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PRIVATIZATION
(1) The process of moving economic resources from the public sector to the private sector. Publicly owned transportation resources, natural resources, hospitals, etc., may be sold to private individuals or to privately owned corporations. Canada has been unusual in having a large public sector. Classical liberal theory, however, is opposed to government involvement and interference in economic activity and the recent resurgence of interest in classical liberalism (see neo-liberalism) has led to pressure to privatize government owned resources and services. See: CROWN CORPORATION / CLASSICAL ECONOMIC THEORY / . (2) The term has also been applied to the growth in modern societies of a family life separated from the outer community. In traditional societies there is little separation of private and public spheres, but privatization appears to take place with urbanization and industrialization. See: family, bourgeois

Last updated 2002--0-9-

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Athabaca University ICAAP

© Robert Drislane, Ph.D. and Gary Parkinson, Ph.D.
The online version of this dictionary is a product of
Athabasca University and
ICAAP

*This social science dictionary has 1000
entries covering the disciplines of sociology, criminology, political
science and women's study with a commitment to Canadian examples and
events and names