Reorienting Development: State-owned Enterprises in Latin America and the World

The growing evidence of the failure of privatisation as prescribed by the Washington Consensus has prompted a reconsideration of state ownership and management in Latin America. In parallel, in other regions of the world, the economic and financial crisis has spurred a resurgence of analytical perspectives that challenge the hegemony of the free market paradigm. At both the academic and political levels, very intense debates have reemerged on the significance of state-owned enterprises in national and regional development strategies.

This book is based on contributions from several researchers and policy makers that belong to the International Research Network on Public Enterprises and Development, following an international conference held in Montevideo in November 2012, jointly organised by Uruguay’s National Directorate for Industrial Development (MIEM-DNI) and the state-owned telecommunications company (ANTEL) in association with the Amsterdam-based Transnational Institute (TNI). The chapters of this book analyse the nature, advantages, limitations and challenges of public companies, framing the discussion vis-à-vis ongoing political processes and contributing new theoretical and conceptual insights on the nature and roles of the state and the controversial meanings of development.

The book will have its official launch at the conference 'Putting Public in Public Services' in Cape Town. The book is available online at our webshop.

Contents

• Introduction: Public Enterprises and Development in Latin America and the World | Daniel Chavez and Sebastián Torres
• The Return of the Public Enterprise | Massimo Florio
• The Role of State-owned Enterprises in Industrial Development | Manuel F. Montes
• Five Theoretical Reasons in Defence of State-owned Enterprises | Alfredo Schcklarek Curutchet
• The Ambiguity of Public and the Corporatisation of State Enterprise | David A. McDonald
• The Latin American Public Enterprise: the Past of a hard-to-kill Leviathan | Guillermo Guajardo Soto
• State-owned Enterprises and Development in Costa Rica | Alberto Cortés Ramos
• Petrobas: an Internationalised State-controlled Company | Armando Dalla Costa, Huáscar Fialho Pessali and Sandra Cristina da Cunha Gonçalves
• The Reform of Public Enterprises in Uruguay: an Economic History Perspective | Magdalena Bertino
• ANTEL: a Socially committed Public Enterprise at the Forefront of Technological Innovation | Carolina Cosse
• OSE: Internal Change, Challenges and Contributions to National Development | Milton Machado
• ANCAP: an Expanding Public Company committed to National Development | Raúl Sendic
• UTE: a Centennial and Truly National Public Enterprise | Gonzalo Casaravilla