Editing Nationalization (section)

{{Short description|Transfer of privately owned assets to the national government}}
{{see also| List of nationalizations by country}}
{{use American English |date= February 2016}} 

{{economic systems sidebar | transition}}

'''Nationalization''' ('''nationalisation''' in [[British English]]) 
is the process of transforming privately owned [[asset]]s into public assets by bringing them under the [[State ownership|public ownership]] of a [[Government|national government]] or [[State (polity)|state]].<ref name="Ref_">{{cite web |url= https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nationalization |title= Definition of NATIONALIZATION |website= Merriam-Webster |date= 13 September 2024 | quote = nationalize [...] 2 : to invest control or ownership of in the national government[.]}}</ref> Nationalization contrasts with [[privatization]] and with [[demutualization]]. When previously nationalized assets are privatized and subsequently returned to public ownership at a later stage, they are said to have undergone '''renationalization''' (or '''deprivatization'''). Industries often subject to nationalization include [[telecommunications company|telecommunications]], [[electrical power industry|electric power]], [[fossil fuels]], [[railway company|railways]], [[airline]]s, [[iron ore]], [[state media|media]], [[mail|postal services]], [[bank]]s, and [[Water industry|water]] (sometimes called the [[commanding heights of the economy]]), and in many jurisdictions such entities have no history of private ownership.{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}

Nationalization may occur with or without [[financial compensation]] to the former [[owner]]s. Nationalization is distinguished from [[property redistribution]] in that the government retains control of nationalized [[property]]. Some nationalizations take place when a government seizes property acquired illegally. For example, in 1945 the French government seized the car-maker [[Renault]] because its owners had [[Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy|collaborated]] with the 1940–1944 [[Nazi]] [[Occupation of France|occupiers of France]].<ref>{{cite news | url= https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/dec/14/renault-descendants-demand-payout-confiscation | location = London | work = The Guardian | first = Angelique | last = Chrisafis | title = Renault descendants demand payout for state confiscation | date = December 14, 2011}}</ref>

Economists distinguish between nationalization and [[Socialization (economics)|socialization]], which refers to the process of restructuring the economic framework, organizational structure, and institutions of an economy on a [[socialist]] basis. By contrast, nationalization does not necessarily imply social ownership and the restructuring of the [[economic system]]. Historically, states have carried out nationalizations for various different purposes under a wide variety of different [[political system]]s and [[economic system]]s.<ref>
{{cite book
 | last1= Alistair |first1= Mason |last2= Pyper |first2= Hugh
 | editor-last= Hastings |editor-first= Adrian
 | title= The Oxford Companion to Christian Thought
 | url-access= registration
 | url= https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont00hast/page/677
 | publisher= Oxford University Press |date= 21 December 2000
 | page= [https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont00hast/page/677 677]
 | isbn= 978-0198600244 |access-date= 8 December 2019
 | quote= At the heart of its vision has been social or common ownership of the means of production. Common ownership and democratic control of these was far more central to the thought of the early socialists than state control or nationalization, which developed later. [...] Nationalization in itself has nothing particularly to do with socialism and has existed under non-socialist and anti-socialist regimes. Kautsky in 1891 pointed out that a 'co-operative commonwealth' could not be the result of the 'general nationalization of all industries' unless there was a change in 'the character of the state'[.]
}}
</ref>