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Privatizing Political Authority: Cybersecurity, Public-Private Partnerships, and the Reproduction of Liberal Political Order

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  • Daniel R. McCarthy

    (School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne, Australia)

Abstract

Cybersecurity sits at the intersection of public security concerns about critical infrastructure protection and private security concerns around the protection of property rights and civil liberties. Public-private partnerships have been embraced as the best way to meet the challenge of cybersecurity, enabling cooperation between private and public sectors to meet shared challenges. While the cybersecurity literature has focused on the practical dilemmas of providing a public good, it has been less effective in reflecting on the role of cybersecurity in the broader constitution of political order. Unpacking three accepted conceptual divisions between public and private, state and market, and the political and economic, it is possible to locate how this set of theoretical assumptions shortcut reflection on these larger issues. While public-private partnerships overstep boundaries between public authority and private right, in doing so they reconstitute these divisions at another level in the organization of political economy of liberal democratic societies.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel R. McCarthy, 2018. "Privatizing Political Authority: Cybersecurity, Public-Private Partnerships, and the Reproduction of Liberal Political Order," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 6(2), pages 5-12.
    • Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v6:y:2018:i:2:p:5-12
    DOI: 10.17645/pag.v6i2.1335
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Dunn-Cavelty, Myriam & Suter, Manuel, 2009. "Public–Private Partnerships are no silver bullet: An expanded governance model for Critical Infrastructure Protection," International Journal of Critical Infrastructure Protection, Elsevier, vol. 2(4), pages 179-187.
    2. Jennifer M. Brinkerhoff & Derick W. Brinkerhoff & Derick W. Brinkerhoff & Jennifer M. Brinkerhoff, 2011. "Public–private partnerships: Perspectives on purposes, publicness, and good governance," Public Administration & Development, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 31(1), pages 2-14, February.
    3. Givens, Austen D. & Busch, Nathan E., 2013. "Realizing the promise of public-private partnerships in U.S. critical infrastructure protection," International Journal of Critical Infrastructure Protection, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 39-50.
    4. Assaf, Dan, 2008. "Models of critical information infrastructure protection," International Journal of Critical Infrastructure Protection, Elsevier, vol. 1(C), pages 6-14.
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    2. Mazaher Kianpour & Christopher Frantz, 2025. "Analysis of Institutional Design of European Union Cyber Incident and Crisis Management as a Complex Public Good," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(4), pages 1037-1062, October.

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