The Privatization of Urban Services in Europe

Municipal governments are trying increasingly to offload urban services in response to various factors. Services are becoming ever more costly to manage; and governments are influenced by the spread of free market doctrine, fiscal pressure, and bids from international concerns inducing them to transfer responsibility for delivering services to the private sector. This book discusses the transformation that has taken place in the urban services sector, showing that the general pattern, though universal, has varied in some respects - a degree of ambivalence in France, strong advocacy and commitment in Britain, and a consensus for shared management in Germany. Meanwhile, confronted by these three models, Spain, eastern Europe (in the shape of Hungary and Poland) and Latin America have yet to decide what course to take.