PRIVATIZATION AND THE STATE

1. Until (до) the mid-1970s the proportion (доля) of economic activity controlled by the government and the share of taxes (доля налогов) in national income (в национальном доходе) tended to increase (имели тенденцию к увеличению) in most countries. Since then (с тех пор) challenges (сомнения) in the role of government to this growth have become increasingly influential (становились все более выраженными), and moves (движение) to privatization have been common (стало всеобщим).

2. There are several types of privatization. One involves (Она влечет за собой) the sale (продажа) to private owners (частным собственникам) of state-owned assets (государственного имущества), and this is most correctly called privatization. Publicly owned (принадлежащие государству или местным органам власти) houses may be sold to their occupants (жильцы). Commodity stockpiles (товарные запасы) may be reduced (сокращены) or disbanded (рассеяны). Increasingly (все в большей степени) attention has been turned to the sale of publicly owned industries, thus reversing (таким образом переворачивая) the move to nationalization that occurred (которая имела место) around after World War II.

3. Where (Там, где) the privatized industry operates in a competitive environment (в условиях конкуренции), no new problems arise (не возникают). Where privatization occurs (произошла) but monopoly continues, there are new difficulties. Both Japan and the United Kingdom have privatized their telecommunications networks (сети). Although, in certain limited (в некоторых ограниченных) areas of telecommunications, competition is possible – and has been allowed (разрешена) to develop in both the United States and Britain – technical legal restrictions (юридические ограничения) inhibit (мешают, препятствуют) competition in many sectors of the industry.

4. Regulation is necessary to restrict the freedom (ограничить свободу деятельности) of privatized monopolies, or near monopolies, to raise prices (поднять цены) and to exploit consumers (использовать потребителей) in other ways. In the United States, which has by far (общепризнанно) the longest history of regulating private utilities (полезность), such regulation has normally limited the rate of return (уровень доходов) that they earn to what is considered a fair level (значительный уровень). A disadvantage (недостаток) of this is that it may give the industry no greater incentive (стимул) to increased efficiency (возросшей производительности) than would exist in public ownership (общественная собственность), since (т.к.) higher costs can be passed directly onto consumers. There have been experiments with other forms of regulation, which seek to strike a balance (стремятся подвести баланс) between incentives for better performance (исполнения) and the ability to exploit consumers (использовать потребителей).