In this 1995 study of the causes of nationalisation, experts in British industrial history analyse the public ownership debates, and explain how many well-informed and moderate groups came to believe that the public ownership of certain major industries would be economically beneficial. During Attlee's Labour governments of 1945–51 a number of important industries, including coal, electricity, the railways and gas were taken into public ownership, and legislation was passed for the nationalisation of the steel industry. It was then argued that nationalisation would lead to an improvement in the efficiency of these key sectors, on which the rest of British industry depended for inputs. This study examines the historical issues and uses detailed case studies of industries to explore the public ownership debate.
In this 1995 study of the causes of nationalisation, experts in British industrial history analyse the public ownership debates, and explain how many well-informed and moderate groups came to believe that the public ownership of certain major industries would be economically beneficial. During Attlee's Labour governments of 1945–51 a number of important industries, including coal, electricity, the railways and gas were taken into public ownership, and legislation was passed for the nationalisation of the steel industry. It was then argued that nationalisation would lead to an improvement in the efficiency of these key sectors, on which the rest of British industry depended for inputs. This study examines the historical issues and uses detailed case studies of industries to explore the public ownership debate.
This 2005 book is a comparative history of the economic organisation of energy, telecommunications and transport in Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It examines the role that private and public enterprise have played in the construction and operation of the railways, electricity, gas and water supply, tramways, coal, oil and natural gas industries, telegraph, telephone, computer networks and other modern telecommunications. The book begins with the arrival of the railways in the 1830s, charts the development of arms' length regulation, municipalisation and nationalisation, and ends on the eve of privatisation in the 1980s. Robert Millward argues that the role of ideology, especially in the form of debates about socialism and capitalism, has been exaggerated. Instead the driving forces in changes in economic organisation were economic and technological factors and the book traces their influence in shaping the pattern of regulation and ownership of these key sectors
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the state emerged as a major player in the economies of the Western World.This important new volume provides an economic history for the period 1815-1939 of state
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the state emerged as a major player in the economies of the Western World.This important new volume provides an economic history for the period 1815-1939 of state
After a quarter century of almost general condemnation and rebuttal of the entire nationalization experience, it appears that there are second thoughts about governmental direct intervention in the ec