The Irony of Privatization

Abstract

speaking and the specific language game in use. This article borrows an interpretive device, originally developed by Roland Barthes and further articulated by Jean Baudrillard, which lays waste to the assertion that a word has a single denotative meaning. Such an interpretation (that words represent, or correspond to, reality) is but the first step of a progressively unreal simulacrum that moves to skepticism, through masking (where a word connotes the radical absence of the object it points toward) to hyperreality. Hyperreality is the domain of self-referential imagery, where words and symbols refer only to themselves but provide titillation and visceral gratification in the process. The authors conclude that the very term privatization lacks foundational stability. (1889-1951), a philosopher whose works included one of the great philosophical treatises on scientific knowledge (namely the Tractatus [Wittgenstein, 1961], written in the 1920s), later changed his mind about the possibility of clear language, and he repudiated his own momentous book. In the 1920s, he believed that the purpose of philosophy, in its relation to knowledge, was the logical clarification of thoughts; but as he got older, he came to believe that too much meaningambiguity exists for there to be the necessary correspondence between words and objects that rigorous protocols of science would require (Wittgenstein, 1958). Ludwig WittgensteinIf one examines how language is used-as Wittgenstein did in Philosophical Investigations-it becomes apparent that word usage is not exacting in a denotative, rock-means-rock, horse-means-horse sense. The same word can serve in different capacities. Friends can "horse around";

The Political Theory of Reinvention

“…They can become loose cannons. As a theoretical concern, the notion of public managers acting purely as if the public's money were their own, that is, being motivated by self-interest, flies in the face of a long and important tradition of accountability and responsiveness in democratic public administration (Box 1997;Miller and Simmons 1998;Terry 1998). Most importantly, it denies the public a role in determining the expenditure of public funds and the design of public programs.…”

The political economy of public sector governance

“…Moreover, if the market for a public service is assumed to be competitive, the monopolistic agency is anticipated to oversupply it in relation to the level of private provision. This type of claim connected Niskanen's theory of bureaucratic behavior to arguments favoring the privatization of government services (e.g., Miller and Simmons, 1998).…”

Reinvesting Government: Financing Options for Military Base Redevelopment

“…But this is by no means a unanimous view, as evidenced by the many detractors (Fox and Miller 1995;Blanchard et al 1998;Miller and Simmons 1998;Stumm and Thomas 1999;Goodsell 2004) many of whom are discourse theorists and democratic administrationists who argue that privatization seeks to subvert the legitimacy of government. The proponents of privatization are also challenged by a substantial body of work in the area of urban politics.…”