created AMTRAK in 1970 to keep at least some semblance of a passenger
railway network going in the USA.
Forms of nationalization vary considerably, but they usually involve the
creation of a monopoly run as much as possible on ordinary commercial lines,
and with the structure and hierarchy of a commercial enterprise, but with the
controlling body (the equivalent to a board of directors) being appointed
directly by the government. The extent of direct governmental influence and
control on day-to-day matters also varies, as does the general remit given to the
management. This latter is usually to attempt to break even, although govern-
ments are usually prepared to subsidize public enterprises which make losses,
which are sometimes substantial.
The first wave of major nationalizations in Europe took place after the
Second World War. In the United Kingdom this was a direct intention of the
1945 Labour government, but similar or even greater nationalization policies
were applied in France and Italy, mainly to facilitate industrial reconstruction
after the war. In France, for example, both car manufacture and banking were
extensively nationalized by post-war governments, whereas in Britain, while
the central bank, the Bank of England, was nationalized (and, ironically, not
returned to independence until the 1997 victory of a Labour government), the
main focus was on utilities and natural monopoly industries.
Since the 1980s there has been a world-wide trend towards denationaliza-
tion, orprivatization. In the UK this was central to the policies ofThatch-
erism, and not only nationalized industries, such as steel, but public utilities
such as water, gas and electricity, were sold either to institutions or through
sales of shares to individual citizens. Although privatization was generally
opposed by the Labour Party, and even by some figures on the right (Harold
Macmillan, a previous Conservative prime minister, likened it to selling off the
family silver), the Blair government’s belief in theThird Wayappeared to
exclude the possibility of any renationalizations. Indeed, the prospect of the
privatization of the postal service was raised on a number of occasions.
However, the belief that the British rail system (nationalized in the late
1940s and privatized by the Conservatives in the 1990s) should be renationa-
lized became increasingly popular in the early 2000s following a series of
accidents and the insolvency of the company established to own and manage
the system’s infrastructure.
European socialism in general became somewhat disillusioned with natio-
nalization in the 1990s and 2000s, as its form has tended not to affect the work
conditions or financial rewards of ordinary workers at all; thus the alienating
impact attributed to private ownership is in no way reduced. This in part is
why more radical socialists have tended to stress worker participation, or
industrial democracy. Following the collapse ofcommunismin Eastern
Europe and the former Soviet Union many of these countries embarked on
Nationalization