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Corporatisation in Local Government: An Introduction

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Corporatisation in Local Government

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Abstract

This book sets the stage for the first comprehensive cross-country comparison of corporatisation in local government. The opening chapter provides the backdrop for 19 country chapters by explaining the empirical phenomenon and defining the concept of corporatisation. It also introduces a typology identifying different types of municipally owned corporations (MOCs) which guides the country chapters and supports the comparative aims of the book. MOCs are presented as a middle ground between public and private service provision—as a compromise between democratically governed bureaucracy and commercially oriented market. Corporatisation provides benefits and implies challenges, a balancing act which involves both overriding principles of democracy, effectiveness and service quality and practicalities of corporate form, HR policies, and monitoring and control mechanisms. Although this balancing act unfolds in many different ways in the countries represented in this book, the variation is considerably influenced by the public administration traditions to which they belong. Thus, we use these traditions in the shape of a local government typology to group the country chapters accordingly.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Sciences, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø/Harstad, Norway

    Harald Torsteinsen

  2. Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK

    Rhys Andrews

  3. Zeppelin University, Friedrichshafen, Germany

    Ulf Papenfuß

  4. Institute for Management Research, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Marieke Van Genugten & Bart Voorn

Authors
  1. Harald Torsteinsen
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  2. Rhys Andrews
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  3. Ulf Papenfuß
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  4. Marieke Van Genugten
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  5. Bart Voorn
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Harald Torsteinsen .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Management Research, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Marieke Van Genugten

  2. Institute for Management Research, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Bart Voorn

  3. Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK

    Rhys Andrews

  4. Zeppelin University, Friedrichshafen, Germany

    Ulf Papenfuß

  5. Department of Social Sciences, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø/Harstad, Norway

    Harald Torsteinsen

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Torsteinsen, H., Andrews, R., Papenfuß, U., Van Genugten, M., Voorn, B. (2023). Corporatisation in Local Government: An Introduction. In: Van Genugten, M., Voorn, B., Andrews, R., Papenfuß, U., Torsteinsen, H. (eds) Corporatisation in Local Government. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-09982-3_1

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