 The Fragmentationist DiseaseAlec Nove
Chapter 13 in Studies in Economics and Russia, 1990, pp 164-170 from Palgrave Macmillan Abstract: Abstract While public attention has been focussed on the issue of privatization, another aspect of government policy has not received the attention it deserves. This is its tendency to fragment. One sees this in a variety of areas: public transport, local government, the BBC, schools, the electricity grid. This is partially explicable by the desire to stimulate competition, and/or by consciousness that there are dangers in turning public monopoly into private monopoly. However there seems to be a marked tendency to ignore the costs of such a solution, a neglect of the importance of system, network, interdependencies and complementarities. At the same time, an over-simplified theory of monopoly is combined with a downgrading of the concept of public service, of the external effects inherent in infrastructure, and of the relationship between efficiency and purpose. What could be called ‘myopic marginalism’ in combination with extremes of methodological individualism can lead to policy errors which it is the purpose of this chapter to examine. Keywords: Public Transport; Electricity Grid; Methodological Individualism; Urban Transport; Perfect Competition (search for similar items in EconPapers) There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it. Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-349-10991-3_13 Ordering information: This item can be ordered from DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-10991-3_13 Access Statistics for this chapter More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan |
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