The Rationale for Privatizations in Europe: Monetary Integration and Globalization

Privatizations — or denationalizations — redefining the forms and objectives of public intervention were part of a general process of adjustment of European economies to changes in the international context produced by the macroeconomic shocks of the early 1970s. Privatizations were generally conducted under macroeconomic pressures — balance of payments imbalances and exchange rate instability — and increasing public finance constraints, but it would be naive to overlook the importance of political and ideological factors in redefining prevailing models of economic system regulation, radically rewriting their institutional architecture according to the principles of a neoliberal “counter-revolution” that made the market, preferably unregulated, the organizing principle of the entire society.