Privatisation experiences in African and Asian countries. Edited by M. P. van Dijk and N. G. Schulte Nordholt. SISWO Publikatie 384, Amsterdam, 1994, 156 pp
| Date | 01 November 2006 |
| Author | P. J. Curwen |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230150212 |
| Published date | 01 November 2006 |
186
Book
Reviews
promoting it, and he considers what functions and responsibilities should belong to public
administrators where the scope of government has been narrowed and the market left to
function as the instrument of economic management. He emphasises public administrators’
responsibilities for advancing basic human needs, acting to contain population growth and
promoting environmentally sound development that safeguards a future for generations to
come. This review provides the basis for a discussion
of
the qualities he considers necessary in
public administrators. He argues that they should be more dedicated, better trained (which
means more focused and specialist), acting as a profession with strong moral commitments
(so
allowing officials to stand out against corruption, and with a sense of mission.
Those familiar with his previous publications will recognize Professor Dwivedi’s long standing
interests and commitments. The book is useful in gathering together analyses and arguments
that have been dispersed through a wide range of publications. The disappointment is that the
book does not carry the debate further forward. Successive chapters summarise and restate what
has previously been set down, there
is
overlap between them, and, because previous publications
have appeared over a twenty-five year period, there is inevitable inconsistency in the arguments
presented. Uniformity is assumed in an entity variously described as the developing nations,
underdeveloped countries, the south and the third world, the appositeness
of
laying out standard
prescriptions for development administration is assumed and it is argued that there should be a
globalisation
of
the theory and practice of administration for sustainable development. Yet
increasing diversity is also recognised and stress is placed both on the importance of respecting
cultural, technological, political and economic diversity and also on the importance of scepticism
about standardised prescriptions deriving particularly from ‘the north’. Such tension within the
book reflects changing thinking about effective administration; the pity is that the book has not
been the occasion for a radically fresh assessment.
DAVID
MURRAY
The
Open
University
PRIVATISATION EXPERIENCES
IN
AFRICAN AND ASIAN COUNTRIES
Edited
by
M.
P.
van
Dijk
and N.
G.
Schulte Nordholt
SISWO Publikatie 384, Amsterdam, 1994, 156 pp.
The title of this text, together with its sub-title An
economic
andpolitical
analysis
of
insfiEutiona1
transformation,
suggests that it is intended to be a wide ranging assessment of privatisation
experiences in Africa and Asia. A brief glance at its contents is, however, sufficient to demon-
strate that the title is deceptive since there are only
107
pages of text
as
such, followed by 40 pages
of (mostly) annotated bibliography. That amount of text is approximately what one would
expect of an issue of a refereed journal whereas this purports to be a monograph.
The book is based upon papers delivered at a symposium held in June 1993 at the University
of Twente in Holland. All of the contributors are Dutch. The editors provide brief introductory
and concluding chapters. Sandwiched in between are the following: a general introduction to
political and economic considerations in privatisation by
P.
Boorsma; a chapter on privatisation
in Indonesia by J. Bastin; a chapter on North and West African privatisation by
M.
van Dijk;
and a chapter on privatisation in Kazakhstan by
W.
van Veenendaal. The annotated bibli-
ography of
110
items that concludes the book is said to be ‘provisional’.
The justification for publishing the text is a claim that the existing literature is deficient in
supplying empirical studies of privatisation in Africa and Asia. This claim is somewhat mislead-
ing since this reviewer personally possesses
a
number
of
studies not cited in the bibliography, but
new studies are nevertheless to be welcomed. The key issue is whether this text adds materially to
our existing knowledge.
Boorsma’s chapter, which is supposed to provide a conceptual structure for the text, but which
in practice is paid no more than lip service in the chapters that follow, is oddly structured. He
begins with an attempt to provide a classification system for privatisation, before moving on to
examine the arguments in favour and against. These are not always helpful; for example, the
budgetary consequences of asset sales are unlikely to be exclusively concerned with ‘no longer
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