Summary of "The Power of Choice: Governance and Outcomes in Electricity Sector Reforms" by Navroz K. Dubash

This paper is on Electricity reforms, it stated how electricity has been previously considered as natural monopoly where in developing countries, the electricity sector has either been owned or strictly regulated by the government. Then, at astonishing speed, a revolution in thinking, swept through the sector according to the report and several countries undertook major reforms. The reforms ranged from opening their electricity markets to independent power generators to broad-based reforms remaking the entire sector around the objective. Debates went on about the viability, applicability and feasibility of these market-led electricity reforms but after a while, it was realized that the electricity reform will shape patterns of development, including social environmental outcomes for decades to come. The question then arose, "How are developing countries managing the complex, often contentious process of electricity sector reform? and how various interest groups participate in shaping the electricity sector as it depend of the governance structure under which the reforms are carried out. Using 6 countries: Argentina, Bulgaria, Ghana, India, Indonesia and South Africa as case studies, an examination of the process and politics sheds light on how the process of reform can support or hider sustainable development outcomes.
Using the case studies, the paper talked on how these countries achieved their reforms, Argentina for example, in the late 1980s, there was a backdrop of economic crisis, so a small group of politically powerful bereaucrats supported by international agencies such as the World Bank designed reforms with little outside debate or input, although these reforms did lead to improved quality of service in urban areas they undermined incentives to increase the efficiency of electrical appliances and equipment, limited expansion of electricity service to isolated rural areas, and placed a disproportionate burden of electricity price increases on low income consumers.
The pattern and Trends across the six case studies, there were several bullet points that were stated, the first one was;