ABSTRACT
As concluded in Chapter 1, the state which emerged in the international arena in the late 1960s has been characterized by sovereign nations subject to a lack of strict rules. Our working assumption is that host country behaviour from that time can be understood as motivated by socioeconomic goals. This may seem a bold assumption, but its applicability in the present context has gained support from a number of studies. Concerning the period when selective nationalizations peaked, Kobrin (1980, 1984), Jodice (1980) and Minor (1988) have demonstrated the importance of economic factors. The last of these studies also refuted previous allegations that political factors would have exerted a significant impact on the cross-country pattern of nationalization.
