Journal Articles

Radical Remunicipalizations: Remaking and Reclaiming Public Services

Author:

David McDonald

Year:

2025

Publisher:

Socialist Registrar 2025

Number of pages:

Available Formats:

PDF (EN)

Abstract

Debates about privatization have raged in academic journals for decades, largely polarized into two camps: for and against. There is, however, a newer and more refreshing conversation on the block that challenges this stale dichotomy – remunicipalization. Also known as ‘reverse privatization’ or ‘insourcing’, remunicipalization refers to processes of returning services back to public ownership and management after a period of private sector control.

More than 1,600 cases of remunicipalization in over 70 countries have been documented in services such as water, electricity, health care, transportation and waste management.1 It can happen at various scales, for diverse reasons, and often involves a complex web of state institutions and non-governmental actors, representing one of the most intriguing shifts in public policy and grassroots activism of the last 20 years.

Paradoxically, remunicipalization can be simultaneously expansive and narrow in scope. Expansive because many municipal services are immensely important to our social, economic, cultural and ecological welfare. While it may be a cliché, water is indeed ‘life’, and alongside other basic services such as electricity and transportation they are of vital importance to humanity. Having essential services such as these owned, socialized and operated publicly rather than privately can make an enormous difference to people’s lives.