Self‐Interest, Ideological/Symbolic Politics, and Citizen Characteristics: A Cross‐National Analysis of Support for Privatization

Abstract

In this essay, the authors explore attitudes toward government privatization of electric utilities across two sets of nations: developed market economies (DMEs) and transition economies (TEs). They utilize generalized hierarchical linear model to analyze individual attitudes nested within these two groups of polities and discover a wide gap between the DME and TE nations in terms of preferences for privatization, with attitudes in DME nations being far more favorable. Attitudes toward the privatization of electricity are explained by a combination of ideological/symbolic predispositions, self‐interest, and citizen values/characteristics. The most consistent variables in the model are the ideological/symbolic predispositions, while the weakest are citizen characteristics/values. In terms of self‐interest, the analysis indicates that those who work for the public service or a public firm are more likely than others to oppose the privatization of electricity. In contrast to some public administration literature that asserts well‐informed and interested citizens will oppose privatization, the authors find no convincing relationships. Instead, the most educated and politically efficacious citizens, as well as those who have confidence in the way democracy works within their nation, are more prone than others to support privatization of electricity.

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