ABSTRACT
Liberalisation has been described as one of the main characteristic of political-economic change in modern capitalism during the last two or three decades (Streeck and Thelen 2005; Boyer and Drache 1996). It has been justified by the expectation that the creation of new markets would lead to greater efficiency and would promote both more economic growth and social wealth. In Europe the promotion of liberalisation of public services became one of the core political projects of the European Union since the 1990s (Huffschmid 2008). As a result, all European countries have been confronted with a more or less extensive wave of liberalisations, which in many sectors (electricity, gas, railways, telecommunication, postal services, local public transport, etc.) has been pushed by rather concrete directives and time frames at the European level (Bieling and Deckwirth 2008).
