The Power to Change: Liberalizing Electricity in the European Union

The story of deregulation in general, and that of the liberalization of the electric power sector in particular, is rich in paradoxes. This book examines the European electricity industries and shows that the liberalization of this sector did not conform to the traditional theoretical explanations that privilege economic interests and industry-specific considerations as the motors for regulatory reform. Instead, the primary impetus for change came from an overarching commitment to certain neo-liberal ideas shared by European intellectual and political elites. As a fundamentally idea-driven policy, liberalization was not always coherent with the stated goals and, with means and ends that were not always consistent with each other, the reforms were often hampered and their results ambiguous. By shedding new light on the processes and rationales for regulatory reform in this industry, this book should be of particular interest to professional analysts of the electricity sector and students of energy policy, as well as anyone interested in the role that ideas play in motivating policy choices and shaping policy outcomes.