From capitalism to neo-medievalism: the perverse effects of privatization

The drift towards new forms of delegation of control over crucial resources from public entities to private firms is a phenomenon can be directly linked to the wide spread of privatization policies in Western economies. In the literature, deciding whether privatizing or not state-owned enterprises is typically presented as a technical point that must be subject to an economic evaluation: the emphasis is put on the "the ante fact". In our study we want to discuss “the ex-post” in terms of effects produced on the relationship between consumers and providers. To interpret this dimension we introduce the concept of neo-medievalism. The context is offered by Italian market where, recently, many industries, and in particular many public utilities were privatized, in the name of a higher level of efficiency.