Accountability and the Public-private Distinction

This important new book examines the meaning of privatization and its relationship to accountability. Proponents of privatization make the claim that major industries will be more, and more appropriately, accountable in the private sector than they are in the nationalized sector. The theory is that accountability to individuals in their economic roles through markets and company law will be 'better' than accountability to the public as a whole through Ministers and Parliament. By examining this key notion the author shows how the obligations and mechanisms of accountability need to be understood in order to appreciate what is involved in a shift from 'public' to 'private' that takes place when nationalized industries are privatized. She argues that the degree of accountability to individuals through private mechanisms is not as great as is suggested and that the institutional forms chosen for both nationalization and privatization have been influenced by an overly rigid public/private distinction.