Explaining Privatization Failure: The Vice of Sweet Carrots and Hard Sticks. (March 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zullo, Roland
• Is Part Of: Review of radical political economics. Volume 51:Number 1(2019:Spring)
• Page Start: 111
• Page End: 128
• Publication Date: 2019-03
• Subjects: privatization -- outsourcing -- public administration -- markets -- contracts -- competition; Economics -- Periodicals; United States -- Economic policy -- Periodicals; United States -- Economic conditions -- Periodicals; 330
• DOI: 10.1177/0486613417718527
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0486-6134

Abstract

Why does contracting underperform in the production of publicly financed goods? Producers for private markets survive through marketism, defined as the strategic exclusion of segments of a community, whereas producers of publicly financed goods are pressured to be inclusive. Inclusivity is achieved through universalism, an operational mode with three requisites: (1) a workforce with lateral competency to respond to contingencies, (2) interfunction asset sharing and coordination, and (3) an environment that protects professional discretion. Universalism and marketism are divergent strategies, and public-private contracts cannot cost-effectively resolve their incongruities. JEL Classification: L330, H410, P260