The Political Economy of Nationalisation in Britain, 1920-1950

In this modern study of the causes of nationalization, experts in British industrial history analyze 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 nationalization of the steel industry. It was then argued that nationalization would lead to an improvement in the efficiency of these key sectors, on which the rest of British industry depended for inputs. Today, such a policy would be almost unthinkable. This study examines the historical issues and uses detailed case studies of industries to explore the public ownership debate.