Transfer 2/2008: Public services in transition

Description

Restructuring and privatisation of public services have been significant features in Europe ever since neoliberal governments came to power during the 1980s and the European Union adopted a neoliberal strategy imposing market regulation and competition on the provision of social services. Throughout Europe this has had a major impact on the quality of services and employees’ working conditions. Trade unions have been reluctant to accept these developments but have not been able to avoid the decline of working conditions.

This issue of Transfer identifies and analyses the main forces driving the privatisation of public services. It discusses the processes of privatisation and the consequences for the trade union movement and industrial relations in general. The wider impact on citizenship and democracy is also analysed.

Key articles

• Finance as a driver of privatisation - Jörg Huffschmid
• Privatising public infrastructure within the EU: the interaction between supranational institutions, transnational forces and national governments - Hans-Jürgen Bieling and Christina Deckwirth
• Ideology, the politburo of privatisation and the German water sector - Tanja Pflug
• The WTO – a driving force for the liberalisation of public services in the EU? - Werner Raza
• Liberalisation and privatisation of public services and strategic options for European trade unions - Thorsten Schulten, Torsten Brandt and Christoph Hermann
• Teachers’ unions and the transformation of employment relations in public education in Portugal - Alan Stoleroff and Irina Pereira
• Citizenship, the market and democracy - Gian Primo Cella

Coordinators

Table of contents

Editorial

Main articles

• Jörg Huffschmid: Finance as a driver of privatisation
• Hans-Jürgen Bieling and Christina Deckwirth: Privatising public infrastructure within the EU: the interaction between supranational institutions, transnational forces and national governments
• Tanja Pflug: Ideology, the politburo of privatisation and the German water sector
• Werner Raza: The WTO – a driving force for the liberalisation of public services in the EU?
• Thorsten Schulten, Torsten Brandt and Christoph Hermann: Liberalisation and privatisation of public services and strategic options for European trade union
• Alan Stoleroff and Irina Pereira: Teachers’ unions and the transformation of employment relations in public education in Portugal
• Gian Primo Cella: Citizenship, the market and democracy

News and background

• ETUC perspective on public services in the light of the new Treaty of Lisbon
  (Wolfgang Kowalsky)
• The potential impact of the European Single Market on health care systems
  (Rita Baeten)
• Social clauses in public contracts, the Posted Workers Directive and Article 49 EC: the Rüffert Case
  (Silvia Borelli)

Book reviews

• Francis Green (ed.)
  Recent Developments In The Economics Of Training
  (Jonathan Winterton)
• Cynthia Ghorra-Gobin (ed.)
  Dictionnaire des mondialisations
  (René Schoonbrodt)
• Bjørn Hvinden and Håkan Johansson (eds.)
  Citizenship in Nordic Welfare States. Dynamics of Choice, Duties and Participation in a Changing Europe
  (Hedva Sarfati)
• Amparo Serrano Pascual and Lars Magnusson (eds.)
  Reshaping Welfare States and Activation Regimes in Europe
  (María Paz Martín Martín)
• Labour relations today and beyond
  Walther Müller-Jentsch
  Strukturwandel der industriellen Beziehungen. Industrial Citizenship zwischen Markt und Regulierung
  [Structural change in industrial relations. Industrial citizenship between the market and regulation]
  (Otto Jacobi)

Reports

• International framework agreements: a stepping stone towards the internationalisation of industrial relations?
  Workshop, Rome, 28 and 29 April 2008
  (Eva Moreno)

[Pdf of the whole issue]