the present French polity (seeFifth Republic) it is clear that the prime
minister is subordinate to the president who is the real determinant of
government policy, as became apparent during the period ofcohabitation.
In earlier republics, however, the president had occupied a much weaker role,
akin to that of a constitutional monarch, and the prime minister had accord-
ingly been the true head of theexecutive.
Privatization
Privatization is particularly identified with the brand of conservatism favoured
by the former British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher (seeThatcherism).
However, during the 1980s similar policies were adopted in many countries
throughout the world, and were even accepted, although sometimes reluc-
tantly, bysocial democraticparties. In many ways privatization is simply a
new word for de-nationalization, the removal from government control of
monopolies both in the service sector and in manufacturing industry. How-
ever, whereas the de-nationalization that previous Conservative governments
had undertaken, such as the reversal, in 1953, of thenationalizationof the
iron and steel industry, was carried out by selling the assets of the state company
to industry at fixed prices, and was virtually a reflex reversal of the previous
Labour Partygovernment’s legislation, Thatcher saw privatization as desir-
able for two reasons. Firstly, by making the new private companies responsible
to shareholders, and therefore profit oriented, they ought to become more
efficient. Secondly, and at least as important, it was a way of spreading
shareholding widely among the population, and bringing Britain back to the
traditionalConservative Partyaim of ‘a property-owning democracy’, a
1950s slogan which was reintroduced. Shares in several large state monopolies
were offered for sale to institutions and members of the public, using merchant
banks and obeying both the legal and practical rules of issuing shares to raise
capital, with the government taking the profit from the sales. Special regula-
tions were introduced and what amounted to a lottery run to ensure that
thousands of minor shareholders could afford to buy at least a few shares.
Although it was initially seen as rather a gimmick, by the end of the Thatcher
era a very large minority of people who would never have thought of owning
shares in publicly quoted companies held anything from a few hundred to
several thousand shares in electricity, gas, water and telecommunications
companies. By expanding the shareholding base the Conservative Party made
it virtually impossible for its political opponents to reverse privatizations, unless
the shares became worthless (see below); indeed, many voters who would
otherwise regard themselves as firm Labour supporters are among those who
have purchased shares. The trend towards privatizations outlasted Thatcher,
Privatization