Introduction

Editing a volume, we have found out, requires much modesty on the part of the editors who discover that their own perceptions and convictions are not always shared by others and that the area they thought they are fully familiar with is much richer and more diverse than they expected. And yet, despite all of that, we are bound to analyze and systemize the subject matter of privatization with a particular emphasis on the contributions made in this volume. What we wish to do in this introduction is to both develop an exhaustive classification of the major approaches to the permissibility and desirability of privatization and identify their structural strengths and weaknesses. We then describe briefly the different contributions to the volume and conclude with some observations on the future of the study of privatization.