6
example for both the positive and the negative aspect of the
matter.
There is of course also another difference between state and
private concerns which is of great practical importance. The state
concern is subject to the interference of politics, especially in
its selection of management and personel and politics in a
democracy means of course party politics. It must be admitted that
this speaks against the state run industry in the period of
transition but the argument must be weighed against the
probability that the same element of party politics may play also
a dangerous role in the process of privatisation.
Where the state owned concern does not happen to have the legal
form of a corporation there is also a subsidiary difference from
the private concern in so far as it is not liable to public
accounting. This is of limited but perhaps not entirely negligible
importance.
It may be concluded that national concerns may in principle be
subjected to controls similar to those imposed on private firms
(especially by the banks) provided the government is capable and
willing to exercise sufficient control based on monitoring and
long term industrial policy and technology assessment.
*
Wwhat is the relevance of these considerations to the questions of
the transition period? It so happens that the question whether the
old sector should be privatised forthwith can be answered more
simply, at least for the time being, without appealing to the
larger questions of private or public property. It is apparently -
and not surprisingly - very difficult to find buyers for these
industrial concerns. It would be a wanton and irresponsible policy
to throw these assets away at any price the more so that