NATIONALIZED INDUSTRIES AS ORGANIZED INTERESTS

The nationalized industries are usually regarded as bodies to be 'controlled' in some way by governments; but they have now developed sufficient autonomy to be able to exert influence on their own behalf within the political system. The emergence of the Nationalized Industries Chairman's Group is one aspect of their activity; the separate industries are also more outspoken in their own concerns. These developments deserve some consideration on both political and economic grounds. In the end the justification lies in their need to compete politically with other industrial interest groups. In the contemporary polity no one else will act for them, and so their leaders have a right, and perhaps a duty, to sustain their industries by 'pressure-group' tactics. Clearly the industries can be seen as 'state corporatist' bodies in the usual conceptualizations, but the development of political autonomy could contribute to a more open structure of the public sector.