Suchergebnisse

International audience ; How is the line to be drawn in the public-private divide when those who would bridge it also assert that globalization restricts the state's ability to deliver public policy objectives? Critics of modernity have seen the distinction between two public-private discourses, state and market, the open and the hidden, as a modern flawed version of classic notions of the democratic citizen community. The projection of the divide on to a global stage appears to take us even further from that ideal. We report the results of a narrative analysis of the way practitioners in the Netherlands and England and Wales now deliver global public goods in the management of water as compared with their predecessors delivering public health and progress in the 19th century. In their adherence to the water systems concept we find them actively supporting a transparent public sphere beyond the state where multiple forms of agency assert global responsibilities.

How is the line to be drawn in the public–private divide when those who would bridge it also assert that globalization restricts the state's ability to deliver public policy objectives? Critics of modernity have seen the distinction between two public–private discourses, state and market, the open and the hidden, as a modern flawed version of classic notions of the democratic citizen community. The projection of the divide on to a global stage appears to take us even further from that ideal. We report the results of a narrative analysis of the way practitioners in the Netherlands and England and Wales now deliver global public goods in the management of water as
compared with their predecessors delivering public health and progress in the 19th century. In their adherence to the water systems concept we find them actively supporting a transparent public sphere beyond the state where multiple forms of agency assert global responsibilities.

In the utility sectors, public values such as affordability, safety, and protection of the environment, require safeguarding. In the last 15 years, most utilities have been either liberalized or privatized. In an attempt to protect public values under these new conditions, this shift has been accompanied by an emphasis on tight regulations and strict norms. These are examples of hierarchical safeguarding mechanisms. This mechanism can cause adverse effects, such as an increase in transaction costs, which diminish or even outweigh the supposed advantages of liberalization and privatization.In addition to hierarchical safeguarding, this article describes two mechanisms used to safeguard public values: network mechanisms and market mechanisms. We suggest that smart combinations of network and hierarchy on the one hand, and market and hierarchy on the other, will lead to more effective and efficient safeguarding of public values than relying on hierarchy alone.