Municipalization is the transfer to municipal ownership of corporations or other assets. The transfer may be from private ownership (usually by purchase) or from other levels of government. A municipality or general-purpose district (compare with: special-purpose district) is an administrative local area generally composed of a clearly defined territory and commonly referring to a city, town, or village government. ... A corporation is a legal entity (distinct from a natural person) that often has similar rights in law to those of a Civil law systems may refer to corporations as moral persons; they may also go by the name AS (anonymous society) or something similar, depending on language (see below). ... In business and accounting an asset is anything owned, whether in possession or by right to take possession, by a person or a group acting together, e. ...

Services

There have been two main waves of municipalization in developed countries. The first took place in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, when municipalities in many developed countries acquired local private providers of a range of public services. The driving reason in most cases was the failure of private providers to sufficiently expand service provision outside wealthy parts of urban areas. A developed country is a country that has achieved (currently or historically) a high degree of industrialization, and which enjoys the higher standards of living which wealth and technology make possible. ... Public services is a term usually used to mean services provided by government to its citizens, either directly (through the public sector) or by financing private provision of services. ...

The second wave took place in the early 1990s, when after the end of communism in eastern Europe state-owned companies in many public service sectors were broken up and transferred to municipal control. This was typical in sectors such as water, waste management and public transport, although not in electricity and gas. This article is about communism as a form of society built around a gift economy, as an ideology that advocates that form of society, and as a popular movement. ... Water (from the Anglo-Saxon and Low German wæter) is a colourless, tasteless, and odourless substance that is essential to all known forms of life and is the most universal solvent. ... Waste management is literally the process of managing waste materials (normally those produced as a result of human activities). ... A taxi serving as a bus Public transport comprises all transport systems in which the passengers do not travel in their own vehicles. ... The article on electrical energy is located elsewhere. ... Natural gas rig Natural gas (commonly refered to as gas in many countries) is a gaseous fossil fuel consisting primarily of methane. ...

Such regional companies either remained under municipal control, or were privatised. Privatization was done variously: by selling them to investors, by giving a concession or a management contract. Examples include the water sector in the Czech Republic, over half of which has been privatised. Privatization (sometimes privatisation, denationalization, or, especially in India, disinvestment) is the process of transferring property, from public ownership to private ownership and/or transferring the management of a service or activity from the government to the private sector. ... Management (from Old French ménagement the art of conducting, directing, from Latin manu agere to lead by the hand) characterises the process of leading and directing all or part of an organization, often a business, through the deployment and manipulation of resources (human, financial, material, intellectual or intangible). ...

Governments

In the U.S., municipalization often refers to incorporation of an entire county into its municipalities, leaving no unincorporated areas. This generally ends de facto the county's own home rule, which in most states allows it to act as the municipal service provider in those unincorporated areas. The county is left offering only those services mandated of it by the state constitution, which are generally only extensions of state government like courts and sheriffs. As with utilities, the county's assets usually end up being distributed among the cities, though this is less likely if the process is gradual rather than all at once. For other uses, see United States (disambiguation) and US (disambiguation). ... Incorporation is: In business, incorporation is the creation of a corporation. ... Originally, a county was the land under the jurisdiction of a count (in Great Britain, an earl, though the original earldoms covered larger areas) by reason of that office. ... In law, a region of land is unincorporated if it is not a part of any municipality. ... De facto is a Latin expression that means in fact or in practice. It is commonly used as opposed to de jure (meaning by law) when referring to matters of law or governance or technique (such as standards), that are found in the common experience as created or developed without... Devolution or Home rule is the pooling of powers from central government to government at regional or local level. ... Mandate can mean: An obligation handed down by an inter-governmental body; see mandate (international law) The power granted by an electorate; see mandate (politics) A League of Nations mandate To some Christians, an order from God; see mandate (theology) The decision of an appeals court; see mandate (law) This... This article is about courts of law. ... Sheriff is both a political and a legal office held under English common law, Scots law or American common law, or the person who holds such office. ...

References

• Scott E. Masten, Public Utility Ownership in 19th-Century America: The “Aberrant” Case of Water, Business School, University of Michigan [1] (http://ssrn.com/abstract=596061)
• David Hall, Public Services Work! - Information, Insights and Ideas for our Future, PSIRU, University of Greenwich [2] (http://www.psiru.org/reports/2003-09-U-PSW.pdf)