Anna HAZAN, University of Haifa, Israel
Eran RAZIN, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Municipally owned corporations (MOCs) advanced to the forefront of Israel's municipal arena in the late 20th century, in a context of diminishing effectiveness of central state action that enhanced local entrepreneurialism. Infrastructure and economic development have been dominant tasks among municipal companies, including engagement in public-private partnerships and intermunicipal cooperation, whereas social services predominated among municipal nonprofits. Increased activity of MOCs has been accompanied by a simultaneous shift, from a regulatory vacuum to the formation of an extensive dual regulatory system based on private and municipal law, eroding the flexibility of MOCs. These parallel trends highlighted the contradiction between the aim of MOCs to be flexible project-oriented municipal arms and the public concern to avoid using MOCs as inappropriate regulatory bypasses. These tensions are at the heart of the policy pursuit for a regulatory framework that balances the desire for local autonomy and the path-dependent centralization embedded in Israeli politics. Despite tightening regulation, MOCs have remained an essential municipal tool. The rapid growth of MOCs in the late 1980s and 1990s and the stagnation in the establishment on new ones thereafter displays both aspects of privatization and remunicipalization. Inevitable public sector budget deficits and financing difficulties in the years following the Covid-19 crisis will make municipal companies crucial because of the need to resort to public (municipal)-private partnerships and to develop income-generating municipal properties.
Mots clés : Municipally owned corporations|decentralization|public-private partnerships|remunicipalization|Israel
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