International workshop Venice - March 11-12 1999 Concepts and Paradigms of Urban Management in the Context of Developing Countries
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Alan Gilbert (University College London)

"Changing thinking about poverty and service delivery in Urban Management"

The provision of infrastructure and services is critical to the functioning of modern economies and societies. As economies and societies have changed the priorities underlying service provision have changed. My first aim in this paper is to try to link how the methods of service delivery have responded to changes in the nature of society. My second, and primary, aim is to examine the current state of the debate about service delivery and to argue that the declared aims of service delivery cannot be satisfied by the methods being employed to provide those services. Thus privatisation is incompatible with improved environmental sustainability, cost effectiveness too often incompatible with poverty reduction, reductions in taxation alient to the expansion of services. The rhetoric that has developed about social safety nets, decentralisation and sustainability is designed to cover up the inability of either the modern or the post-modern state to satisfy most of the demands of society for services. This is because societies now espouse a series of mutually incompatible desires. They want more and better services, they want less pollution, they want to consume more but critically they want to pay less taxes and less for key public services. To paper over these mutually incompatible desires, it has been necessary to create a new mythology: the state will create the conditions for improved service delivery by doing less and in the process will help the environment, reduce poverty and cut taxes.

Why are services provided?

Military purposes eg building railways in India, Roman roads

Maintaining and facilitating the production process

Preventing epidemics eg Buenos Aires

Social considerations eg Victorian philanthropists

Electoral considerations eg populism, Homes for heroes

Maintaining the social fabric eg Castells argument

Reducing poverty eg British national health service

Methods of delivering services

1. Before the industrial revolution:
   • The military state - Roman roads, Norman castles, town walls, docks.
   • The private sector provides the rest
   • Key actors: Primacy of the engineer and soldier; economic and social considerations irrelevant
2. The industrial revolution:
   • Private sector initiative
   • The phase of municipalisation
   • Key actors: The primacy of the engineer and the entrepreneur; profitability critical for service provision
3. The emergence of the welfare state
   • National intervention
   • Improving the social environment
   • Primacy of the social engineer
4. The decline of the welfare state
   • Decentralisation
   • Privatisation
   • Cost reduction
   • Environmental protection
   • Key actors: Primacy of the economist and the neo-conservative politician