Local Public Services in European Countries
Main Results of a Research Project by Ciriec International
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12614841 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Giuseppe Bognetti (University of Milan, corresponding author), Gabriel Obermann (Vienna University of Economics and Business) |
| Year | 2012 |
| Volume | 83 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 485-503 |
| Publication date | 2012-10-26 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1370-4788 • E-ISSN: 1467-8292 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-8292.2012.00474.x |
| OpenAlex | W1949562702 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 15 |
The present article is meant as an introduction to the three contributions on local public transport, water services and waste management resulting from a research of CIRIEC International Scientific Commission on ‘Public Services/Public Enterprises’, launched in 2008. The main purpose of the research was to produce a cross section description of essential and widely used local public services in different countries and to investigate their evolution over the last two or three decades. We give here a transversal overview of general common trends in the three analyzed sectors. We explain the increasing autonomy and separation of decision levels in planning and governance processes, describe the changing role and nature of the provider of public services, depict some peculiarities of the structure and the process of regulation, and deal finally with some remarks on funding policies. We show that unquestionably EU directives and regulations did have a definite impact on the way the services were supplied; however this has not produced a prevailing ‘European model’ in all member States. Our research shows clearly that as of now the EU area offers very different models of local public services. The variety of solutions adopted is impressive. Each concrete choice regarding regulation, market governance, planning and provision depends in the end on a negotiation between the central state, local authorities, bureaucracy, trade unions, pressure groups such as private enterprises and users of the service. The existence of different solutions adopted by different countries and within the same sector could mean that a compulsory policy towards a uniform solution, as frequently favoured by the EU, is not convincing and should not be supported. Since there is no evidence that the different solutions produce different degrees of efficiency and effectiveness, they could represent appropriate forms of adaptation to national overall characteristics and changing citizens’ needs
Autonomy · Bureaucracy · Business · Commission · Corporate governance · Economic growth · Economics · Economy · Negotiation · Political science · Politics · Private sector · Public sector · Service (business · Variety (cybernetics · Local Government Finance and Decentralization · Public Administration · Public Policy and Administration Research · Public-Private Partnership Projects · Finance · Marketing
The Provision of Public Services in Europe
The Municipal Waste Management Sector in Europe
The Future of Public Enterprises
Local Services of General Economic Interest in Europe. Water Services
Liberalization and Privatization of Public Utilities
Competition or Cooperation in Urban Service Delivery
Evaluating Eu Policies on Public Services
The Future of Public Enterprises
Public Enterprise in the Modern Western World
New Organizational Models in European Local Public Transport
The Role of the State as Guarantor of Public Services
| Citations per year | 0.18 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2015 - 2021 (7) |
| Highly cited | No |