The Politics of Privatisation in Western Europe

Book Cover......Page 1
Title......Page 2
Copyright......Page 3
Contents......Page 4
Notes on Contributors......Page 6
PREFACE......Page 8
The Politics of Industrial Privatisation in Western Europe: An Overview......Page 10
1. FORMS OF PRIVATISATION......Page 11
2. THE MOTIVES AND AMBITIONS OF THE PRIVATISERS......Page 13
3. THE PUBLIC SECTOR IN WESTERN EUROPE......Page 18
4. The Political, Legal, and Institutional Parameters of Privatisation......Page 22
5. THE FINANCIAL PARAMETERS OF PRIVATISATION......Page 27
6. THE ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL IMPACT OF PRIVATISATION......Page 29
NOTES......Page 35
The United Kingdom: Privatisation and its Political Context......Page 38
THE BRITISH CULTURAL CONTEXT......Page 39
THE UK PRIVATISATION PROGRAMME......Page 42
Limited Horizons: Eliminating the Fringes......Page 43
Growing Ambition: Denationalising the Monopolies......Page 44
Finishing the Job......Page 48
People’s Capitalism......Page 49
Instruments or Objectives......Page 50
Structure of Government......Page 51
NOTES......Page 52
THE EXTENT OF PRIVATISATION: OBJECTIVES AND IMPLEMENTATION......Page 56
THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF PRIVATISATION AND THEIR UNDERLYING LOGIC......Page 58
THE RESULTS......Page 63
NOTES......Page 66
THE SIZE AND STRUCTURE OF THE NATIONALISED SECTOR IN WEST GERMANY......Page 68
1959–65: Privatisation for Popular Capitalism......Page 72
1983–87: SYMBOLIC PRIVATISATION POLICIES......Page 73
1987: ‘Soft Deregulation’ in place of Privatisation of the Postal Services and Telecommunications ?......Page 76
THE TIMIDITY OF THE PRIVATISATION PROCESS IN WEST GERMANY: THE REASONS......Page 77
NOTES......Page 78
THE ARGUMENTS FOR PRIVATISATION......Page 80
REACTIONS TO THE GOVERNMENT’S PROPOSALS......Page 81
PUBLIC UTILITY PRIVATISATION......Page 83
PRIVATISATION OF INDUSTRY......Page 86
THE EUROPEAN CONTEXT......Page 87
NOTES......Page 90
Recent Acceleration of Privatisation......Page 92
The Procedures for Denationalisation......Page 93
Beneficiaries of Denationalisation......Page 94
The Complexity of the Public Sector......Page 95
The Goals of the Public Firms......Page 96
Assessing the performance of the public sector......Page 97
Some examples of attempts at privatisation......Page 100
CONCLUSION......Page 101
NOTES......Page 103
NATIONALISATION AND PRIVATISATION UNTIL THE 1980s......Page 106
MAKING PRIVATISATION AN ISSUE IN THE 1980s......Page 108
Economic performance of nationalised industries and the public perception......Page 109
THE PRIVATISATION DEBATE......Page 111
THE PRACTICE OF PRIVATISATION......Page 115
CONCLUSION......Page 117
NOTES......Page 118
THE PRIVATISATION PROGRAMME......Page 122
THE PRIVATISATION PARADOX......Page 124
COUNTER-ARGUMENTS......Page 127
HIDDEN PRIVATISATION......Page 128
CONCLUSION......Page 130
NOTES......Page 131
The Triumph of Pragmatism: Nationalisation and Privatisation in Sweden*......Page 134
PRELIMINARY OVERVIEW......Page 135
THE POLITICS OF COMPROMISE......Page 136
EXPANSION IN THE 1970s......Page 137
RESTRUCTURING AND PRIVATISATION IN THE 1980s......Page 138
THE LIMITED NATURE OF PRIVATISATION......Page 141
WHY PRIVATISATION?......Page 142
NOTES......Page 143
ABSTRACTS......Page 146
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY......Page 150