The Right Privatization : A Comparative Analysis of Public, Private, and Hybrid Forms of Service Delivery

The public debate is rife with polarized views of how to deliver essential services such as education, health, and security. While some tout privatization as a way to supplant bad governments, others warn that private firms maximize profits at the expense of socially oriented service attributes. In reality, all forms of service delivery—public, private and hybrid public private-collaborations—have merits and flaws. This article offers a practical decision-making framework describing conditions that will favor the adoption of alternative ways to deliver key services: generally speaking, privately managed activities (which might be funded by socially-oriented investors), public-private collaborations, and public (state-owned) organizations, in their multiple forms and varieties. The article compares these forms based on their relative ability to generate effectiveness and inclusion, as well as with respect to their perceived legitimacy, and discusses the possibility of multiple, co-existing arrangements concurrently targeting the same population