Books

Cost Recovery and the Crisis of Service Delivery in South Africa

Author:

David A. McDonald and John Pape eds

Year:

2002

Publisher:

Zed Books, New York

Number of pages:

208

Available languages:

ISBN:

0-7969-1997-6

Available Formats:

PDF (EN)

Order the book (EN)

Abstract

This book provides a theoretical and empirical review of the dramatic shift from welfare municipalism to a neoliberal vision of balanced budgets and fiscal restraint. Centred largely on case studies in a number of South African municipalities, this volume critically examines 'cost recovery', the heart of this new municipal vision. The authors contend that cost recovery has far-reaching implications for access to services, affordability and privatisation. At a theoretical level, the book explores ways of reversing the insidious effects of commodification, the role of the market in shaping service delivery, and the way we 'value' essential goods such as water. These issues are of increasing importance internationally as governments around the world move more aggressively toward full cost recovery measures.