From the January 2016 annual meeting of the American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy in New York City, 12 revised papers, commentaries on them, and offshoot essays look at the morality of privatization and privatization and the state. Among the topics are some (largely) ignored problems with privatization, why privatization matters: the democratic case against privatization, coercion and privatization, privatization as state transformation, whether rule of law is an equilibrium without (some) privatization, and privatizing war. Annotation ©2019 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
A distinguished group of scholars explore the moral values and political consequences of privatization
The 21st century has seen a proliferation of privatization across industries in the United States, from security and the military to public transportation and infrastructure. In shifting control from the state to private actors, do we weaken or strengthen structures of governance? Do state-owned enterprises promise to be more equal and fair than their privately-owned rivals? What role can accountability measures play in mediating the effects of privatization; and what role does coercion play in the state governance and control? In this latest installment from the NOMOS series, an interdisciplinary group of distinguished scholars in political science, law, and philosophy examine the moral and political consequences of transferring state-provided or state-owned goods and services to the private sector.
The essays consider how we should evaluate the decision to privatize, both with respect to the quality of outcomes that might be produced, and in terms of the effects of privatization on the core values underlying democratic decision-making. Privatization also affects the structure of governance in a variety of important ways, and these essays evaluate the consequences of privatization on the state. Privatization sheds new light on these highly salient questions of contemporary political life and institutional design.
