Customer Reviews

Limits to Privatization: How to Avoid Too Much of a Good Thing - A Report to the Club of Rome

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Privatization was in vogue during the eighties and nineties. It aimed to eliminate, or at least reduce, corruption, inefficiency and the politicization of economic matters - and it often succeeded. However, in some cases, such as the World Bank, it failed so egregiously that even its erstwhile supporters began to have second thoughts about the wisdom of encouraging the state to manage basic infrastructures and industries. Authors Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, Oran R. Young, Matthias Finger and Marianne Beisheim explore the experience of privatization and investigate the factors that have led to some of its successes and failures. They are not entirely free from bias, but the pro-privatization forces have so long dominated the public discussion that we find this well-supported counterargument refreshing, and recommend this book to public and private sector executives and managers as well as to political officials.

"Limits to Privatization" is interesting in that it never comes to a real conclusion because each study/report delineates different conclusions for each scenario presented. In other words, what may be a viable solution in one country may not work in another. But the question that the Club of Rome asks throughout this book is when does "Privatizing Resources" endanger the environment, destabilize national boundaries and disenfranchise general populations? The book also defines the role that government should have, or is allowed to have in their respected countries insofar as controlling or overseeing resources. To put it in laymen's terms, what works for the Zambian Copper mines may not work in a country like China.
Furthermore, it is up to the reader to agree or disagree with the Club of Rome's findings.

There is a lot of number crunching, charts and data in this book so get ready for your brain to swell because this book is as academic as it gets. The Club of Rome dissects many issues right down to the nuts and bolts. Overall, this book is a dry read, but it is essential if you want to understand the world we live in. Some of the issues discussed are Telecommunications and the Postal Service in Mexico, Waste Disposal, Healthcare systems throughout the world, Culture and the Media, and Natural Resources and how to use them.

The Club of Rome is probably the most influential think-tank in the world, and some of their ideas are sound and other opinions are questionable. However, conspiracy theorists lean toward the questionable side of the issues. I personally think we, as a collective should try to work together in solving the world's problems by sifting through everyone's ideas and "Limits to Privatization How to Avoid Too Much of a Good Thing" is a great place to start sifting through.