Political and Institutional Explanations for Increasing Re-municipalization

Abstract

This article analyzes shifts in the delivery mode of waste collection in Dutch municipalities between 1999 and 2014. In approximately half of these entities, shifts took place, with 60% toward outside production and 40% toward inside production. In recent years, the number of shifts dropped remarkably, and re-municipalization has become more important. In addition, the amount of municipalities with reverse privatization is larger than that of privatization. Based on a logit model, some evidence of an ideological motivation for changing the mode of production is found. Conservative liberals are in favor of changing, particularly toward the market and privatization, whereas social democrats, in particular, are against change. These results provide some evidence for the unemployment or scale argument for changing the mode as well. In addition, there is an indication that political fragmentation increases the ability to privatize.

Re-municipalization of public services: trend or hype?

“…Warner (2016) has found intermunicipal contracts are more stable than private contracts, with half the level of reversals found in for profit contracts. Gradus and Budding (2018) found similar results for intermunicipal contracts for waste management in the Netherlands.…”

Multiple principals, multiple problems: Implications for effective governance and a research agenda for joint service delivery

“…In organizations, relationships typically involve multiple actors. Consider local refuse collection: while some large cities singly own refuse collection firms, many refuse collection organizations in Europe are owned inter-municipally, that is, by multiple municipalities, or by public-private partnerships (Dijkgraaf and Gradus 2007;Sørensen 2007;Da Cruz and Marques 2012;Garrone et al 2013;Bel et al 2014;Blåka 2017;Giacomini et al 2018;Soukopová and Vaceková 2018;Gradus and Budding 2018). In the United States, inter-municipal contracting is more frequent (Warner and Hebdon 2001;Marvel and Marvel 2008;Hefetz et al 2012;Bel and Warner 2015).…”

Privatisation, contracting-out and inter-municipal cooperation: new developments in local public service delivery

“…Interestingly, for almost half the municipalities, there was a shift from a private to a municipal-owned enterprise. In an evaluation of ideological motivation, Gradus and Budding (2017) show conservative liberals to be in favour of change, particularly towards the market and privatisation; whereas social democrats, above all, are against change. In future research, the impact of re-municipalisation on costs and efficiency should also be examined.…”

“…In a more recent study, Warner and Hefetz (2012) show that for the periods 2002-2007 and 2007-2012, respectively, reverse contracting and new contracting out were almost evenly matched in the United States. Gradus and Budding (2017), based on shifts in Dutch waste collection between 1999 and 2014, show that reverse privatisation is more common than privatisation. Interestingly, for almost half the municipalities, there was a shift from a private to a municipal-owned enterprise.…”