Introduction

This chapter tells the story of how the French state and French actors responded to the problem of access to water by promoting the diffusion of ‘managed liberalisation’ as a governance model. The story is primarily one of changing institutions, both domestically and internationally. France is both an exemplar of the European ‘social model’ and a major force in shaping the global field of urban water services delivery in an international development context. As a result, the French role in constructing a ‘human face’ for a globalising water policy sector has both ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ aspects, grounded not only on long-standing colonial links between developed and developing countries but also on a two-faced conception of ‘le service public’. Internally, French water services policy uneasily reconciled private sector delivery of water services with a constitutional vision of equal access for all citizens by means of a vision of ‘le service public’ secured by political regulation and individual citizen rights under administrative law. Externally, in a global context lacking any overarching controlling state, securing ‘le service public’ for disadvantaged citizens became a much more peripheral aspect of the overall policy framework, and the French approach became embedded in the broader policies and practices of international organisations including the World Bank and the UN, as summarised in the Introduction. This linked water services delivery to institutions more readily associated with liberal market economies such as that of the UK – arm's-length quasi-independent regulatory agencies, discretionary ‘solidarity’ mechanisms, and an overarching legal framework for the global economy that prioritises property and contract rights.