Privatisation and public sector reform: the political economy of state intervention

Abstract

In Pakistan the public sector has been relatively ineffective in defending their entitlements and in resisting change because they view reform as a collective misfortune and hope that others will bear the costs of reform as well as ensuring collective survival while they individually negotiate new deals with the government leadership. Since entitlements were originally granted and not won in most instance, they did not develop the organizational strength and resilience as well as experience of struggle and cooperation to better defend their own interest. In so far as entitlements for the bureaucracy were largely granted by government leaders in need of a cadre to conceptualise and implement policy interventions and manage the expanding public sector, the limitations of bureaucratic resistance can be accounted for. There is a comment by M.A. Mahmood on pages 658-659. -from Author