THE INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE OF NATIONALISATION AND DENATIONALISATION

Résumé

This issue of Entreprises et Histoire includes a collection of papers initially presented at
a session held at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières in October 2001 and /or at the
International Economic History Association in Buenos Aires in July 2002. Organised under
the title of “Nationalisations et dénationalisations”, the session attracted many papers on the
electricity industry, as well as others on the broader international experience of nationalisation
and denationalisation.(1) It is that latter group which is published here. These articles examine
the European experience during the 20th century, and in particular the situation in four
countries from the south of the continent: Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece. In addition to this,
four common features of most issues of Entreprises et Histoire are added: a ‘debate’ between
experts and practitioners in the chosen area drawn from France and from the UK; a short
archive document, in this case a 1948 UK Labour Party research paper on future possible
targets for nationalisation; a clin d’oeil at the ultimately successful efforts of Tate & Lyle to
resist the attempts of the Attlee Government in Britain to nationalise the company; and finally
a resumé of recent research relevant to the issue’s main theme.