Outside the postcommunist world, the great wave of industrial privatization has crested. In the postcommunist countries privatization remains focused on areas traditionally associated with the private sector. But governments can do much more, suggests Sir Alan Walters, the intellectual architect of Britain’s privatization revolution, and the reformers in Eastern Europe, Russia, and the NIS should take note. Britain’s experience with telecoms, railroads, water, gas, and other utilities shows that "unconventional" privatizations in areas which many had believed to be "natural monopolies" also benefit by a shift to the private sector.
Outside the postcommunist world, the great wave of industrial privatization has crested. In the postcommunist countries privatization remains focused on areas traditionally associated with the private sector. But governments can do much more, suggests Sir Alan Walters, the intellectual architect of Britain’s privatization revolution, and the reformers in Eastern Europe, Russia, and the NIS should take note. Britain’s experience with telecoms, railroads, water, gas, and other utilities shows that "unconventional" privatizations in areas which many had believed to be "natural monopolies" also benefit by a shift to the private sector.