The City of Potsdam: Between Privatization and Remunicipalization – Local Experiences and General Aspects on the Road to Publicization

Abstract:

Like many other municipalities, the city of Potsdam privatized its water supply and sewage disposal services in the 1990s.To achieve this, the capital city of the state of Brandenburg entered into a public private partnership with a globally operating investor. After just two years, however, Potsdam terminated the partnership and remunicipalized the services that had been privatized. Potsdam is thus a particularly early example of the paradigm shift away from privatization and towards remunicipalization. It also provides an instructive example for illustrating general remunicipalization phenomena and problems which go beyond local experiences. This involves, firstly, the empirical findings relating to scenarios in which remunicipalization takes place, which can today be observed in many municipal spheres of activity, including outside of Germany. Secondly, it involves a legal analysis of the causes, motives and goals of remunicipalization, and the forms in which it appears. It becomes apparent that privatization and remunicipalization are complementary strategies for the modernization of the Gemeinwesen (community, res publica). They both demand an analysis of the widest possible spectrum of organizational forms and courses of action which enable modern, efficient and optimal performance of tasks by the relevant stakeholders. What remains notably underdeveloped are the drafting of administrative cooperation contracts and organizational forms in the third sector, such as cooperatives. Finally, the overall analysis reveals, thirdly, that remunicipalization is only one aspect of a more comprehensive publicization and represents the rediscovery of the public.