NATIONALIZATION, in broad economic terms, the governmental appropriation of property other than land, transferring it from the domain of private property to national More specifically, the term designates the assumption by a nation of theownership of privately owned industry, distributive enterprises, or other businesses orservices. When applied as part of socialist or Communist programs for abolition ofprivate property, nationalization is sometimes known as socialization. Following a severechange in government, such as a revolution, nationalization may be effected byexpropriation without compensation to the owners of the property, as in Soviet Russia in1917-18 and in Cuba in 1959. In more gradual governmental evolution, propertyappropriation may be effected by some form of payment to the owners, as in GreatBritain after the installation of the Labour party government in 1945. Denationalizationalso occurs, as in the case of Britain's steel industry. Historical Background. Although some degree of government ownership of national resources, industry,transportation, communications, or services essential to social welfare has been a featureof every form of organized society, the subject of nationalization, prior to the latter partof the 19th century, remained the concern primarily of social reformers. The 17th-centuryEnglish reformer Peter Chamberlen, for example, held that poverty could be eliminatedby the nationalization of royal and church estates, the commons or parks, forests, mines,and other assets of land and sea; he advocated the confiscation of what he characterizedas unearned increments in manufacturing, trade, and agriculture. During the FrenchRevolution, the French socialist leader Franois Nol Babeuf advocated the immediatenationalization of all corporations and of the property of individuals following theirdeaths. Periodically, reform movements in the U.S. have advocated specific nationalization. Inthe late 19th century, the ...
