Globalization Privatization And The State

This text explores how the dynamics of globalization and privatization have influenced State policy and impacted education reform in Honduras. It makes the argument that understanding education reform in post-colonial contexts requires that scholars go beyond a surface-level description of such trends as privatization to consider, in addition, the ways that the logics, practices, and relationships that characterized colonialism continue to be embedded in the apparatus of modern States. The first part of the volume documents historical trends and the evolution of privatisation in Honduras, while the second part explicitly engages in an extended discussion of State theory, before shifting to present a framework for depicting how these logics are the foundational layer upon which states and global governance have been constructed. The framework draws upon scholarship from political economy, world systems, and post-colonialism to depict the "ethos of privatization" at the core of post-colonial States, wherein what drives the system is private benefit, in the interest of individuals and their networks, but not in the interest of those outside the State. Applying this unique framework to the case of Honduras and offering empirical analysis of the Honduran education sector, the changing role and priorities of the State, and the increasing involvement of international organizations, NGOs, and private actors in the provision of education, the text increases understanding of how State theory interacts with broader global dynamics to impact education. This text will benefit researchers, academics, and educators with a focus on international and comparative education, policy analysis, globalization, and international development.

Arguably, the two most important forces affecting the world economy in the closing decades of the 20th century were globalization and privatization. Here, privatization refers to the retreat of the state from the economic arena, while globalization refers to the worldwide spread of efficient market-based systems and the consequent growth of multinational firms. The twin forces of privatization and globalization have proceeded in parallel, but have nonetheless had significant interactions with one another. (i) the spectacular collapse of the state-run socialist economies; (ii) the transfer of state-run enterprises to market governance in much of Western Europe; and (iii) the more subtle dismantling of state controls and legal monopolies in some sectors in the United States.

In the new global political economy, "privatization" names a transformation of the roles of public and private actors with the goal of reforming government policies and economic aid programs. It is an objective, a slogan, a fetish. But what does it signify? On the one hand, it refers to the process of changing industries, businesses, and services from governmental or public ownership to private agencies. But privatization now also extends to what are normally the prerogatives of national states: taxation, customs, internal security, national defense, and peace negotiations. In much of the literature, privatization is associated with the retreat, decline, or even demise of the state. Using Max Weber's concept of delegation, or "discharge," as a point of departure, Hibou and the contributors of this volume propose an alternative view, interpreting the contemporary restructuring of economic and political relations in much of the world as "the privatization of the state." This book challenges received ideas about the process of globalization and its presumed homogenization by suggesting that rather than weakening the powers of the state, privatization actually strengthens it. With examples from Russia, Poland, China, Taiwan, Indonesia, North Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa, the book questions the supposed inefficiency of states in regulating capitalism and the role economic and financial knowledge play as substitutes for political and social analysis.

This book describes and assesses an emerging threat to states’ territorial control and sovereignty: the hostile control of companies that carry out privatized aspects of sovereign authority. The threat arises from the massive worldwide shift of state activities to the private sector since the late 1970s in conjunction with two other modern trends – the globalization of business and the liberalization of international capital flows. The work introduces three new concepts: firstly, the rise of companies that handle privatized activities, and the associated advent of "post-government companies" that make such activities their core business. Control of them may reside with individual investors, other companies or investment funds, or it may reside with other states through state-owned enterprises or sovereign wealth funds. Secondly, "imperfect privatizations:" when a state privatizes an activity to another state’s public sector. The book identifies cases where this is happening. It also elaborates on how ownership and influence of companies that perform privatized functions may not be transparent, and can pass to inherently hostile actors, including criminal or terrorist organizations. Thirdly, "belligerent companies," whose conduct is hostile to those of states where they are active. The book concludes by assessing the adequacy of existing legal and regulatory regimes and how relevant norms may evolve.

This book provides a political economy perspective on recent changes within Canadian public administrative practice and structure, revealing the theoretical and practical underpinnings of neoliberal public administration. The role of globalization, state fiscal crisis, economic restructuring, and the ideological shift to the political right are viewed as central explanatory factors in public administrative and public policy change.

The privatization of large state-owned enterprises is one of the most radical policy developments of the last quarter century. Right-wing governments have privatized in an effort to decrease the size of government, while left-wing governments have privatized either to compensate for the failures of state-owned firms or to generate revenues. In this way, privatization has spread from Europe to Latin America, from Asia to Africa, reaching its zenith with Central and Eastern Europe's transition from socialism to capitalism. In many countries state ownership has been an important tool in bringing cheap water, energy, and transport to poorer segments of the population. In other instances, it has sponsored aggressive cutbacks, corruption, and cronyism. Privatization: Successes and Failures evaluates the practices and results of privatization in Eastern Europe, Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Featuring the world's leading economists and experts on privatization, this volume offers a broad and balanced analysis of specific privatization projects and uncovers some surprising trends. Partial privatization, for example, tends to be more widespread than one might think, and the effects of privatization on efficiency are generally mixed but rarely negative. Also, while privatization appears uncontroversial in competitive sectors, it becomes increasingly complex in more monopolistic sectors where good regulation is crucial. Privatization concludes with alternative frameworks for countries in Africa and other regions that seek to develop privatization policy and programs.

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.