When Institutions No Longer Matter: Reform of Telecommunications and Electricity in Germany, France and Britain

In: Journal of public policy, Band 22, Heft 1, S. 1-27

Abstract

Many studies of privatization & liberalization in utility industries stress the importance of national institutions for reform. However, powerful transnational forces & cross-national policy convergence in telecommunications have led to a questioning of the role of institutions. Single sector studies are limited in their ability to assess the relative influence of sector-specific technical & economic forces in the policy process. This article presents a cross-sectoral & cross-national analysis of privatization & liberalization in telecommunications & electricity in Germany, France, & GB in terms of national institutions, techno-economic forces, & ideas. Although institutions shape shorter-term policy responses & the emerging regulatory regimes, in the longer term their role is limited to the pace & timing of policy change rather than its impetus & direction. To understand the latter it is necessary to investigate sources of the key ideas that led to reform. The ideas were not embedded within institutions but originated from outside as a response of interests to techno-economic forces & from groups ideologically predisposed to favoring neoliberal ideas. 76 References. Adapted from the source document.