Introduction and Overview

Kate Bayliss and Ben Fine
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Kate Bayliss: Public Services International Research Unit
Ben Fine: University of London

Chapter 1 in Privatization and Alternative Public Sector Reform in Sub-Saharan Africa, 2008, pp 1-10 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract ‘Privatization has been oversold and misunderstood’. These are not the words of left-wing activists but of one of the most ardent supporters of privatization in the developing world, the World Bank (see Chapter 4). When it comes to the provision of infrastructure in developing countries, privatization has been unpopular, extremely difficult to achieve and, where it has been implemented, few contracts have run smoothly. Why then do we need another book to document the failings of privatization? At an immediate level, this book concerns a narrow and well-defined topic, the role of privatization in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) with special reference to water and electricity. In view of its critical stance on privatization, it also offers an alternative, not surprisingly, in terms of (continuing) public service provision. As such, what is surprising is the rarity of this book’s subject matter relative to the weight of material that has supported privatization.

Keywords: Private Sector; Cost Recovery; Electricity Sector; State Provision; State Utility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-0-230-28641-2_1

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DOI: 10.1057/9780230286412_1

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