LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Privatization: Government White
built 630 days ago
To conclude, despite the unwarranted and sometimes unproductive intervention of the government, privatization in Hungary has moved forward. In 1993, investment by US firms alone, surpassed $3 billion. This represented almost 43% of total direct foreign investment. There have ... been many instances where government intervention has stymied and frustrated potential investors; privatization of CAOLA by Colgate Palmolive, is a prime example.
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[One] major issue is the impact of privatization on job security and employment. Proponents claim that public sector workers are not harmed by privatization. Displaced workers can be hired by contractors or transferred to other government positions. Organized labor... is very concerned about layoffs, erosion of wages and benefits, and decreased levels of union membership with privatization. Empirical studies show that privatization has not had a major impact on wages and working conditions (Pendleton 1997), but it can have significant effects on labor relations (Hebdon 1995). Opponents present case studies that show public sector employees can provide more efficient alternatives to privatization (Sclar 1997).
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The SSRC is responding to the challenge of the privatization of risk by creating a Working Group chaired by Yale’s Jacob Hacker. The members of this group have helped organize a web forum on the issues raised by the privatization of risk—including especially their distributive consequences. Another Working Group on Humanitarian Action, chaired by Michael Barnett of the University of Minnesota, has led inquiry into the way international organizations and governments respond to “emergencies”. A web forum on these issues will appear soon, and in the meantime, web forums on Understanding Hurricane Katrina and on issues of vulnerability and response in the Pakistan earthquake and in Central America’s recurrent experience of floods are ... being launched. See, for example, http://understandingkatrina.ssrc.org.
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Until recently, African governments did little to counter such public views, even as the direct economic benefits of privatization were minimal or not very evident. Privatization attracted limited amounts of new investment, frequently failed to foster a genuine competition and had few linkages to any broader developmental goals. The secrecy with which many sales were concluded ... tended to foster a public perception that privatization mainly benefited foreign investors or local entrepreneurs with political connections.
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The controlling ethical issue in the anti-privatization perspective is the need for responsible stewardship of social support missions. Market interactions are all guided by self-interest, and successful actors in a healthy market must be committed to charging the maximum price that the market will bear. Privatization opponents believe that this model is not compatible with government missions for social support, whose primary aim is delivering affordability and quality of service to society.
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Lack of government oversight and public scrutiny has been one of the strongest criticisms of water privatization. Without proper government supervision, privatization will not address issues related to conservation, water quality, or fair access to water regardless of income. To ensure public-private water agreements are carefully designed and implemented to protect public interests concerning these issues, strong public regulatory oversight should be a fundamental requirement before a public agency shifts its responsibility for water utilities to a private entity.
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