Privatization, public ownership, and the regulation of natural monopoly - FOSTER

Drawing on his experience in government, industry and academia, Foster provides a comprehensive study of privatization policy under the Conservative Government since 1979. In this non-technical work, he draws on the history of state intervention, regulation and nationalization of industries that were argued to be natural monopolies, eg the railways. The failure of nationalized industries, Foster argues, is rooted not only in inefficiency, but in a lack of any clear performance indicators of what such public enterprises should be achieving.;These observations open out his book into a discussion of the development of privatization under Mrs Thatcher (not apparently part of a big plan, but more a muddling through of policy ideas). Subsequently Foster contrasts the legal and economic construction of regulation in the US to the looser rein of the new British style of regulation.;The remaining chapters evaluate the performance and regulation of the newly privatized enterprises and Foster finds that on balance the new regulatory structures are workable and have avoided many of the problems of the past.;Foster's book is a moderate defence of what became a central ideological plank of Thatcherism. He calls for a carefully thought through planning of regulation where other States are thinking of privatizing their public enterprises. He also discusses how fare the same objectives can be achieved through public enterprise reform.