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'''Privatization''' is the act of turning opening up previously governmentstate-provided services over to private owned corporations, assets, service or economic sector enterprises. It is the sale or leasing out to private companies of assets and services previously monopolized by the governmententerprise, though it can also be used to refer to public private partnerships, such as operating concessions, or Build Operate Transfer schemes. Privatization has been encouraged by the [[IMF]] and [[World Bank]] in both wealthy and developing nations since the [[Second World War]], but particularly since the 1980's. It is mostly responsible for the transformation of poor quality public services delivered in a top-down authoritarian manner to customer-focused, flexible, innovative, more efficient and transparent services, as well as unlocking the potential of private sector profit-focused investment that have transformed services such as water and telecoms in the developing world.
As well as proving economic and quality of life benefits to citizens in developing countries, it is a major factor in improving [[rule of law]], [[accountability]], transparency, [[democracy]] and personal freedoms, by integrating the economies of developing countries with those of the west, thus leading to greater incentives to reconcile regulatory, legal and political standards, as well as encouraging the local population to accept [[responsibility]] for development of their country, through participating in an opening market and thus directly affecting the way these services are provided by exercising their consumer choice in service provision, and by making stock investments in publicly traded, rather than state monopolist utilities.
