Is Privatization Used Appropriately for Its Purpose? A Socioeconomic Point of View

In summary, we can call the change that allows the use of public resources by the private sector “privatization”. To achieve higher production efficiency, leading to faster economic growth and development, strengthening the role of the private sector in job creation, improving the public sector’s financial health, and providing free resources for use in sectors important to the public, such as education, security, health, housing, transportation, and other infrastructure development initiatives are the main objectives of privatization. With globalization, privatization has become much more widely used. However, in privatizations, the primary goals are gradually shifting to the secondary, with most privatizations aiming to close the public finance deficit. Privatizations made with the aim of closing the deficit and paying debts may provide a temporary and false state of well-being. The transfer of institutions, which have been acquired over the years with public resources, which have a historical background and sociological importance for countries, to the private sector through careless and inappropriate privatizations causes serious losses for societies in the long term. The privatizations that accelerated in our country in 1980s were mostly carried out to close the public finance deficit, and at this point, the debts increased, even more, efficient institutions were lost, and public losses emerged. Most of the projects carried out under public-private partnerships, which should be considered a form of privatization, have cost the public much more than their real values. As a result, when the privatizations were viewed broadly, the total cost to the public was greater than the profit.