ABSTRACT

At the local government level in the US, the process of privatisation has been a dynamic one of experimentation with market delivery and return to public delivery when privatisation fails to deliver. National survey data show what drives this experimentation are pragmatic concerns with service cost and quality. Service and market characteristics, local government capacity and regulatory framework matter. In contrast to current international debates about the potential of remunicipalization to be a political reassertion of the public sector, for US local governments it is primarily a process of pragmatic municipalism. While some shifts in private finance and state regulatory environment favour private actors at the expense of local government, federal investments since COVID-19 provide funding and policy preference for maintaining a public role.

摘要

在美国地方政府层面，私有化过程一直是市场交付和私有化失败时返回公共交付的动态试验过程。全国调查数据显示，推动这项试验的是对服务成本和质量的务实考虑。服务和市场特征、地方政府能力和监管框架很重要。与当前关于重新公有化可能成为公共部门的政治重申的可能性的国际辩论相反，对于美国地方政府来说，它主要是一个务实的市政主义过程。虽然私人金融和州监管环境的一些转变以牺牲地方政府为代价有利于私人行为者，但自 COVID-19 以来的联邦投资为维持公共角色提供了资金和政策偏好。