Power and Privatization: Choice and Competition in the Remaking of British Democracy

This book shows that privatization in Britain constitutes a form of state power. After analyzing the historical and ideological background, the study examines how market processes indirectly extend state control by governing participation in state asset sales, regulatory regimes, deregulated policymaking and the marketization of trade unions. Privatizing control remade British democracy. Direct state power has been concentrated and held in reserve, while market processes guide wide areas of routine decision-making. Thus, it is demonstrated that privatization has depoliticized choice and diminished freedom.