Nationalization

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Nationalization (American English), (British and Commonwealth spelling nationalisation) is the process of taking a private industry or private assets into public ownership by a national government or state.^[1] Nationalization usually refers to private assets, but may also mean assets owned by lower levels of government, such as municipalities, being transferred to be the state. The opposite of nationalization is usually privatization or de-nationalization, but may also be municipalization. Industries that are usually subject to nationalization include transport, communications, energy, banking and natural resources.

Renationalization occurs when state-owned assets are privatized and later nationalized again, often when a different political party or faction is in power. A renationalization process may also be called reverse privatization. Nationalization has been used to refer to either direct state-ownership and management of an enterprise or to a government acquiring a large controlling share of a nominally private, publicly listed corporation.

Nationalization was one of the major means advocated by reformist socialists for transitioning from capitalism to socialism. Socialist ideologies that favor nationalization are typically called state socialism. In this context, the goals of nationalization were to dispossess large capitalists and redirect the profits of industry to the public purse, as a precursor to the long-term goals of establishing worker-management and reorganizing production toward use.^[2]

Nationalized industries, charged with operating in the public interest, may be under strong political and social pressures to give much more attention to externalities. They may be obliged to operate loss-making activities where it is judged that social benefits are greater than social costs — for example, rural postal and transport services. The government has recognized these social obligations and, in some cases, provides subsidies for such non-commercial operations.

Since nationalized industries are state owned, the government is responsible for meeting any debts. The nationalized industries do not normally borrow from the domestic market other than for short-term borrowing. If they are profitable, the profit is often used to finance other state services, such as social programs and government research, which can help lower the tax burden.

Nationalization may occur with or without compensation to the former owners. Nationalization is distinguished from property redistribution in that the government retains control of nationalized property. Some nationalizations take place when a government seizes property acquired illegally. For example, in 1945 the French government seized the car-makers Renault because its owners had collaborated with the Nazi occupiers of France.^[3]

Compensation

The traditional Western stance on compensation was expressed by United States Secretary of State Cordell Hull during the 1938 Mexican nationalization of the petroleum industry that compensation should be "prompt, effective and adequate." According to this view, the nationalizing state is obligated under international law to pay the deprived party the full value of the property taken.

The opposing position has been taken mainly by developing countries, claiming that the question of compensation should be left entirely up to the sovereign state, in line with the Calvo Doctrine. Socialist states have held that no compensation is due, based on the view that the former owners acquired ownership through exploitation, or that private ownership over socialized assets is illegitimate and exploitative of employees.

In 1962, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 1803, "Permanent Sovereignty over National Resources", which states that in the event of nationalization, the owner "shall be paid appropriate compensation in accordance with international law." In doing so, the UN rejected the traditional Calvo-doctrinist view and the Communist view. The term "appropriate compensation" represents a compromise between the traditional views, taking into account the need of developing countries to pursue reform even without the ability to pay full compensation, and the Western concern for protection of private property.

In the United States, the Fifth Amendment requires just compensation if private property is taken for public use.

Political support

Social democracy
Development Humanism Age of Enlightenment French Revolution Utopian socialism Labor unionism Revolutions of 1848 Marxism Orthodox Revisionist Ethical socialism Progressivism Reformism Gradualism Frankfurt Declaration Keynesianism Welfare capitalism Third Way Modern European socialism
Ideas Social justice Democracy economic representative Labor rights Mixed economy Welfare Trade unionism Fair trade Environmental protection Negative and positive rights Secularism Social corporatism Social market economy
Variants Bernsteinism Liberal socialism Nordic model Godesberg Third Way
People Attlee Awolowo Bernstein Betancourt Bhutto Brandt Branting Crosland Curtin Daszyński Debs Douglas Ecevit González Hilferding Jaurès Junmai Katayama Lassalle Layton Lévesque MacDonald Mandela Nader Nehru Batlle y Ordóñez Palme Plekhanov Savage Thomas Williams
Organizations Social democratic parties Socialist International International Union of Socialist Youth Party of European Socialists Progressive Alliance Young European Socialists (YES) International Trade Union Confederation

In the United Kingdom after the 2nd world war, nationalization gained support by the Labour party and some social democratic parties throughout Europe.

Notable nationalizations by country

Argentina

• 1918 University Revolution and university nationalization
• 1946 Central Bank of Argentina
• 1946 Natural gas (privatized in 1992)
• 1947 Telephone network (privatized in 1990)
• 1947 Radio networks (privatized between 1980 and 1993)
• 1948 Railways (privatized between 1991 and 1999)
• 1949 Petroleum (the state oil concern, YPF, had been established in 1922; mineral resources were nationalized with Article 40 of the 1949 Constitution; the latter was abrogated in 1956, but oil was renationalized in 1958 and private firms operated afterward via leases)
• 1949 Port administration (privatized in 1992)
• 1949 Merchant marine (privatized in 1991)
• 1952 Buenos Aires Metro (operations privatized in 1994)
• 1958 Electric utilities (privatized in 1992)
• 1974 Television networks (privatized between 1982 and 1998)
• 1980 Austral Líneas Aéreas (privatized in 1987, renationalized in 2008)
• 2003 Postal service renationalized (state-owned between 1949 and 1997)
• 2006 AySA, the water utility serving Buenos Aires (its state-owned precursor, OSN, was established in 1912 and privatized in 1993)
• 2008 Aerolíneas Argentinas renationalized (state-owned between 1949 and 1990)
• 2008 Pension funds (transferred to ANSES)
• 2010 FAdeA (state-owned between 1927 and 1995)
• 2012 YPF renationalized (state-owned between 1922 and 1993)
• 2013 Metrogas (part of the Gas del Estado concern privatized in 1992)
• 2015 Railways^[4] (renationalization of commuter lines began under the auspices of SOFSE in 2013)^[5]

Australia

• 1948 The government attempted to nationalize the banks, but the act was declared unconstitutional by the High Court of Australia in the case Bank of New South Wales v Commonwealth.^[6]

Bolivia

Most utilities were nationally owned before being privatized in 1994.

• 2006 On May 1, 2006, newly elected Bolivian president Evo Morales announced plans to nationalize the country's natural gas industry; foreign-based companies were given six months to renegotiate their existing contracts.
• 2008 On May 1, 2008, the nationalization of Bolivia's leading telecommunications company Entel was completed, previously having been owned by Telecom Italia.^[7]
• 2010 On May 1, 2010, the government nationalized the country's main hydroelectric plant, thereby assuming control over most of Bolivia's electrical generation and end-user sales.^[7]
• 2012 On May 1, 2012, the Morales government nationalized power grid operator Transportadora de Electricidad (TDE), until then 99.94% owned by Red Eléctrica de España. TDE owns and runs 73% of the power lines in Bolivia.^[7]

Canada

• 1918 Canadian National Railways, created from several systems nationwide following their bankruptcy during and after World War I, and since privatised in 1995. (Air Canada, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Marine Atlantic and Via Rail (still government-owned) were all subsidiaries of the company at one time)
• 1944 Hydro-Québec, first created through partial nationalisation of electricity concerns around Montreal in Quebec by the Liberal government of Adélard Godbout. During the Quiet Revolution of the early 1960s, the remaining 11 privately owned electricity companies in Quebec were nationalised by the Liberal government of Jean Lesage.
• 1975 Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan, Province of Saskatchewan nationalised part of the potash industry. Many potash producers agreed to sell to the government instead of being nationalised.

Channel Islands

• 2003 Aurigny Air Services was bought by the States of Guernsey to keep precious routes from the island to London.

Chile

• 1972 Chilean nationalization of copper mining industry by the government of Salvador Allende.

Croatia

On the break-up of Yugoslavia, The HDZ government nationalized private agricultural property and rezoned it under the guise of forest statesmanship, when their publicly professed agenda was to only complete the nationalization of the communists. Much of this land is in the process of being reinstated and the model rethought.

Cuba

After the Cuban Revolution of 1959 the Castro government gradually expropriated all foreign-owned private companies, most of which were owned by U.S. corporations and individuals.

From 1966-68, the Castro government nationalized all remaining privately owned businesses in Cuba, down to the level of street vendors.

Castro had offered bonds at 4.5% interest over twenty years to U.S. companies, but U.S. ambassador Philip Bonsal requested the compensation up front and rejected the offer.^[8] A minor amount of $1.3 million, was paid to U.S. interests before deteriorating relations ended all cooperation between the two governments.^[8] The US established a registry of claims against the Cuban government, ultimately developing files on 5,911 specific companies. The Cuban government has refused to discuss the compensation of U.S. claims and the US government continues to insist on compensation for U.S. companies.

Czechoslovakia

• 1945 Large manufacturing enterprises.
• 1948 All manufacturing enterprises.

Egypt

• 1956 On July 26, 1956 Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal Company.

France

Nationalization dates back to the 'regies' or state monopolies organized under the Ancien Régime, for example, the monopoly on tobacco sales. Communications companies France Telecom and La Poste are relics of the state postal and telecommunications monopolies.

There was a major expansion of the nationalised sector following World War II.^[9] A second wave followed in 1982.

• 1938 Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Français (SNCF) (originally a 51% State holding, increased to 100% in 1982)^[9]
• 1945 Several nationalizations in France, including most important banks and Renault.^[9] The firm was seized for Louis Renault's alleged collaboration with Nazi Germany, although this condemnation was without judgement and after his death, making this case remarkable and rare. A later judgement (1949) admitted that Renault's plant never collaborated. Renault was successful but unprofitable whilst nationalised and remains successful today, after having been privatized in 1996.
• 1946 Charbonnages de France, Electricite de France (EdF), Gaz de France (GdF)
• 1982 A large part of the banking sector and industries of strategic importance to the state, especially in electronics and communications, were nationalized under the new president François Mitterrand and the PS-led government. Many of those companies were privatized again after 1986.

The Paris regional transport operator, Regie Autonome des Transports Parisiens (RATP), can also be counted as a nationalised industry.

Germany

The railways were nationalised after World War I. Partial privatisation of Deutsche Bahn is currently underway, as of 2008.

Most enterprises in East Germany were nationalised following World War II. After reunification, an agency, Treuhand, was established to return them to private ownership. However, due to structural and economic problems inherent in the previous regime, many of these had to be liquidated.

• 2008 Renationalization of the "Bundesdruckerei" (Federal Print Office), which had been privatized in 2001.

Greece

• 1974 Nationalization of Olympic Airlines, main airline of Greece. Its founder, Aristotle Onassis, sold all his shares to the Greek state.
• 2011 Proton Bank is effectively nationalized in the midst of the Greek financial crisis

Iceland

• 2008 Renationalization of Iceland's largest commercial banks: Kaupþing, Landsbanki, Glitnir and Icebank.
• 2009 Nationalization of Straumur Investment Bank and the savings bank SPRON.

India

The nationalised banks were credited by some, including Home minister P. Chidambaram, to have helped the Indian economy withstand the global financial crisis of 2007-2009.^[10][11]

• 1949 (1 January) Reserve Bank of India nationalised (Ref.- Reserve Bank of India chronology of events). The Reserve Bank of India was state-owned at the time of Indian independence.
• 1953 Air India under the Air Corporations Act 1953.
• 1955 Imperial Bank of India and its subsidiaries (State Bank of India and its subsidiaries)
• 1969 Nationalization of 14 Indian banks.
• 1972 Nationalisation and restructuring of 106 insurance companies into four
• 1973 Coal industry and Oil companies
• 1980 Another six banks nationalized

Iran

• 1953 Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in Iran.

Ireland

Railways were nationalised in the 1940s as Coras Iompair Eireann.

• 2007 On August 3, 2007, the Irish government were offered a stake in Eircom's copper network infrastructure.^[12] Ireland's telephone networks were privatised in 1999.
• 2009 On January 16, 2009, the Irish Government nationalised Anglo Irish Bank to secure the bank's viability.^[13]
• 2010 State-owned Anglo Irish Bank is to take majority control of one of Ireland's largest companies QUINN group bringing it under Public ownership.^[14]

Israel

• 1983 Nationalization of the major banks: Bank Hapoalim, Bank Leumi, Discount Bank, Mezrachi Bank due to the Bank stock crisis that struck in 1983.

Italy

• 1905 The railways were nationalised as Ferrovie dello Stato.

The regime of Benito Mussolini extended nationalisation, creating the Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale (IRI) as a State holding company for struggling firms, including the car maker Alfa Romeo. A parallel body, Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi (Eni) was set up to manage State oil and gas interests.

Japan

• 1906 Railway Nationalization Act of nationalized 17 railway companies to form the nationwide railway network that was later called Japanese National Railways.
• 2003 Resona Holdings was effectively nationalized after the bank's capital adequacy went too low.
• 2010 Japan Airlines was nationalized after its bankruptcy.
• 2012 Tokyo Electric Power Company was nationalized after Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.

Lithuania

In 2011 Snoras bank was nationalized.

Latvia

In 2008 Parex Bank was nationalized.

Malta

• 1974 Bank of Valletta is founded following nationalisation of the National Bank of Malta

Mexico

• 1938 The Expropriation of the Petroleum Industry: President Lázaro Cárdenas issued a decree that the petroleum companies were in rebellion against the government and under the powers granted him under the Expropriation Act passed by the Congress of Mexico in late 1936 expropriated them. March 19, 1938, union personnel took control of the properties.^[15]
• 1982 The nationalization of the Mexican banking system made by President José López Portillo in response to the debt crisis. Under the Carlos Salinas de Gortari presidency (1988–1994) the nationalized banks were privatized very rapidly between 1991 and 1992 to Mexican family groups privatized.^[16]

The Netherlands

• 2008 The state nationalizes the Dutch activities of Belgian-Dutch banking and insurance company Fortis, which had come in solvability problems due to the international financial crisis.

• 2013 SNS Bank is nationalized. It had been in trouble for more than a year, not able to find a private investor. On February 1st 2013, Jeroen Dijselbloem (Dutch minister of Finance) declares SNS nationalized.

New Zealand

• 1945 The Bank of New Zealand was nationalised. It was later sold to the National Australia Bank in 1992.
• 2001 Government purchased the Auckland railway network from Tranz Rail.
• 2003 The Labour Government took an 80% stake in near-bankrupt national air carrier Air New Zealand in exchange for a large financial infusion.
• 2004 The rest of the country's rail network is purchased from Toll New Zealand, formerly Tranz Rail. A new state owned enterprise, ONTRACK, was established to maintain the rail infrastructure.
• 2008 The rolling stock and ferries of Toll New Zealand was purchased, bringing the rail system under state ownership, renamed KiwiRail.

Pakistan

• 1972: On January 2, 1972, Prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, after East Pakistan broke away, announced the nationalisation of all major industries, including iron and steel, heavy engineering, heavy electricals, petrochemicals, cement and public utilities except textiles industry and lands.^[17]

• 2011: On December 15, 2011, Prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani nationalized all privately held shares in PIA, Railways, and Steel Mills, in order to protect capital flight of the state-owned enterprises.^[18] Pakistan Railways as well as Pakistan International Airlines.^[19] The current nationalization programme remains intact to restructured and made profitable while remaining within government ownership.^[19]

Philippines

During the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, important companies such as Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT), Philippine Airlines, Meralco and the Manila Hotel were nationalized. Other companies were sometimes absorbed into these government-owned corporations, as well as other companies, such as National Power Corporation (Napocor) and the Philippine National Railways, which in their own right are monopolies (exceptions are Meralco and the Manila Hotel). Today, these companies have been reprivatized and some, such as PLDT and Philippine Airlines, have been de-monopolized. Others, like government-owned and controlled corporation Napocor, are in the process of privatization.

Poland

• 1946 Following World War II the government nationalized all enterprises with over 50 employees.

Portugal

• 1974 In the years following the Carnation Revolution, the Junta de Salvação Nacional and Provisional Governments nationalized all the banking, insurance, petrol and industrial companies. Among those companies were Companhia União Fabril (CUF), the assets of the Champalimaud family and SONAE. Along with the telecommunications companies, which were state-owned even before the Revolution, many of the nationalized companies were reprivatized in the 1980s and 1990s. In the agricultural sector, according to government estimates, about 900,000 hectares (2,200,000 acres) of agricultural land were occupied between April 1974 and December 1975 in the name of land reform; about 32% of the occupations were ruled illegal. In January 1976, the government pledged to restore the illegally occupied land to its owners, and in 1977, it promulgated the Land Reform Review Law. Restoration of illegally occupied land began in 1978.^[20][21]

• 2008: BPN - Banco Português de Negócios bank nationalised to prevent its collapse.

Romania

• 1948 With the Decree 119 of June 11, 1948, the new communist regime nationalised all private companies and their assets leading to the transformation of the economy from a market economy to a planned economy.
• 1950 With the Decree 92 of April 19, 1950, a huge number of private houses and lands are confiscated.

Russia

• 1998 The Yeltsin government began seizing Gazprom assets, claiming that the company owed back taxes. Privatization of Gazprom from the mid-1990s had been reduced to 38.37% with the intention of achieving full privatization. However, the stake of the Russian Government in Gazprom has since been increased to 50% with Vladimir Putin's plan to increase the stake to a controlling position. Gazprom is also buying up both Russian and other international utility companies.

• 2013 The space industry is being renationalized. The government created a new corporation—United Rocket and Space Corporation—in August 2013 because of a string of recent rocket launch failures. According to Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, "The failure-prone space sector is so troubled that it needs state supervision to overcome its problems."^[22] The October 2013 plan calls for re-nationalization of the space industry, with sweeping reforms including a new unified command structure and reducing redundant capabilities.^[23]

Saudi Arabia

• The government nationalized the oil producer company Aramco in 1980.

South Korea

• 1946 USAMGIK nationalized all railroad companies and made Department of Transportation. This now becomes Korail.

Soviet Union

• 1918 All manufacturing enterprises, many retailing enterprises, any private enterprises, the whole bank system, agrarian sector, others. Later the government of Lenin introduced the New Economic Policy that shifted the country somewhat towards market economics until the end of the revolutionary period and Stalin's acquisition of power.

Spain

• 1941 Railways were nationalised, as RENFE, in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War.
• 1983 Nationalization without compensation of Rumasa. Separate business were later privatized.

Sri Lanka

• 1958 The Government nationalised bus transport, creating the Ceylon Transport Board. Colombo Port was nationalised the same year.
• 1961 The local subsidiaries of the foreign-owned petroleum companies Caltex, Esso and Shell had formed a cartel, to break which they were nationalised. The Insurance companies and the Bank of Ceylon were nationalised in the same year.
• 1971 Graphite mines nationalised.
• 1972 Locally owned tea and rubber plantations were nationalised under the Land Reform law.
• 1975 Sterling plantation companies (owned by British plantation companies) were nationalised.
• 2009 Seylan Bank nationalised to prevent its collapse.
• 2011 The Expropriation Act was passed. The government will take over "underperforming or underutilized assets of 37 enterprises".^[24]

Sweden

• 1939-1948 Nationalisation of most of the private railway companies.
• 1957 The mining company LKAB is nationalized. The state had owned 50% of the corporation's shares, with options to buy the remainder, since 1907.^[25]
• 1992 A minor part of the banking sector is nationalized.^[26]

Tanzania

The Arusha Declaration was proclaimed in 1967 by President Julius Nyerere, which aimed to achieve self-reliance through nationalising key sectors of the economy such as banks, large industries and plantations were therefore nationalised. This failed, worsening Tanzania's economic problems until foreign aid and liberalisation took effect in the 1980s and 1990s.^[27]

Turkey

After the abolition of Capitulations of the Ottoman Empire by the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), foreign concessions were suppressed, rail transport, electric power generation and distribution, telephone network and other big industrial firms were nationalized by Turkish government between 1928 and 1940.^[28]

United Kingdom

• 1868 Nationalisation of inland telegraphs under the GPO^[29]
• 1875 Suez Canal Company - The Egyptian share in the company was bought by the government.
• 1912 Nationalisation of inland telephone services under the GPO, apart from Portsmouth, Hull, Guernsey, and Jersey. The Portsmouth telephone service was nationalised the following year.
• 1916 Liquor Trade - The nationalisation of pubs and breweries in Carlisle, Gretna, Cromarty and Enfield under the State Management Scheme; mainly an attempt to restricting alcohol consumption by armaments factory workers. The scheme was privatised by asset transfer in 1973.^[30]
• 1926 Central Electricity Board introduced under Electricity (Supply) Act 1926 established the National Grid and set up a national standard for electricity supply.
• 1927 British Broadcasting Company (a privately owned company) became British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), a public corporation operating under a Royal Charter.
• 1933 London Transport
• 1938 Nationalisation of UK Coal Royalties under the Coal Commission^[31]
• 1939 British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), later British Airways (BA) - combining the private British Airways Ltd. and the state owned Imperial Airways
• 1939 At the outset of World War II, much of British industry was subjected to State regulation or control, although not nationalised as such.
• 1943 North of Scotland Hydro-Electricity Board
• 1946 Coal industry under the National Coal Board (later British Coal); Bank of England - the latter had had private shareholders who were bought out by the state.^[32]
• 1947 Central Electricity Generating Board and area electricity boards, Cable & Wireless Ltd - the latter had had private shareholders who were bought out by the state.
• 1948 National rail, inland (not marine) water transport, some road haulage, some road passenger transport and Thomas Cook & Son under the British Transport Commission. Separate elements operated as British Railways, British Road Services, and British Waterways, also health services created (as England and Wales, for Scotland and for Northern Ireland) taking over a mixture of previously local authority, private commercial and charitable organisations.
• 1949 Local authority gas supply undertakings in England, Scotland and Wales
• 1951 Iron and Steel Industry (denationalised by Churchill's following Conservative Government)^[33]
• 1967 British Steel
• 1969 National Bus Company, combining former interests of the British Transport Commission with others acquired from the British Electric Traction group.
• 1969 Post Office Corporation created
• 1971 Rolls-Royce (1971) Ltd - The strategically important aero-engine part of the recently bankrupt Rolls Royce Limited.
• 1973 Water Act 1973 nationalises local authority water supply undertakings in England and Wales
• 1973 British Gas plc Corporation created, replacing regional gas boards.
• 1974 British Petroleum - the combination of a 50% stake bought by Winston Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty after World War I with around a 25% stake acquired by the Bank of England from Burmah Oil made the government directly or indirectly BP's majority shareholder, though commercial independence was maintained. The shares were all sold during the 1980s.
• 1975 National Enterprise Board - a State holding company for full or partial ownership of industrial undertakings
• 1976 British Leyland Motor Corporation - became British Leyland upon nationalization. Later became known simply as the holding company "BL Ltd", it was later reorganised into several standalone businesses - the best known being Austin Rover, Leyland Trucks, Freight Rover, Land Rover and Jaguar.
• 1977 British Aerospace - combining the major aircraft companies British Aircraft Corporation, Hawker Siddeley and others. British Shipbuilders - combining the major shipbuilding companies including Cammell Laird, Govan Shipbuilders, Swan Hunter, Yarrow Shipbuilders
• 1981 British Telecom (later styled as BT) created, taking control of telecommunications services from the General Post Office (GPO)
• 1984 Johnson Matthey - purchased for a nominal sum of £1 by the Thatcher government ^[34]
• 1997 Docklands Light Railway - John Prescott announced to the 1997 Labour Party Conference that he had nationalised this, although it was already in public hands anyway.^[34]
• 2001 Railtrack - The owner and operator of the railway infrastructure, Railtrack, was not nationalised as such. However, its replacement Network Rail, whilst not a state-owned company, has no shareholders (company limited by guarantee) and is underwritten by the state. Prior to this the government began to make use of a residual shareholding of 0.2% (including voting rights) in Railtrack Group Plc left over from the original sale.^[35]
• 2008 Northern Rock - announced by Alistair Darling, Chancellor of the Exchequer on 17 February 2008 as 'a temporary measure'. The bank will be run at 'arm's length' as a commercial business and sold to a private buyer in the future.^[36]
• 2008 Bradford & Bingley (mortgage book only) - announced by Alistair Darling, Chancellor of the Exchequer on 29 September 2008. The loans part of the company was nationalised, while the commercial bank was sold.^[37]
• 2008 In October, the Royal Bank of Scotland, and the newly merged HBOS-Lloyds TSB was partly nationalised. The Government took approximately 60% of RBS (later increased to 70%, then 80%) and 40% of HBOS-Lloyds TSB as part of the £500bn bank rescue package. The Lloyds Bank and TSB businesses were operationally demerged in 2013 in preparation for a full demerger and reprivatisation.
• 2009 On 13 November, Directly Operated Railways, a government company, took over the East Coast Main Line railway franchise that National Express had bought in 2007 for £1.4 billion, a sum originally to be paid over seven years. The nationalised service operates as East Coast and includes services from London to York and Edinburgh. It has been stated by the government that their control is a temporary measure, initially to last two years.
• 2013 In December it was acknowledged that Network Rail would be reclassified as a "public sector body"^[38] in 2014 with its financial liabilities now formally included as part of the national debt. Much debate continues however, whether this still constitutes "nationalisation" in a broader context.

Nationalization was a key feature of the first post World War II Labour government, from 1945 to 1951 under Clement Attlee. The coal and steel industries were just two of many industries or services to be nationalised, while the formation of the National Health Service in 1948 entitled everyone to free healthcare. The subsequent Conservative governments led by Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan, Alec Douglas-Home and Edward Heath allowed practically all of the nationalized industries and services to remain in public ownership, as did subsequent Labour prime ministers Harold Wilson and James Callaghan. However, the election victory of Margaret Thatcher's Conservatives in 1979 saw the vast majority of nationalized industries, services and utilities privatized within a decade. The Labour Party in opposition, led by Michael Foot and later Neil Kinnock, initially opposed privatization, but the party's commitment to nationalization had been abandoned by the time it swept back into government with a landslide in the 1997 election under Tony Blair.^[39] However, in February 2008, Blair's successor Gordon Brown nationalized the failing Northern Rock bank during the Great Recession.^[40] The much larger Royal Bank of Scotland and Halifax Bank of Scotland were part nationalized for the same reason in October of that year. After nearly four years in public ownership, Northern Rock was sold to Virgin Money and Royal Bank of Scotland agreed a branch sale to the Santander Group in November 2011. However, Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds remain in public ownership five years later and in November 2012 the Public Accounts Committee warned that it could be many years before the banks are sold and the £66 billion so far invested in these banks may never be recovered.^[41]

British assets nationalised by other countries

• 1940s Argentine railways
• 1953 British Petroleum's Iranian assets (actually a nationalisation of part of a part-nationalised company)
• 1956 The Egyptian Government nationalised the Suez Canal, owned by the Suez Canal Company which was part owned by the British government.
• 1962 The Sri Lanka Government nationalised the assets of the partly British-owned Royal Dutch Shell company.
• 1975 The Sri Lanka Government nationalised the assets of the British-owned plantation companies.

United States

• 1917: All U.S. railroads were nationalized as the Railroad Administration during World War I as a wartime measure. The United States Railroad Administration was returned to private ownership in 1920.
• 1939: Organization of the Tennessee Valley Authority entailed the nationalization of the Tennessee Electric Power Company.
• 1971: The National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) is a government-owned corporation created in 1971 for the express purpose of relieving American railroads of their legal obligation to provide inter-city passenger rail service. The (primarily) freight railroads had petitioned to abandon passenger service repeatedly in the decades leading up to Amtrak's formation.
• 1976: The Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail) was created to take over the operations of six bankrupt rail lines operating primarily in the Northeast; Conrail was privatized in 1987. Initial plans for Conrail would have made it a truly nationalized system like that during World War I, but an alternate proposal by the Association of American Railroads won out.
• 1980s: Resolution Trust Corporation seized control of hundreds of failed Savings & Loans.
• 2001: In response to the September 11 attacks, the airport security industry was nationalized and put under the authority of the Transportation Security Administration.
• 2008: Some economists consider the government's takeover of the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation and Federal National Mortgage Association to have been nationalization (or renationalization).^[42][43] The conservatorship model used with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is looser and more temporary than nationalization.^[44]
• 2009: Some economists consider the government's actions through the Troubled Asset Relief Program with regards to Citigroup to have been a partial nationalization.^[45] Proposal was made that banks like Citigroup be brought under a conservatorship model similar to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, that some of their "good assets" be dropped into newly created "good bank" subsidiaries (presumably under new management), and the remaining "bad assets" be left to be managed under the supervision of a conservatorship structure.^[44] The government's actions with regard to General Motors in replacing the CEO with a government-approved CEO is likewise being considered as nationalization.^[46][47] On June 1, 2009, General Motors filed for bankruptcy, with the government investing up to $50 billion and taking 60% ownership in the company. President Barack Obama stated that the nationalization was temporary, saying, "We are acting as reluctant shareholders because that is the only way to help GM succeed"^[48]

Venezuela

• 2007 On May 1, 2007, the government stripped the world's biggest oil companies of operational control over massive Orinoco Belt crude projects, a controversial component in President Hugo Chávez's nationalization drive.
• 2008 On April 3, 2008, Chávez ordered the nationalization of the cement industry.^[49]
• 2008 On April 9, 2008, Chávez ordered the nationalization of Venezuelan steel mill Sidor, in which Luxembourg-based Ternium currently holds a 60% stake. Sidor employees and the Government hold a 20% stake respectively.^[50]
• 2008 On August 19, 2008, Chávez ordered the take-over of a cement plant owned and operated by Cemex, an international cement producer. While shares of Cemex fell on the New York Stock Exchange, the cement plant comprises only about 5% of the company's business, and is not expected to adversely affect the company's ability to produce in other markets. Chávez has been looking to nationalize the concrete and steel industries of his country to meet home building and infrastructure goals.^[51]
• 2009 On February 28, 2009, Chávez ordered the army to take over all rice processing and packaging plants.^[52]
• 2010 On January 20, 2010, Chávez signed an ordinance to nationalize six supermarkets under the system of retail stores of a French company because of increasing price and speculation hoarding illicit.^[53]
• 2010 On June 24, 2010, Venezuela announced the intention to nationalize oil drilling rigs belonging to the U.S. company Helmerich & Payne.^[54]
• 2010 On October 25, 2010, Chávez announced that the government was nationalizing two U.S.-owned Owens-Illinois glass-manufacturing plants.^[55]
• 2010 On October 31, 2010, Chávez said his government will take over the Sidetur steel manufacturing plant. Sidetur is owned by Vivencia, which had two mineral plants appropriated by the government in 2008.^[55]

Vietnam

• According to the Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in 1980, land ownership of farmers disappeared, the State owned land across the country and people have the right to temporary use of land, as a slow result of the Land reform in North Vietnam from 1953 to 1956.^[56][57]
• After the Fall of Saigon in 1975, the government nationalized nearly all the property of the "landlords" and "comprador" in South Vietnam, property of the church and of the government of South Vietnam. All private enterprise was nationalized without compensation down to the street vendors, however "shadow companies" continued to operate.

Zimbabwe

• Zimbabwe has nationalized its food distribution infrastructure.

Other countries

• Nationalization of the oil industry in numerous countries, including Libya, Kuwait, Mexico, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela.

See also

• Compulsory purchase
• Constitutional economics
• Eminent domain
• Confiscation
• Deprivatization
• Government agency
• Government-owned corporation
• Planned economy
• Privatization - the reverse process
• Public ownership
• Railway nationalization
• Reprivatization
• Sequestration
• State capitalism
• State sector
• Socialization (economics) - the process of making cooperative in management or ownership

References

Bibliography

On banks nationalization

• Dougherty, Carter, Stopping a Financial Crisis, the Swedish Way, The New York Times," September 23, 2008.

• Hilferding, Rudolf (1981) Finance Capital: A Study of the Latest Phase of Capitalist Development (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul), p. 234. ISBN 0-7100-0618-7, ISBN 978-0-7100-0618-9

• La Porta, Rafael, Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes, Andrei Shleifer, Government Ownership of Banks, The Journal of Finance, vol. 57, No. 1 (February 2002), 265-301.

• La Botz, Dan (2008) The Financial Crisis: Will the U.S. Nationalize the Banks? Monthly Review 28 September 2008

• Vladimir Lenin (1917) Nationalisation of the Banks, published in October 1917 in pamphlet form

• Lohr, Steve, From Japan's Slump in 1990s, Lessons for U.S., The New York Times, February 9, 2008.

• Maxfield, Sylvia, The International Political Economy of Bank Nationalization: Mexico in Comparative Perspective, Latin American Research Review, Vol. 27, No. 1 (1992), pp. 75–103.

• Myers, Margaret G., The Nationalization of Banks in France, Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 64, No. 2 (June 1949), pp. 189–210.
• Political / Nationalization risk resources directory [www.ipoliticalrisk.com]

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nationalism.

Look up nationalization in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• The importance of public banking - article on Indian public sector banks
• Time for Permanent Nationalization by economist Fred Moseley in Dollars & Sense magazine, January/February 2009
• The Corporate Governance of Banks - a concise discussion of concepts and evidence
•  Albert Emil Davies (1922). "Nationalization". Encyclopædia Britannica (12th ed.). 

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