This seminar will review these trends in a national and international context and then focus on the local public sector response in the United States. Concerns for efficiency as well as changing notions of the appropriate role for the public sector drive these shifts.
Privatization is perhaps the most controversial form of restructuring.
We will review the theoretical rationale for privatization and legal, political and practical concerns which have arisen with its implementation. Special attention will be given to labor concerns with privatization and the alternative role for labor in internal restructuring. Inter-municipal cooperation and regionalism provide an alternative to privatization which allows the public sector to achieve scale without resorting to privatization. While direct consolidation is rare, special districts to address particular government functions are proliferating. These districts raise concerns of accountability and representativeness.