Political Decoupling

Private Implementation of Public Policy

Datos Bibliográficos

ID6328593
AutoresManuel P Teodoro (0000-0002-1711-857X), Youlang Zhang (0000-0003-3177-8627), Donna Switzer (0000-0002-9827-4194), David Switzer
Año2020
Volumen48
Número2
Páginas401-424
Fecha de publicación2020-05-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaPolicy Studies Journal (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0190-292X • E-ISSN: 1541-0072
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/psj.12287
OpenAlexW2897102295
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas13
Referencias citadas36

Where policy goals can be achieved through regulation of private firms, private provision of public services allows governments to separate public policies from their political costs by shifting those costs to the private sector. Over the past three decades, financial decoupling has emerged as a regulatory strategy for promoting conservation, especially in the energy sector. Decoupling refers to the separation of a firm’s revenues from the volume of its product consumed, which allows companies to pursue resource efficiency free from financial risk. Similarly, when private firms provide public services, they separate public policies from their political costs. This political decoupling allows governments to pursue controversial policies while avoiding their attendant political risks. Applied to environmental policy, this theory implies that potentially unpopular conservation policies are more likely to be adopted and succeed when implemented through private firms. As an initial test of the theory, we analyze California water utilities and their responses to that state’s drought from 2015–2017. Analysis shows that, compared with those served by local government utilities, private utilities adopted more aggressive conservation measures, were more likely to meet state conservation standards, and conserved more water

Business · Decoupling (probability · Economic growth · Economics · Economy · Political science · Politics · Private sector · Public economics · Public policy · Public sector · Revenue · Climate Change Policy and Economics · Economic and Environmental Valuation · Water resources management and optimization · Finance