Re-municipalisation in the early twenty-first century: water in France and energy in Germany

Abstract

Changes between state and market production of public services can be analysed as 'pendulum' swings, reflecting political struggles. The extensive re-municipalisations in the water sector in France and the energy sector in Germany provide evidence on this question. This is not the result of a coordinated institutional initiative, but a reflection of common political and economic factors. The most important of these are the greater efficiency of public sector provision, and the greater degree of control over the effective achievement of public policy objectives. These are closely related to the historic factors driving public ownership in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. A distinctive feature of this twentyfirst century tendency is the prominent role of green parties and environmental policies. The public sector paradigm has historically shown a remarkable resilience, underpinning the development of European public services for almost a century, compared with the three decades of domination by the market paradigm and its currently vacillating foundations.

Water Remunicipalisation: Between Pendulum Swings and Paradigm Advocacy

“…The fourth and fifth sections present the two case studies. In the concluding section, the similarities identified between the process of remunicipalisation in Berlin and that in Buenos Aires allow for confirming some of the findings of Hall et al (2013) and for qualifying others. In turn, this allows us to suggest new directions for future research.…”

“…Events leading to water remunicipalisation in the chosen case studies are interpreted with the aid of a framework that consists of: 1) Polanyian pendulum swings between competing paradigms of water service management, occurring at global level as a result of policy diffusion (Hall et al, 2013); and, 2) the paradigm advocacy, or the collective action and discourse resulting in the dominance and emergence of paradigms at local level (Lobina, 2012).…”

“…While Hall et al (2013) predict institutional trajectories towards remunicipalisation by focusing on the macro-dimension of urban water reform in two northern countries, this chapter does so by looking at its micro-dimension in a northern and a southern city. To broaden the representativeness of the case studies, the chapter looks at one case of remunicipalisation in the global South (Buenos Aires, Argentina) and another in the global North (Berlin, Germany).…”

“…This chapter is concerned with the process of remunicipalisation as a paradigmatic policy change (Hall et al, 2013) and aims to ascertain whether remunicipalisation has a role to play in the future of the urban water sector. While Hall et al (2013) predict institutional trajectories towards remunicipalisation by focusing on the macro-dimension of urban water reform in two northern countries, this chapter does so by looking at its micro-dimension in a northern and a southern city.…”

Local Public Services in Italy: Still Fragmentation

“…The most striking comeback of local authorities and their companies has taken place in the German energy sector Libbe 2013 ;Hall et al 2013 ). Since the mid-2000s, many municipalities have repurchased local grids and shares in the Stadtwerke .…”