Lights Off!

Debunking the Myths of Power Liberalisation

Daniel Chavez

May 2002

This briefing attempts to look beyond the promised benefits of the power sector liberalisation, and debunk some myths about power deregulation and privatisation worldwide.

Liberalisation of the electricity sector is on the increase on a global scale. Corporate-driven reforms are portrayed by international financial institutions and multilateral development banks as means of improving efficiency and attracting foreign investment for national economic growth. Most countries across the world are taking steps towards privatisation and deregulation of the electricity sector, often to meet the conditions imposed by international donors or comply with regional or global trade agreements.

If the aim is really to improve the living conditions of ordinary people by lowering the cost and increasing the quality of power provision, privatisation and deregulation have evidently failed. During the past five years, from New Zealand to California and from India to Brazil, the world has witnessed a series of catastrophic blackouts, skyrocketing tariffs, growing corruption, environmental disasters and the collapse of Enron Corporation, a veritable icon of liberalisation.

This first issue of Power & Society attempts to look beyond the promised benefits of liberalisation and debunk some myths about power deregulation and privatisation worldwide.

Pages:

20pages

Edition:

TNI

Series:

TNI Briefing Series 2002/5

Daniel Chavez

TNI New Politics Programme Coordinator

Daniel Chavez is a Uruguayan anthropologist specialising in Latin American politics and urban social and political movements. With an intimate knowledge of Latin American left politics and an advisor to various local governments on participatory local democracy, he is also editor of the La nueva izquierda en América Latina: sus orígenes y trayectoria futura (New Left in Latin America: its origins and future, with Patrick Barrett and Cesar García (Grupo Editorial Norma, 2005)

Before moving to Europe he had worked for almost a decade for the United Federation of Mutual-Aid Housing Cooperatives (FUCVAM). Daniel currently co-ordinates the New TNI Politics Programme, in co-operation with Hilary Wainwright. He is also author of The Left in the City: Participatory Local Governments in Latin America with Benjamin Goldfrank (LAB, 2001).