The Cambridge Handbook of Privatization

This volume explores the questions of what makes some goods and services fundamentally public and why.

Avihay Dorfman (Edited by), Alon Harel (Edited by)

9781009295703, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 22 June 2023

313 pages
25.4 x 17.8 x 1.7 cm, 0.589 kg

Some goods and services seem to be fundamentally public, such as legislation, criminal punishment, and fighting wars. By contrast, other functions, such as garbage collection, do not. This volume brings together prominent scholars from a range of academic fields - including law, economics, philosophy, and sociology - to address the core question of what makes a certain good or service fundamentally public and why. Sometimes, governments and other public entities are superior because they are more likely to get at the right decisions or follow fair procedures. In other instances, the provision of goods and services by public entities is intrinsically valuable. By analyzing the these answers, the authors also explore the nature of the state and its authority. This handbook explores influential arguments for and against privatization and also develops a number of key studies explaining, justifying, or challenging the legitimacy and the desirability of public provision of particular goods and services.

Part I. On the Virtues of Public Provision (Agency-Based Approaches): Agency-Based Arguments Against Privatization
1. The Wrong of Privatization: A Kantian Account Chiara Cordelli
2. Privatization, Efficiency, and the Distribution of Economic Power Louis-Philippe Hodgson
3. Public and Private Ownership in Plato and Aristotle Jonny Thakkar
Specific Arguments Against Privatization
4. Privatizing Criminal Punishment: What Is at Stake? Malcolm Thorburn
5. Justice and the Market Assaf Sharon and Shai Agmon
6. Outsourcing Border Control: Public Agency and Action in Migration Ashwini Vasanthakumar
Objections to Agency-Based Approaches
7. The Moral Neutrality of Privatization as Such Alexander Volokh
Part II. On the Virtues of Publicness as a Means to the Realization of Procedural Values (Process-Based Theories): 8. Privatizing Social Services Martha Minow
9. Privatization, Constitutional Conservatism, and the Fate of the American Administrative State Jon D. Michaels
10. Privatization and the Intimate Sphere Brenda Cossman
Part III. Outcome-Based Theories: On the Virtues and Vices of Public Provision as a Means to Promote Efficiency and Justice: 11. Privatization of Legal Institutions Talia Fisher
12. On Privatizing Police, with Examples from Japan J. Mark Ramseyer
13. Privatization of the Police Hans-Bernd Schäfer and Michael Fehling
14. Privatizing Private Data Lisa Herzog
15. Political Connections, Corruption, and Privatization: Who Gains from Privatization? Mariana Mota Prado
16. Privatization of Regulation: Promises and Pitfalls Yael Kariv-Teitelbaum
17. Privatization of Accounting Standard-Setting Israel Klein.

Subject Areas: Jurisprudence & philosophy of law [LAB], Jurisprudence & general issues [LA], Economic systems & structures [KCS], Public administration [JPP], Political science & theory [JPA]