ABSTRACT
This chapter uses the example of privatisation to examine wider questions of post-political reform in western states. The 1990s and 2000s have witnessed some remarkable, yet surreptitious changes to the organisational structures of government. Whilst much of the academic focus has been on wider questions of neo-liberalisation and ‘retreating’ welfare systems, the boundaries between states and markets have quietly been eroded. Powerful global elites have emerged to both promote, and then take financial advantage of, a wholesale privatisation of state activities and governance processes. In many cases state spending has increased, despite a supposed shift to neo-liberalism. More resources than ever are being channelled into expensive public-private hybrid structures that are fed by welfare budgets. In order to legitimate these changes the post-political constructs of Good Governance and pragmatic consensus-building have been promoted internationally. The emphasis has shifted to a narrow focus on project delivery and perceived outcomes. Democratic checks and balances are presented as an impediment to the activities of experts who ‘know’ how to deliver if only the governance system would allow them to get things done. Political legitimacy has been re-framed with an emphasis on the importance of perceived outputs (such as new infrastructure), rather than inputs (such as a democratic process of engagement).
