phenomenon that has crystallized in countries with very different cultural, political, and economic backgrounds. In this book, the authors examine how privatization policies are being adopted and why so many countries are engaging in this type of education reform. The authors explore the contexts, key personnel, and policy initiatives that explain the worldwide advance of the private sector in education, and identify six different paths toward education privatization—as a drastic state sector reform (e.g., Chile, the U.K.), as an incremental reform (e.g., the U.S.A.), in social-democratic welfare states, as historical public-private partnerships (e.g., Netherlands, Spain), as de facto privatization in low-income countries, and privatization via disaster. Book Features: The first comprehensive, in-depth investigation of the political economy of education privatization at a global scale.An analysis of the different strategies, discourses, and agents that have contributed to advancing (and resisting) education privatization trends. An examination of the role of private corporations, policy entrepreneurs, philanthropic organizations, think-tanks, and teacher unions. “Rich in examples, careful in its analysis, important in its conclusions and recommendations for further work, this book is a vital, rigorous, up-to-date resource for education policy researchers.” —Stephen J. Ball, University College London “Few issues are as significant as is education privatization across the globe; few treatments of this issue offer both the breadth and nuanced understanding that this book does.” —Christopher Lubienski, Indiana University

Life After Privatization

Life After Privatization PDF Author: Raj S. Chari
Publisher:
ISBN: 0199658315
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
Life After Privatization offers a refreshing and original theoretical conceptualization of what happened to stateowned enterprises after they were privatized from the late 1970s onwards. Some privatized firms have become today's European and global giants, 'Alphas', merging with or acquiring other firms, whereas other firms, 'Betas', have been taken over by Alphas or other sectoral leaders. The book raises questions such as which privatized firms in the airline, automobile, and the electricity sectors in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain are Alphas and Betas today? And why? Building on a variety of themes from both Political Science and Business Studies, it considers a comprehensive set of explanations both internal and external to the firm, to analyse why a firm may become an Alpha or a Beta. The evidence shows that while internal factors are important, the more external, political, factors are necessary and sufficient to explain why a firm becomes an Alpha or a Beta. This includes the impact of liberalization, the roles of states, and the actions of regulators that are lobbied by firms. Based on exhaustive evidence, Life After Privatization concludes with a novel inductive theory, which offers a significant step forward for social science scholars' and practitioners' understanding of the 'politics' businesses face in global markets.

India Today

India Today PDF Author: Stuart Corbridge
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0745676642
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 402

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Book Description
Twenty years ago India was still generally thought of as an archetypal developing country, home to the largest number of poor people of any country in the world, and beset by problems of low economic growth, casteism and violent religious conflict. Now India is being feted as an economic power-house which might well become the second largest economy in the world before the middle of this century. Its democratic traditions, moreover, remain broadly intact. How and why has this historic transformation come about? And what are its implications for the people of India, for Indian society and politics? These are the big questions addressed in this book by three scholars who have lived and researched in different parts of India during the period of this great transformation. Each of the 13 chapters seeks to answer a particular question: When and why did India take off? How did a weak state promote audacious reform? Is government in India becoming more responsive (and to whom)? Does India have a civil society? Does caste still matter? Why is India threatened by a Maoist insurgency? In addressing these and other pressing questions, the authors take full account of vibrant new scholarship that has emerged over the past decade or so, both from Indian writers and India specialists, and from social scientists who have studied India in a comparative context. India Today is a comprehensive and compelling text for students of South Asia, political economy, development and comparative politics as well as anyone interested in the future of the world's largest democracy.

Contemporary Oligarchies in Developed Democracies

Contemporary Oligarchies in Developed Democracies PDF Author: Shelly Gottfried
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030141055
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
The book analyzes concentrations of wealth and power in developed democracies. It shows that economic measures, which states adopted during the 1980s and 1990s, had evolved first into liberal oligarchy, and later, after the 2007-2008 global financial crisis, into illiberal and populist oligarchy. The shape and content of these two kinds of oligarchy have been determined largely because of practices and political strategies that powerful state and market actors employed. This project will appeal to a wide audience including academics, researchers, students, and anyone who is interested in oligarchy political power, IR, political economy, and sociology.

The Political Economy of Democratic Decentralization

The Political Economy of Democratic Decentralization PDF Author: James Manor
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 152

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Book Description
Nearly all countries worldwide are now experimenting with decentralization. Their motivation are diverse. Many countries are decentralizing because they believe this can help stimulate economic growth or reduce rural poverty, goals central government interventions have failed to achieve. Some countries see it as a way to strengthen civil society and deepen democracy. Some perceive it as a way to off-load expensive responsibilities onto lower level governments. Thus, decentralization is seen as a solution to many different kinds of problems. This report examines the origins and implications decentralization from a political economy perspective, with a focus on its promise and limitations. It explores why countries have often chosen not to decentralize, even when evidence suggests that doing so would be in the interests of the government. It seeks to explain why since the early 1980s many countries have undertaken some form of decentralization. This report also evaluates the evidence to understand where decentralization has considerable promise and where it does not. It identifies conditions needed for decentralization to succeed. It identifies the ways in which decentralization can promote rural development. And it names the goals which decentralization will probably not help achieve.

Problem-Driven Political Economy Analysis

Problem-Driven Political Economy Analysis PDF Author: Verena Fritz
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 1464801223
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
This volume presents eight good practice examples of problem-driven political economy analysis conducted at the World Bank, and reflect what the Bank has so far been able to achieve in mainstreaming this approach into its operations and policy dialogue.

The Global Political Economy of Israel

The Global Political Economy of Israel PDF Author: Jonathan Nitzan
Publisher: Pluto Press
ISBN: 9780745316758
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 430

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Book Description
The debate about globalisation and its discontents

The Political Economy of Private Security

The Political Economy of Private Security PDF Author: Helge Staff
Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster
ISBN: 3643913524
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 446

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Book Description
The global growth of private security services signals a significant shift in the production of the most traditional good provided by modern nation states - security. This systematic mixed methods analysis, linking output- and process-oriented policy theories, shows patterns and mechanisms of how political factors - like party dominance - drive the development of private security policy and industry. Based in comparative policy analysis it asks, what accounts for the differences in the policies toward and the outcomes of private security between EU member states?

Democracy and Prosperity

Democracy and Prosperity PDF Author: Torben Iversen
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691210217
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 359

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Book Description
It is a widespread view that democracy and the advanced nation-state are in crisis, weakened by globalization and undermined by global capitalism, in turn explaining rising inequality and mounting populism. This book, written by two of the world's leading political economists, argues this view is wrong: advanced democracies are resilient, and their enduring historical relationship with capitalism has been mutually beneficial. For all the chaos and upheaval over the past century--major wars, economic crises, massive social change, and technological revolutions--Torben Iversen and David Soskice show how democratic states continuously reinvent their economies through massive public investment in research and education, by imposing competitive product markets and cooperation in the workplace, and by securing macroeconomic discipline as the preconditions for innovation and the promotion of the advanced sectors of the economy. Critically, this investment has generated vast numbers of well-paying jobs for the middle classes and their children, focusing the aims of aspirational families, and in turn providing electoral support for parties. Gains at the top have also been shared with the middle (though not the bottom) through a large welfare state. Contrary to the prevailing wisdom on globalization, advanced capitalism is neither footloose nor unconstrained: it thrives under democracy precisely because it cannot subvert it. Populism, inequality, and poverty are indeed great scourges of our time, but these are failures of democracy and must be solved by democracy.