Meanings of Public and the Future of Public Services

170 Pages·2022·10.588 MB·English

by  David A. McDonald

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David A. McDonald
Meanings of Public and the Future
of Public Services
Critically assessing meanings of the term “public”, this book situates the
emergence and expansion of “public services” within market-based forms
of production and consumption.
It highlights the potential for making public services more progressive
within market societies, but underscores their ongoing capture by private
interests and emphasizes the inherent limits of reform within a “bourgeois
public sphere”. The author explores opportunities for more expansive forms
of non-marketized public services, examining emerging debates on the the-
ory and practice of equitable, participatory and sustainable forms of public-
ness that go beyond mere ownership. The book then asks how we can build
a robust international “pro-public” movement that juggles universal needs
with local context.
With a focus on essential public services such as water, electricity and
health, the text is global in its scope and written for a broad audience. It
will be useful for those interested in social and public policy, public services
and public administration, political theory, economic geography, social
movements, sustainability and development.
David A. McDonald is Professor of Global Development Studies at Queen’s
University, Canada, and Director of the Municipal Services Project.

Meanings of Public and
the Future of Public Services
David A. McDonald
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
an informa business
© 2023 David A. McDonald
The right of David A. McDonald to be identified as author of this
work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.
com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-
Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 9781032274782 (hbk)
ISBN: 9781032274799 (pbk)
ISBN: 9781003293002 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003293002
Typeset in Times New Roman
by KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd.
For Lea

Contents
List of Illustrations viii
Acknowledgements ix
1 What’s Public about Public Services? 1
PART I
Limits 17
2 Our Bourgeois Public Sphere 19
3 The Curse of the Continuum 33
PART II
Possibilities 51
4 Redefining Public Services 53
5 Within, Against and Beyond the State 68
6 Measuring Success 89
7 Building a Global Pro-Public Movement 109
References 120
Appendix 1: Global Manifesto for Public Services 146
Index 155
Illustrations
Figures
2.1 Use of “Public” and “Private” in English-Language
Publications between 1500 and 2008 26
3.1 Neoclassical Model for Defining Public and Private Services 45
4.1 Defining a Public or Private Service 61
6.1 Spider Diagram Comparing Public Water Operators 103
Table
6.1 Normative Criteria for Evaluating Public Service Providers 104
Acknowledgements
I would not have been able to write this book without the many people
and organizations I have worked with on this topic over the past dozen
years. Much of this research has been connected to the Municipal Services
Project (MSP), in association with universities, unions, NGOs and com-
munity groups from around the world. The arguments and evidence out-
lined in this volume owe a lot to this remarkable group of individuals and
organizations.
Special mention goes to Greg Ruiters, who was instrumental in a shift
of focus in the MSP from critiquing privatization to examining progres-
sive alternatives, in an effort to better understand what constitutes a ‘good’
public service and what lessons can be learned from these different expe-
riences. The following people have also made important contributions to
my thinking: Susan Spronk, Thomas Marois, Daniel Chavez, Madeleine
Bélanger Dumontier, Ben Fine, Amit Sengupta, Marcela Olivera, Emanuele
Lobina, Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Leonard Shang-Quartey, Mary Anne
Manahan, Maude Barlow, David Hall, Yoswa Dambisya, Meena Menon,
Joy Chavez, Al-Hassan Adam, Carlos Crespo, Nasya Razavi, Adrian
Murray, David Boys, Sean Sweeney, Satoko Kishimoto, Martin Pigeon,
Olivier Petitjean, Robert Ramsey, Dru Oja Jay, Patrick Bond, Thomas
Hanna, Mildred Warner, María José Romero, Eric Swyngedouw, Esteban
Castro, Leila Harris, Trevor Ngwane, Hillary Wainwright, Míriam Planas,
Farhana Sultana, Kathryn Furlong, Milo Fiasconaro, Catherine Baron,
Massimo Florio, Judith Clifton, Andrew Cumbers, Diana Barrowclough,
Jackie Dugard, Eloi Badia, Philipp Terhorst, Ellen Leopold, Julie Perkins,
Meera Karunananthan, Georgi Medarov, Nila Ardhianie, Buenaventura
Dargantes, Dale McKinley, Mary Galvin, Kate Bayliss and Luis Ortiz
Hernández.
Funding for this research has come from multiple sources, the most sub-
stantial of which have been the International Development Research Centre
(IDRC) – with special thanks to Jean-Michel Labatut, Sharmila Matre and
Qamar Mahmood – and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research