Politicians, bureaucrats and the public-private choice in public service delivery: Anybody there pushing for remunicipalization?

Abstract

Empirical evidence on remunicipalization remains scarce, and even more so as regards potential differences in the roles played by politicians and bureaucrats in service delivery reform. We use information obtained from a survey of Spanish municipalities to investigate differences in the service delivery preferences of politicians and technical staff, as well as differences in their respective propensities to reform. The results we obtain suggest that bureaucrats have both a stronger preference for private participation in service delivery and for reforming services than do politicians.