While austerity is commonly presented as a necessary, although undesirable, reduction in public expenditure, this framing may disguise a re‐imagining of the state whereby governments seize the opportunity of economic difficulties to shrink the state. This paper offers a critical examination of...

Governments increasingly use private finance to fund roads infrastructure. In particular the European Commission has promoted the use of public private partnerships (PPPs) to deliver the projects forming the trans-European Network. This use of private finance raises important questions about how...

In 1993, the British government turned to the private sector to finance much needed investment in public infrastructure and manage services under its Public Private Partnerships (PPP) policy (Edwards et al., 2004), with transport forming by far the largest component by value of the PPP...