Privatization’s Shaky Theoretical Foundations

Abstract

There can be little doubt that privatization was placed on the political, and hence economic and economics agenda, in the early 1980s by the meteoric rise of neo-liberalism.¹ In particular, UK Prime Minister, Mrs Thatcher, was recognized to have taken the first path-breaking, if modest initiative by the selling off of local government-owned, ‘council’ housing to tenants at knockdown prices (Brittan 1986). The understandable popularity of this initiative to those who benefited in a booming housing market, with no immediately perceivable disadvantage to the future homeless or hard to house, spawned bolder initiatives. It gave rise to a major UK programme of denationalization, including British Airways, British Coal, and the electricity, gas and telecommunication public corporations.