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In the new global political economy, "privatization" names a transformation of the roles of public and private actors with the goal of reforming government policies and economic aid programs. It is an objective, a slogan, a fetish. But what does it signify? On the one hand, it refers to the process of changing industries, businesses, and services from governmental or public ownership to private agencies. But privatization now also extends to what are normally the prerogatives of national states: taxation, customs, internal security, national defense, and peace negotiations. In much of the literature, privatization is associated with the retreat, decline, or even demise of the state.
Using Max Webers concept of delegation, or "discharge," as a point of departure, Hibou and the contributors of this volume propose an alternative view, interpreting the contemporary restructuring of economic and political relations in much of the world as "the privatization of the state." This book challenges received ideas about the process of globalization and its presumed homogenization by suggesting that rather than weakening the powers of the state, privatization actually strengthens it. With examples from Russia, Poland, China, Taiwan, Indonesia, North Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa, the book questions the supposed inefficiency of states in regulating capitalism and the role economic and financial knowledge play as substitutes for political and social analysis.
List of contents
Introduction: From Privatising the Economy to Privatising the State, by Béatrice Hibou
Part I. Privatisation of State Enterprises
From Corruption to Regulation: Post-Communist Enterprises in Poland, by François Bafoil
Shenyang: Privatisation in the Vanguard of Socialism, by Antoine Kemen
Part II: Privatisation of International Relations
Privatisation of Sovereignty and the Survival of Weak States, by William Reno
Non-Sovereign Power: New Regulatory Authorities and Change in the Lake Chad Basin States, by Janet Roitman
Fictitious Privatisation: Relations with Taiwan, by Françoise Mengin
Part III: Political Transition and Privatisation of the State
Is China Becoming an Ordinary State?, by Jean-Louis Rocca
Privatisation and Political Change in Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia, by Gilles Favarel-Garrigues
The Pastoral Government Idea and Privatisation of the State in Indonesia, by Romain Bertrand
Postface: Tenants of the House: Privatising the State and Building the Political Sphere, by Yves Chévrier
