« Home

Home » Business & Economics » Business » Wetherly and Otter: The Business Environment » Student resources » Web exercises » Chapter 01

Wetherly and Otter: The Business Environment

Chapter 01

During the 1980s, many companies that were once managed entirely within the public sector of the economy were sold off to private investors under the Thatcher administrations ‘privatisation’ initiative. It was hoped that privatisation would lead to greater efficiency and productivity gains in what were deemed to be underperforming public entities. One of the most notorious examples of this process was the privatisation of Britain’s railway system. Firstly, can you explain the process by which the UK’s rail network was sold to the private sector, and did it prove to be a beneficial move for rail commuters? Secondly, do you feel that privatisation of British Rails is a good example of profits taking priority over responsibility to society?

See:
http://www.workersliberty.org/node/2094

http://www.libertarian.co.uk/lapubs/econn/econn091.pdf

http://www.publicworld.org/docs/britrail.pdf

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_go1566/is_200205/ai_n7036421

http://www.bath.ac.uk/cri/pubpdf/Occasional_Papers/23_Glaister.pdf