EXAMINING THE U.K EXPERIENCE OF NATIONALIZATION BETWEEN 1946 AND 1986 Essay

EXAMINING THE U.K EXPERIENCE OF NATIONALIZATION BETWEEN 1946 AND 1986 AND INDICATING WHAT FACTORS IGHT BE CONSIDERED AS RELEVANT WHEN MAKING A DECISION TO NATIO - Essay lesson(Cairncross, 1986) The fragmented coal industries were nationalised and so were the railway, steel and telecommunication industries. Utilities were also nationalised by the Labour government. (Tomlinson, 1982 Durbin, 1985)The ideological land for nationalisation in 1946 U.K. could be summed up in Attlees words a mixed economy developing toward socialism.... The doctrines of abundance, of copious employment, and of social security require the transfer to public ownership of certain study economic forces and the planned control in the public interest of many other economic activities. (quoted by Yergin and Stanislaw, 1998 p.27)Tomlinson (n.d.) on the other hand views the ideological basis for nationalisation in the UK as reflective of two different epochs the 1930s-1940s reflecting the socialist planned econo my paradigm, and the 1950s-1970s reflecting a social democratic economic paradigm. Thus, Attlees stack of nationalisation in the UK could be categorised under Tomlinsons 1930s-1940s socialist ideological era.It was held that the fragmented nature of privately owned industries (like the coal industry which and so provided about 90 per cent of the UKs energy needs) were inefficient, had experienced under-investment, and lacked scale. (Hannah, 2004) Nationalisation was thus seen as a medium for pulling together resources and implementation of fresh technologies on a national scale for the functioning of industries. This, it was envisaged, would result in efficient running of industries culminating in the achievement of the national objectives of economic development and growth, full employment, and justice and equality. (Yergin and Stanislaw, 1998 p. 25 Robson, 1962) Nationalisation was thus also a means for salvaging a non-performing and failing private sector so as to weapons reso urces for economic development. It can be argued that nationalisation became a