Privatization: Moving Beyond Laissez Faire

Cal Clark, John G. Heilman and Gerald W. Johnson

Review of Policy Research, 1995, vol. 14, issue 3‐4, 395-406

Abstract: The growing fiscal crisis confronting governments in the United States and elsewhere has generated increasing interest in the “privatization” of government functions by contracting out to private businesses. In essence, arguments contend that privatization saves money because the private sector is more efficient in minimizing costs than is the public sector due to the discipline of the market, or laissez‐faire economics. Ironically, this privatization movement is occurring at the same time that the laissez‐faire model is being challenged as overly simplistic by studies of international economic competitiveness. Here, we argue that the theory of privatization should extend beyond minimizing costs to include recent changes in corporate strategy that emphasize qualify, change from mass production to flexible production techniques, empower employees, and form long‐term strategic alliances in what has been termed “network production.” Such an approach, we believe, should be valuable in restructuring government and in creating public‐private partnerships that allow the comparative advantage of both government and business to emerge.

Date: 1995
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1541-1338.1995.tb00718.x

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:revpol:v:14:y:1995:i:3-4:p:395-406

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.wiley.com/bw/subs.asp?ref=1541-132x

Access Statistics for this article

Review of Policy Research is currently edited by Christopher Gore

More articles in Review of Policy Research from Policy Studies Organization Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().