The Fox in the Henhouse: How Privatization Threatens Democracy (Bk Currents) [Paperback]

Si Kahn (Author), Elizabeth Minnich (Author)

Book Description

Series: Bk Currents | Publication Date: October 10, 2005

Privatization is one of the most important political and economic developments of our time, affecting virtually every person and state in the world. The purpose of "The Fox in the Henhouse is to present, in clear, direct terms, an analysis of privatization that helps readers understand what is happening to them and what they can do about it. It gives people on all sides of many different privatization struggles -- over hospitals, schools, sanitation, water, Social Security, the military, public lands, the postal service, national parks, prisons -- the arguments that have been used to place privatization at the center of the corporate agenda and to dominate the public debate. It also offers a historical framework that allows readers to center their thinking on what it means to build a democratic society, while providing the counterarguments -- and inspiration -- that people need both to argue and to fight back.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The wholesale takeover of government services by private corporations is decried in this rousing, if not very rigorous, polemic. Labor activist and community organizer Kahn, author of How People Get Power, and feminist philosopher Minnich, author of Transforming Knowledge, regale readers with recent efforts to privatize Social Security, public schools and health care, welfare bureaucracies, army mess-halls and, especially, prisons. (Kahn runs Grassroots Leadership, an organization that fights prison privatization.) The authors contend that such initiatives are often predicated on efforts to drain funds from public programs in order to create the very crises that privatization purports to fix; and while privatization impedes public oversight and turns decent government jobs into low-wage makeshifts, they argue, it rarely boosts efficiency or reduces costs. Indeed, they insist that conservative privatizers aim to "destroy independent, democratic government itself"-to shrink the public sector where citizens can exercise their rights, turn it into a cash-cow for business interests and institute a quasi-fascist "merger of the power of the corporation and the state" that tramples individual freedoms. The authors present their arguments in a crowd-pleasing populist style flavored with general anti-corporate invective, satirical playlets and a big helping of Kahn's folk songs about the downtrodden. Unfortunately, the devil of privatization resides in the details, and the authors' inadequately sourced account skimps on the facts and figures that would lend some authority to their sermonizing. Kahn and Minnich mount a vigorous defense of the public good against the profit motive, but they would be more persuasive if their rhetoric didn't outrun their reporting.
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About the Author

Si Kahn has been involved in organising for 40 years and has also been a popular folk musician for 30 years. As executive director of Grassroots Leadership, Kahn has been involved in organising on privatization issues since 1996, including welfare, health care, child support enforcement and prisons. Elizabeth Minnich is a distinguished American public intellectual. Currently Senior Fellow at the Association of American Colleges and Universities, she has worked for 40 years as a university professor, author, speaker, workshop leader, consultant and scribe. A feminist philosopher, she has a great deal of experience in academia, including keynotes and/or plenary addresses for conferences of the major national educational associations

Product Details

• Paperback: 290 pages
• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers; 1st ed edition (October 10, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576753379
• ISBN-13: 978-1576753378
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #283,520 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a real eye-opener, January 8, 2006

By 

an interested reader - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Fox in the Henhouse: How Privatization Threatens Democracy (Bk Currents) (Paperback)

This is a frightening book. It's about a threat to our way of life, a threat the more menacing in that it's creeping up on us unawares and insinuating itself into every aspect of our lives, our schools, our health care, our environment, our democratic values and institutions. The strategy is this: claim a public system is failing, disinvest and otherwise make sure that it does fail, support and publicize private alternatives, then justify the shift from public to private by saying, "We had to do it because the public system was so terrible." It's happening with our schools, our prisons, our health care. The claim is, the private sector will do it more efficiently. The reality is, they do it for profit- and they're accountable to no one. We did not elect them. We don't even know who they are!

This book is an eye opener. No wonder we all go around feeling like we're losing control of our lives-we are. We're losing our country. The authors point out that the public sector has a pretty good track record, from the public hospitals we were born in, to the public schools, the community colleges and colleges, we attended, to the public highways we drive on and the public officials we count on to protect us-these institutions were not set up for profit, but to serve us. Corporations don't serve us. They serve themselves.

Unless we mobilize, we're going to lose it.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Activating Resistance, Reversing the Trend, December 15, 2005

By 

Evelyn Beck (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Fox in the Henhouse: How Privatization Threatens Democracy (Bk Currents) (Paperback)

In this "must-read" book, Kahn and Minnich demonstrate persuasively that privatization is not a viable solution to public problems and is not an isolated phenomenon. Drawing on historical and contemporary examples, they argue that privatization is part of a corporate strategy to shift "public funds into private pockets," thereby creating the very problems it purports to fix. Although they see these growing efforts as a serious assault on our democratic rights and the public good, with this book they hope to reverse this trend by activating our spirits of resistance and cooperation. The embedded poems, songs and stories infuse the book with special richness and warmth.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant reframing of the neocon agenda, December 13, 2005

By 

Mayra Bloom (Nyack, New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Fox in the Henhouse: How Privatization Threatens Democracy (Bk Currents) (Paperback)

Attacks from the neocons come from so many directions that it's often hard to articulate an overarching/ underlying principle behind their agenda. Until recently, I might have identified "greed" or "desire for absolute power," as their byword, but after reading The Fox in the Henhouse, I'm inclined to agree that "privatization," in its largest sense is a crux of the problem. By reconceptualizing the notion of what is and ought to remain "public," Si Kahn and Elizabeth Minnich awaken us not only to the dangers of privatization, but also to the rights, the resources and the responsbilities that we have as members of the endangered public sphere. This is a vitally important book for understanding our current situation, for recognizing new threats, and for taking effective action.