A very broad term--but most simply, privatization is the transfer of assets or service delivery from the government to the private sector. Privatization runs a very broad range, sometimes leaving very little government involvement, and other times creating partnerships between government and private service providers where government is still the dominant player.
As Government Executive put it,
- Merely defining "privatization" is difficult. In its purest form, the term refers to the shifting of the production of a good or the provision of a service from the government to the private sector, often by selling government-owned assets. Clinton Administration officials took this rather narrow view. "When we talk about privatization, we don't mean contracting out," said Elaine Kamarck, who headed Gore's National Performance Review. "We mean purely divesting the government function."
- Most definitions of privatization, though, are more expansive, covering virtually any action that involves exposing the operations of government to the pressures of the commercial marketplace. That would include everything from contracting out janitorial services at a federal building to selling off the Naval Petroleum Reserve.
- The broader definition of privatization also includes a wide range of public-private partnerships, such as voucher systems. Even the creation of federal corporations, quasi government organizations and government-sponsored enterprises is often filed under the general category of privatization. In such organizations, though, it is often difficult to tell where government ends and the private sector begins.
This website deals with privatization in all its forms.