Introduction: The Many Forms of Privatization

In political economy, as in everyday usage, the terms and are used to distinguish both between states and other organizations in the formal economy, and between households or communities and formal economies, including their state sectors. Although the terms have been useful as analytical tools, it has long been recognized by many political economists that they are not dichotomous, readily separable entities. Rather, public and private in both senses of these terms are interpenetrating and complex categories that shift over time in relation to content and degree of separation.