Democracy and Regulation

How the Public Can Govern Essential Services

Greg Palast, Jerrold Oppenheim, Theo MacGregor

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English

Pluto Press
20 December 2002

Public finance; Privatisation; Service industries

Essential services are being privatised the world over. Whether it's water, gas, electricity or the phone network, everywher from Sao Paulo in Brazil to Leeds in the UK is following the US economic model and handing public services over to private companies whose principal interest is raising prices. Yet it's one of the world's best kept secrets that Americans pay astonishingly little for high quality public services. Uniquely in the world, every aspect of US regulation is wide open to the public. How is this done and why has this process not taken root elsewhere? How is regulation threatened even in the United States? And what power does the public have to ensure that services are regulated along these US lines? This volume, based on work for the United Nations International Labour Organisation, is a step-by-step guide to the way that public services are regulated in the United States. It explains how decisions are made by public debate in a public forum. Profits and investments of private companies are capped, and companies are forced to reduce prices for the poor, fund environmental investments and open themselves to financial inspection.

By: Greg Palast, Jerrold Oppenheim, Theo MacGregor
Imprint: Pluto Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 230mm, Width: 150mm, Spine: 19mm
Weight: 406g
ISBN: 9780745319421
ISBN 10: 0745319424
Pages: 240
Publication Date: 20 December 2002
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Democracy and Regulation: Introduction 1. Secrecy, Democracy And Regulation 2. Regulating In Public 3. Competition As Substitute For Regulation? Britain To California 4. Re-Regulation Is Not Deregulation 5. The Open Regulatory Process 6. Social Pricing 7. Issues That Are Publicly Decided 8. An Alternative: Democratic Negotiations 9. Be There: A Guide To Public Participation 10. A History Of Democratic Utility Regulation In The US 11. Regulating The Multinational Utility 12. Failed Experiments In The UK And The US 13. The Biggest Failures: California And Enron 14. International Democracy – Developing And Developed Countries 15. Conclusion Notes Index

Greg Palast has provided expert advice on regulation to government, labor, consumer and industry organisations in eight nations for over twenty-five years. He won the 1997 Financial Times David Thomas Prize for business journalism. His book of journalism for Pluto Press, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, was published in April 2002 and has sold over 70,000 copies worldwide. Jerrold Oppenheim has lectured and published widely in the US and internationally on public utility and consumer law topics. Theo MacGregor was until 1998, director of the Electric Power Division of the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Energy 9DTE), the state's utility regulator and now runs MacGregor Energy Consultancy.

Reviews for Democracy and Regulation: How the Public Can Govern Essential Services

The authors (an economist-reporter, a lawyer, and a regulator) have a wealth of experience in utility regulation, and it is evident on every page. The recent electricity crisis in California (and Enron's participation) receives considerable attention. Throughout the book the democratic process receives most of the credit or blame. The authors' detailed description of the US utility regulatory system will be especially useful to those new to the topic. -- R. A. Miller, Wesleyan University in CHOICE