Nationalization

Nationalization or Nationalisation is the act of taking assets into state ownership. Usually it refers to private assets being nationalized, but sometimes it may be assets owned by other levels of government, such as municipalities. Similarly, the opposite of nationalization is usually privatization, but sometimes it may be municipalization. Nationalization that happens after a previous privatization is often called renationalization.

Notable nationalizations

• Britain - British Coal, British Gas, British Petroleum, British Rail, British Steel, British Leyland, British Airways, the Bank of England, and the telephones division of the Post Office (now British Telecom). All the aforementioned were privatized during the Conservative period in power from 1979 to 1997, except the Bank of England which remains state-owned, but semi-independent. Many - particularly British Steel and British Leyland - fared poorly whilst nationalized. Conversely, British Rail (broken up into multiple parts including train operators, train owners, and a track owner; the latter now effectively deprivatised as Network Rail after near-bankruptcy) fared poorly after privatization.

  Another example of a successful large nationalised utility was the CEGB, which was for a time the world's largest integrated electricity generator. Nationalisation was used by all political parties. In 1971 the Conservative government of Edward Heath nationalised the strategically-important aero-engine part of the recently-bankrupt Rolls Royce plc. (It is perhaps note-worthy that Rolls-Royce's Filton factory lay within the South Gloucestershire constituency of the then Minister for Aerospace, Frederick Corfield.)

• Canada - Canadian National Railways, created from several systems nation-wide following their bankruptcy during and after the First World War, and since privatized. Nationalization of electricity during the Quiet Revolution of Quebec, by minister René Lévesque and the Lesage government, to create Hydro-Quebec.
• United States - Amtrak, a government corporation created in 1971 for the express purpose of relieving American railroads of their legal obligation to carry intercity passengers. They were trying to get out of this obligation anyway, but by taking over their passenger rail assets, Amtrak was able to keep the passenger trains running. Conrail was created shortly afterward (1976) to rationalize the operations of several financially-troubled or bankrupt rail lines operating primarily in the Northeast Corridor; this corporation has since been privatized. All U.S. railroads were nationalized during World War I as a wartime measure but were returned to their private owers almost immediately after the war. Organization of the Tennessee Valley Authority entailed the nationalization of the facilities of the former Tennessee Electric Power Company in 1939.
• Nationalization of the oil industry in numerous countries, including Libya, Kuwait, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela.
• Companies in Cuba after the 1959 revolution bringing Fidel Castro to power in which the assets of foreign (largely U.S.) companies were expropriated without compensation (the USA has long complained about these nationalizations).
• Zimbabwe's nationalization of its food distribution infrastructure.
• 1918, 1948. All manufacturing enterprises in the Soviet Union, in 1918, as well as in other countries of the Soviet bloc (for example, Czechoslovakia in 1948).
• 1918. Many retailing enterprises in the Soviet Union.
• 1944. Renault (seized from Louis Renault after WWII for his collaboration with Nazi Germany). Renault was successful whilst nationalised and remains successful today, after having been privatised in 1996.
• 1969. Nationalization of banks in India.
• 1982. The Paris business of M&A advisory firm Rothschild was nationalized and renamed.
• 2003. The Labour Government of New Zealand took an 80% stake in national air carrier Air New Zealand in exchange for a large financial infusion.