ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to map and analyze the variance and range of local public enterprises (LPEs) involved in the provision of public services in European countries. Definitions and terminology, such as using LEP instead of municipality-owned enterprise (MOE), are provided, and a taxonomy of LEPs, ranging from in-house to outsourced service provision, is presented. This study covers a broad selection of European countries and pursues a historical approach, tracing LEPs from their early beginnings in the 19th century, through the advanced welfare state, and into the shift driven by “neo-liberal” policy and inspired by New Public Management since the 1980s. Thus, the goal is to identify and explain the development from early local government-centred in-house service provision to hived-off and outsourced service provision. In drawing on the governance debate, the notion of centrifugal dynamics is addressed, which marks the movement from local government-controlled modalities of service provision to corporatized, outsourced and privatized ones.
