Eau Méditerranée's Panopticon: Democratic Oversight for Deregulated Public Services

What is it about?

The article addresses the issue of how to provide democratic oversight of deregulated public services without reintroducing of the layers of bureaucracy that deregulation was to remove. It is is a study of the deregulation of water services in the south of France. It provides an example of a novel way to provide a clear and credible form of accountability without increasing bureaucratic workload.

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Why is it important?

The article describes a reworking of an 18th-century concept for increasing visibility in a prison environment, updated to take account of the capabilities of today’s information technology helps to improve management transparency. It shows the value of reinterpreting ideas from the 18th-century and applying them to the interconnected world of the 21st century