Essential services are being privatised the world over. Whether it's water, gas, electricity or the phone network, everywhere from Sao Paulo in Brazil to Leeds in the UK is following the US economic model and handing public services over to private companies whose principal interest is raising prices. Yet it's one of the world's best kept secrets that Americans pay astonishingly little for high quality public services.
This book, based on work for the United Nations International Labour Organisation is the first step-by-step guide to the way that public services are regulated in the United States. It explains how decisions are made by public debate in a public forum. Profits and investments of private companies are capped, and companies are forced to reduce prices for the poor, fund environmental investments and open themselves to financial inspection.
In a world where privatisation has so often led to economic disaster, this book is essential reading.
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How the deregulation of public services in the US has been a success, why it has failed elsewhere
Democracy and Regulation: Introduction
1. Secrecy, Democracy And Regulation
2. Regulating In Public
3. Competition As Substitute For Regulation? Britain To California
4. Re-Regulation Is Not Deregulation
5. The Open Regulatory Process
6. Social Pricing
7. Issues That Are Publicly Decided
8. An Alternative: Democratic Negotiations
9. Be There: A Guide To Public Participation
10. A History Of Democratic Utility Regulation In The US
11. Regulating The Multinational Utility
12. Failed Experiments In The UK And The US
13. The Biggest Failures: California And Enron
14. International Democracy – Developing And Developed Countries
15. Conclusion
Notes
Index
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The authors (an economist-reporter, a lawyer, and a regulator) have a wealth of experience in utility regulation, and it is evident on every page. The recent electricity crisis in California (and Enron's participation) receives considerable attention. Throughout the book the democratic process receives most of the credit or blame. The authors' detailed description of the US utility regulatory system will be especially useful to those new to the topic.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780745319421
Publisert
2002
Utgiver
Vendor
Pluto Press
Vekt
406 gr
Høyde
230 mm
Bredde
150 mm
Aldersnivå
Academic, P, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Antall sider
240