Public Enterprises Today

Over thirty years, privatization of public enterprises was in the air. Before and during this period of neo-liberalism, and since the 2008 crisis, public enterprises were nonetheless created: they did what they were set up for and they frequently managed to get interesting results, as much on their public mission as regarding profitability. How is this possible? This book looks at public enterprises with new eyes. What are the emerging insights? Those public enterprises evolved a lot during those years. Their governance has been adjusted: they now respond to all kind of stakeholders, they face independent regulators and did enter complex institutional arrangements. Further, they often transformed into conglomerates active in several activity sectors and/or expanded their geographical coverage. Being frequently large-sized, public enterprises are now able to compete on international markets, while continuing delivering important services to their home community. With fifteen case studies from Europe and the Americas, knowledge on public enterprises in the 21st century is updated. Depuis plus de trente ans, 'privatisation' se lit et s'entend chaque jour. Pourtant, avant et pendant la periode du neo-liberalisme, et depuis la crise de 2008, des entreprises publiques ont vu le jour, generant des resultats probants en termes de mission de service public et de rentabilite. Comment y sont-elles parvenues ? Cet ouvrage analyse les entreprises publiques avec un nouveau regard. Que retenir de cette analyse ? Ces entreprises publiques ont fort evolue au cours de ces annees. Leur gouvernance s'est ajustee vis-a-vis d'un contexte institutionnel complexe et face a diverses 'parties prenantes', dont les regulateurs independants. Elles sont frequemment devenues des conglomerats actifs dans plusieurs domaines, ou bien se sont etendues geographiquement. Souvent de grande taille, elles sont alors capables d'etre concurrentielles sur les marches internationaux tout en offrant des services importants a leur collectivite d'origine. 15 etudes de cas d'Europe et d'Amerique sont proposees pour renforcer la connaissance des entreprises publiques au 21e siecle. This book is the result of the International Ciriec working group on "The future of the public enterprise: mission, performance and governance" developed by the CIRIEC International Scientific Commission "Public Enterprises/Public Services": http://www.ciriec.uliege.be/en/research/commission-ep/themes-en-cours-ep/theme-recherche-4/