The Development And Reform Of Western State-owned Economy In Major Capitalist Countries

With the development of the market economy in the capitalist countries, the state-owned economy in major capitalist countries such as UK, France and USA began to emerge at the end of 19th century, and then expanded gradually and adjusted, so the development of state-owned economy was a quite long and complex process. Followed the innumerable questions and the dispute, the state-owned economy in the Western major capitalist countries grew up. There were many disputes on the question that the governments of the capitalist countries should intervene the economy or not and should develop the state-owned economy. Therefore it is very difficult for the state-owned economy to develop in the Western capitalist countries. For all this, the state-owned economy has not been eliminated thoroughly in the capitalist economy, and is still very important to the capitalist economy today. Through the deep research on the development and change of state-owned economy in west main capitalist countries, we can not only know comprehensively the essence of the state-owned economy in western countries, but can makes the reasonable appraisal on the historical situation and the function of the state-owned economy in the Western main capitalist countries, and makes the forecast and the estimate on the developing trend of state-owned economy in the west.As an effective tool that the governments of western main Capitalist countries regulate and control the macro-economy, there are a series of changes and reforms on the Western state-owned economy. In recent years, there are many scholars in the domestic and oversea who have pay attention to the changes on the western state-owned economy. They have summarized many experiences and lessons about the management and operation of state-owned economy in main western capitalist countries, and then put forward a lot of good proposals and the opinions for the Chinese state-owned enterprise reform. These researches at present about the Western state-owned economy are based on an economical and the managed clue and the angle. Although we may know the whole process of development and reform of the Western state-owned economy through these researched, we could not understand how all kinds of factors affected the development of the state-owned economy and how the factors could interact each other. Therefore, in this dissertation it would be discussed the development and reform process of the state-owned economy in the main western capitalist countries on the historical and developing angle. Thus we could see clearly all kinds of factors and the interaction among them during the developing process of the western state-owned economy, and it is helpful for us to promote the understanding on the western state-owned economy.In this dissertation the developing process of the state-owned economy in major capitalist countries is divided into four stages——the starting stage, the development stage, the prosperity stage and the contraction stage. Along the entire course of the state-owned economy in main western countries, the research about the four stages will be expanded one by one. It will be pay great attention to the longitudinal connection between each stage and the crosswise connect between all kinds of factors in each stage.From the end of 19th century to the beginning of 20th century, the state-owned economy emerged quietly in the main western capitalist countries. At the turn of the two century, there were a lot of immense changes in the capitalist world. Because the science and technology was progressed by leaps and bounds, it happened to the profound change on economy structure in major capitalist country. Then the capitalist economy had been developed greatly in these countries. For example some new industry sectors were rising including the petroleum, the electric power, the steel and iron, the automobile, the airplane and so on, and transportation facilities on the road, the railway and the harbor had been improved unceasingly. At the same time, the economic crisis of the capitalism market economy started to erupt frequently, and it appeared the high tide of the union and the annexation among the enterprises in the major capitalist countries, so the governments of these countries started to strengthen the regulation and control to the market economy. To the political aspect, the working class grew gradually and became an important member in the capitalism countries, and the governments had to take into consideration on the benefit of the working class, then the social welfare system was set up. The intense competition in the world market urged to the rising of the nationalism in capitalist countries. It appeared a new trend in the entire capitalism world recently that the function of government in the capitalist country was more important gradually and the intervention from government to the capitalism market economy was much more than before.Because of steep competitions among the major capitalist countries such as the UK, France and Germany and so on, it caused the First World War finally. During the war, governments of these countries not only collected the manpower, the physical resource, the financial resource and then established the managed economy and the special wartime management structure, but also implemented the nationalization management on chemical industry, munitions, fuel, and set up the state-owned businesses. The state-owned economy becomes an important measure on the emergency such as war in major western countries. The western state-owned economy entered into a new stage of development.The First World War continued four year caused giant loss of resources in the main western countries, and moreover caused many changes on the economy, the politics and the social conditions in these countries. The main western countries had implemented the wartime managed economy, therefore they were facing an arduous task on the postwar economical restructure. In postwar time, the working class and labor union organization are more and more important than before in the main western countries. The political power in the world took many changes after the war that the US, and Japan benefitted from the war and both increased economy power, but economic statuses of some countries including the UK and France were decreased so quickly after the war that their economy began to rely on the US excessively. The governments of major western countries did not develop state-owned economy in the postwar time, but cleaned up the state-owned economy.The economical crisis from 1929 to 1933 rolled up the entire capitalism world and the main western capitalist country has received the heavy losses on the economy once more. The economical predicament including the collapsing price, the serious inflation and the sharp unemployment force the governments to strengthen the intervention greatly on the economy, and then there was an opportunity of the development of the state-owned economy in the main west capitalist country. After the economical crisis in 1930s, the World War II took place among the main western countries. The governments in West had to set up economy control in the war and developed the state-owned economy rapidly again.After the World War II was over, the main western capitalist country had to face much more difficulty on the reconstitution and the revival of economy, but at this time the governments of western countries had not let the history repeat. The governments not only did not eliminate the state-owned economy in the earlier period, but initiatively adopted the intervention policy and developed state-owned economy in order to promote the recovery and the prosperity on economy. In some countries such as UK, France it happened to cause the nationalization tides for the several times during the stage the democratic socialism party being in power. The state-owned economy entered into the golden time of development in the west main capitalist countries, and simultaneously it had played an important role on reconstitution and the revival of economy.After the golden time of development, the state-owned economy became more and more important in the main capitalist countries, but it also exposed some serious flaws including bad efficiency and the bad benefit at the same time. Because of these flaws of the state-owned economy, the governments of western capital countries had to undertake more serious financial burden, and moreover some private enterprise started to opposite the government's subsidy to the state-owned economy. Under the dual pressures from the finance and the public, the government s of main western countries carried on the privatization reform on state-owned economy. The British government firstly took the privatization reform, and then the governments of France, Germany and Italy successively took the reform and the adjustment on the state-owned economy, finally they formed many different macroscopic and the micro-management systems. After privatization reform, there was an obvious reduction on the proportion and scale of the state-owned economy in main western capitalism countries. The western state-owned economy entered into the stage of the contraction and adjustment. The Chinese government could benefit from the experience on the development and the reform of the state-owned economy in major capitalist country.In brief, we analyzed a series of factors of such as the economy, the politics and the society according to the history of state-owned economy in the main western capitalist countries, which played an important role in the developing process of state-owned economy. Through the discussion about state-owned economy in West, it was clear that the basic reason why the state-owned economy was developed quickly in the major west capitalist countries was the main contradict of capitalism, which the privatization system of capitalism could not be fit for the development of producing socialization. Meanwhile, in the developing process of the state-owned economy, many kinds of factors including the economy, the politics, the social and the culture, which combined and affected each other, impelled unceasingly the developing step of the state-owned economy. In this paper, it was also discovered that the development of the state-owned economy was related to the trend the western governments strengthened the intervention to the economy and the society. Although the state-owned economy was reduced in the 1980s later, it was believed that the state-owned economy would be rising in future so long as the trend of state intervention on the economy and the society in major capitalist countries.