Re-Discovering the Political Rationale of Public Ownership

Abstract

This article sets out to explore the political motives, logics of action and rationales that seem to be significant factors in shaping the way how government-owned enterprises come into and stay in existence. In doing so, we also take issue with the established discourse on state-owned enterprises (SOEs) that appears to be predominantly couched in terms of economic theory and managerial considerations. By way of contrast, we propose that political interests and rationales are unduly neglected as potentially powerful drivers of public ownership and/or trends of ‘corporatization’