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In the nearly four decades since the end of World War II, and especially in the period since 1970, the capitalist system in Western Europe has undergone changes as alarming as they are sweeping. In many European countries almost 50 per cent of the industrial sector, including its key industries, is state-owned. Where, formerly, governments restricted themselves to utilities and to such basic industries as coal and steel, today they are involved in the production of computer software and other electronic equipment, aluminum pans, cakes, and sports cars, and —through their ownership of airlines and hotel chains—the tourist business as well.

As of the present, the private sector still outweighs the state-owned, but this may easily—and probably will— change, according to R. Joseph Monsen and Kenneth D. Walters, authors of Nationalized Companies: Capitalism Challenged (McGraw-Hill, $17.95). Moreover, they argue, “The spread of European state-owned companies has also affected the United States. Americans who once looked on nationalization as a European novelty now regard the issue more seriously, as the controversy over the Chrysler bailout testified.”

CW

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Chilton Williamson Jr.

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In the nearly four decades since the end of World War II, and especially in the period since 1970, the capitalist system in Western Europe has undergone changes as alarming as they are sweeping. In many European countries almost 50 per cent of the industrial sector, including its key industries, is state-owned. Where, formerly, governments restricted themselves to utilities and to such basic industries as coal and steel, today they are involved in the production of computer software and other electronic equipment, aluminum pans, cakes, and sports cars, and —through their ownership of airlines and hotel chains—the tourist business as well.

As of the present, the private sector still outweighs the state-owned, but this may easily—and probably will— change, according to R. Joseph Monsen and Kenneth D. Walters, authors of Nationalized Companies: Capitalism Challenged (McGraw-Hill, $17.95). Moreover, they argue, “The spread of European state-owned companies has also affected the United States. Americans who once looked on nationalization as a European novelty now regard the issue more seriously, as the controversy over the Chrysler bailout testified.”