A growing literature demonstrates increasing remunicipalization of local public services. Yet, while this literature is becoming extensive, many debates still exist about remunicipalization’s causes. This article reports the findings of a meta-analysis of the remunicipalization literature, focusing on the question: how do country, sector and method effects affect the findings of remunicipalization studies? I include articles on remunicipalization under different terms (‘remunicipalization’, ‘reverse privatization’, ‘insourcing’ and ‘contracting in’), using a large range of methods (case studies, surveys and document analysis) and covering a large period (1995–2019). I find 30 causes of remunicipalization that are considered and found in the literature. Political and pragmatic factors appear to be most frequently considered and found as causes of remunicipalization in the literature; environmental factors are less often considered but seem highly relevant. Moreover, I uncover large differences between the qualitative and quantitative literatures. I offer a research agenda to allow greater future synthesis in the remunicipalization literature.

Points for practitioners

The literature on remunicipalization is highly fragmented and remunicipalization can have many different causes. Remunicipalization appears to be both a political and a pragmatic trend, but the literature is still too fragmented to know for sure. Be aware of the potential biases and limitations in current research on (causes of) remunicipalization.

中文翻译：

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国家，部门和方法在研究再民主化中的作用：一项荟萃分析

越来越多的文献表明，地方公共服务的报酬越来越高。然而，尽管这些文献变得越来越广泛，但关于再医疗化成因的争论仍然很多。本文报告了对政府化文献的荟萃分析的结果，重点是以下问题：国家，部门和方法的影响如何影响政府化研究的结果？我使用不同的方法（案例研究，调查和文件分析）并涵盖了一个较长的时期（1995年），其中包括有关不同术语下的重新民主化的文章（“重新民主化”，“反向私有化”，“包容”和“签约”）。 –2019）。我发现在文献中已经考虑并找到了30种引起免疫的原因。政治和实用因素似乎是最常被考虑的因素，并且在文献中被认为是造成重新武装化的原因。人们很少考虑环境因素，但似乎与环境因素息息相关。此外，我发现定性和定量文献之间存在很大差异。我提供了一个研究议程，以使未来的政府化文献有更多的综合。

从业人员要点

关于补偿的文献高度分散，而且补偿可能有许多不同的原因。复员似乎是一种政治趋势，也是一种务实趋势，但文献仍然过于零散，无法确定。请注意，目前关于免疫化（原因）研究的潜在偏见和局限性。