Robert M. Campbell

Regulatory and Governance Changes in Liberalized, Commercialized Postal Environments

This paper investigates how technological, international and political ideological factors have altered the range of postal policy possibilities.1 Public postal regimes exist tenuously in a hostile environment of fax machines, ATMs, and e-mail. The Posts compete against large multinational express companies and each other. Prodded by deregulation and liberalization, Posts have developed an international reach, buying private sector companies and entering into alliances with private and public competitors. These changes have unfolded within the neo-conservative agenda, which encouraged and facilitated these developments. As a new debate develops as to the character of the ‘post-neoconservative’ era,2 postal policy is on the cusp of a new era.