The Right Privatization: Why Private Firms in Public Initiatives Need Capable Governments

The public debate is rife with polarized views of how to deliver essential services such as education, health, and security. While some tout privatization as a way to supplant bad governments, others warn that private firms maximize profits at the expense of socially oriented service attributes. In reality, all forms of service delivery—public, private and hybrid public private-collaborations—have merits and flaws. This book scrutinizes the menu of delivery forms in public services and the conditions that should make them work. It argues that privatization benefits from capable government units committing to well-defined policy objectives, mobilizing critical resources, and incentivizing effective and inclusive delivery. Societies counting on capable governments can also reject single solutions and experiment with plural paths of improvement, where public and private organizations co-exist and learn from each other. This book will appeal to students, academics, managers and policy makers interested in examining the public-private boundary and the many ramifications of this focal issue.

‘Sergio Lazzarini has written a brilliant and bold book on the social benefits of collaboration between governments and business. The topic is privatization, a throw-back to the loud debates of two and three decades ago that were left unresolved but again in the center of today's political fulcrum. The title is wily as is the argument, right privatization, right, left or right, wrong? The book is stimulating and refreshing, because it surprises, at a time when the world needs surprises and new thinking.'

Bruce Kogut - Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Professor of Leadership and Ethics, Columbia Business School

‘Lazzarini takes readers on an exciting journey into the controversial world of privatizations. Are privatizations efficient and useful? Shouldn’t we talk instead of public-private collaborations? Taking stock on the academic literature, the author embraces the complexity of the topic, suggesting that there is no ‘one’ best option but several alternatives for which capable governments are necessary.’

Stéphane Saussier - Panthéon-Sorbonne University

‘Debates about who should provide public services, the state or the private sector, tend to generate more heat than light. This welcome volume treats the topic with the depth of analysis and the wealth of evidence such a complex question deserves. Clearly written and admirably free from ideology, this book identifies the conditions under which privatization achieves public goals better than state provision.’

Saul Estrin - London School of Economics and Political Science

‘If you want to avoid the ideological minefields of privatization, read this brilliant yet lucid treatise by Lazzarini about how best to combine the public and private sectors to maximize the public interest.’

Ravi Ramamurti - Northeastern University

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The Right Privatization

Why Private Firms in Public Initiatives Need Capable Governments

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