This book confronts some of the most important questions related to liberalization, regulation, and the role of the nation state in an increasingly international economy. In the face of powerful transitional pressures for change, to what extent are states able to maintain stable institutional frameworks? Do different domestic structures generate dissimilar patterns of policy-making and economic performance? How important are past institutional choices to subsequent reform? The author addresses these questions through a study of the transformations of a strategic economic sector, telecommunications, in Britain and France over the past three decades. It analyses the theoretical strengths and weaknesses of various models of public policy formation and, the role and reform of national institutions and the continuing role of the nation state.

Originally published in 1990. Why has the pattern of ownership in British industry changed so dramatically in recent years? This high-level and wide-ranging discussion on the developments of the industrial scene in Britain investigates why such changes have occurred, and explores their impact on management and work relations. The contributors consider whether this trend will continue, arguing that these changes will have far-reaching consequences for both western and eastern political economies in the twenty-first century. This title will be of interest to students of business, economics and management.

Sir John Redwood has been at the centre of the movement to speed up the growth in wealth and income around the world through the rediscovery of private enterprise. In the United Kingdom, he has argued and written for privatisation, deregulation, and wider ownership—policies he helped to implement as a government adviser and as Head of the Prime Minister’s Policy Unit. Elsewhere, in countries as diverse as Jamaica, New Zealand, Singapore, and France, he has advised governments on industrial policies and privatisation and has supervised major share issues. In Popular Capitalism (first published in 1988 and now with a new preface by the author) Redwood draws on his wide-ranging experience to illustrate major economic changes happening around the world. He shows that privatisation, deregulation, venture capital, wider ownership, debt repayment and the growth of new markets are all scenes in a larger drama: the story of how the world is responding to the failure of public sector led growth and to the overburdening of debt that has so damaged countries, companies, and even banks. Popular capitalism is a worldwide phenomenon, embracing Latin America, Gorbachev’s reforms, China’s own style of local capitalism, and the large government privatisation programmes of the developed world.

Focusing exclusively on the functional rather than the territorial level, this book reveals that the reshaping of the state in western Europe involves different policies across Europe and conflicting tendencies in the impact of the various reform programmes. Whilst the state may be in retreat in some respects, its activity may be increasing in others. And nowhere, not even in Britain, has its key decision-making role been seriously undermined.