Le marché et l'Etat à l'heure de la mondialisation : les privatisations

Market and State in the globalization era. The privatizations Privatization is a vague and sometimes confusing term. It causes strong political and cultural reactions and the assessment of its effects is the object of stances which are sometimes conflicting. Considering the main different meanings the mechanisms of privatization are illustrated on the base of three general categories: (1) privatization as re-allocation of property rights; (2) privatization as downsizing the government overload; (3) privatization as re-definition of the relations between state and society: the principal of “horizontal subsidiarity” as general criterion in the sharing of competences between the public and the private sphere. Regarding the first point, the A. highlights that, from the beginning of the processes characterized by the transfer of ownership from public to private hands, the objectives of this process have been highly questionable. Among them, the most frequently mentioned is the reduction of the deficit of public budget; and the most controversial, in the EU as well as in the other countries, is the relation between privatization and liberalization in the sense of the opening of the markets especially of the public utilities. Moreover the A. summarizes briefly the different reasons for privatization, the procedures concerned and the initial results in Italy and France in the light of the communitarian framework. Regarding the second point, the A. recalls that around 20 years ago several theories affirmed that western democracies suffer from an overload of pressures stemming from interest groups and in general from the society, being highly responsible for the public deficit. The answer should have been an outsourcing policy aimed at reducing the size of the administration and especially its costs. Indeed what must be stressed is the ambiguous implementation of these policies. An example is the Italian experience swinging between an effective outsourcing and the “in house providing” model. Regarding the third point, the A. analyses the notion of “horizontal subsidiarity”, introduced in the constitutional reform of 2001. On the base of this principal, in the sectors concerning activities and services of “general interest” different kinds of private organizations stemming from citizens’ initiatives play a fundamental role. Only in case of lack of such initiatives the public powers are legitimated to intervene in providing services and organizing activities.