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WILL THE PRIVATIZATION OF PUBLIC ENTERPRISES SOLVE THE PROBLEM OF CONTROL?
Author(s) -
HEALD DAVID
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
public administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.313
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1467-9299
pISSN - 0033-3298
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9299.1985.tb00582.x
Subject(s) - government (linguistics) , control (management) , balance (ability) , business , ideology , public sector , action (physics) , state (computer science) , public policy , private sector , private enterprise , diversity (politics) , economics , public economics , market economy , public administration , finance , politics , economic growth , management , political science , economy , law , medicine , philosophy , linguistics , physics , algorithm , quantum mechanics , computer science , physical medicine and rehabilitation
The Government's privatization programme has acquired such momentum that hardly any public enterprise is exempt from action or proposals. Evaluation of the programme must recognize the diversity of privatization policies, and the tensions inherent within their objectives. Ideological motivation has been supported by the inability of policymakers to design a viable framework of economic and financial control over public enterprises. This has led to a view that it is impossible to manage business efficiently within the public sector, the constraints of which can only be escaped by ‘setting the enterprise free’. However, decisions now will close future options, only be escaped and may be prohibitive to reverse. A list of unanswered questions remain about future relationships between hybrids and governments, the costs and benefits of the regulatory systems which will replace public ownership, and the balance between public policy and private interests. Can the market succeed where the state has been judged to have failed?