The Political Economy of Privatization [antikvár]

PREFACE The contributions assembled in this volume originated with a conference held at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. The conference brought together over one hundred delegates from thirty countries to discuss the global phenomena of privatization, which appeared to be one of the major driving forces of industrial and political change with the extensive privatizations of the public sectors of the advanced economies; the rapidly developing marketization of Eastern European countries; and the pressures upon developing countries to adopt privatization and deregulation as routes to economic growth. The organization of the conference proved more difficult than anticipated, as political events in Eastern Europe became increasingly volatile, resulting in the attempted coup in Russia. At one time it seemed the contingent of delegates from Russia and Estonia might be locked in their countries. In the end they arrived safely in Scotland, as did a large number of other delegates who employed a variety of imaginative modes of transport from the furthest parts of Eastern Europe and from the developing countries. In these tense but euphoric circumstances the connections between economics and politics were inescapable: restructuring stagnant command economies would require not just economic analysis but political will. After ten years of official and commercial advocacy of privatization as a direct panacea for the problems of both developed and developing economies, it was not surprising that some of the papers contributed at the conference reflected this enthusiasm. However, at a critical stage in the course of the conference it became clear that privatization in itself could not provide a solution to economic growth, revival or prosperity. The association of markets with efficiency and public ownership with inefficiency was at the very least misleading. The economic malaise of Eastern Europe and the developing countries was much greater than could be resolved in terms of a simple public/private ownership dichotomy. The chapters in this volume reflect many of the empirical questions, intellectual doubts and moral uncertainties expressed during the course of the conference and developed since. We owe much gratitude to Diane Stafford, the desk editor at Routledge who was very patient and resourceful in bringing a manuscript together from several continents, and to Alan Fidler, a copy editor of remarkable ability.