State-Owned Enterprises: Structures, Functions, and Legitimacy

Abstract

State-owned enterprises are significant features of, and contributors to, the development and management of economies and communities around the globe. Their structures, the functions allocated to them, and the legitimacy of their activities, along with their privatization by divestment, are fundamental to the efficacy of government and governance. Critical issues in their existence and work include the design and choice of structures, the dispersal and performance of functions, and the securing and maintenance of legitimacy. How they fare, and how they are assessed and judged, are of immediate relevance to their continued use, change, and reform. Accordingly, they must be, and remain, important focuses of research, analysis and action.