Deregulation, liberation and privatisation in each public sector leads to more attention for consumers and a a more transparency. It should become clearer what the government wants, gets and pays. Public enterprises often suffer from unnecessary high costs, a lack of quality and little innovation. It is often believed that more deregulation, liberation and privatisation will lead to less government interference. But this is incorrect. The government has overrated the self-regulating power of the market. It is not a matter of government influence or market discipline. Instead, an intelligent combination of market and government is needed: that formulates a framework and sets conditions beforehand instead of detail interfering with management and operational details; and that will act afterwards as an arbiter or watchdog. This is especially important if there is a public interest, for example, through subsidies in regional public transport. To carry out this transformation successfully, parties should pay a lot of attention to objectives, conditions, roles, competences and culture. (A) For the covering abstract of the conference see ITRD E206647.
Abstract