"Cost Recovery and the Crisis of Service Delivery in South Africa is a publication providing a theoretical and empirical review of the dramatic shift from welfare municipalism to a neoliberal vision of balanced budgets and fiscal restraint.".

"Centred largely on case studies in a number of South African municipalities, this volume critically examines 'cost recovery', the heart of this new municipal vision. The authors contend that cost recovery has far-reaching implications for access to services, affordability and privatisation.

At a theoretical level, the book explores ways of reversing the insidious effects of commodification, the role of the market in shaping service delivery, and the way we 'value' essential goods such as water."--BOOK JACKET.