Privatization and Its Discontents

This chapter provides both the motivational and the philosophical background against which an account of the wrong of privatization is then developed. It clarifies how to understand the concept of a public function and critically assesses existing answers to the question of when and why privatization is morally problematic. It also argues for a different diagnostic approach, which begins with what political institutions are for. The chapter investigates the nature of the disagreement on privatization. It critically examines and partly rejects four dominant approaches to the question of whether, when, and why the privatization of the public is morally objectionable: the distributive, motivational, sociocultural, and essentialist arguments.