ABSTRACT
It is possible to obtain accurate data for the area of countries and reasonably accurate data for the size of population and for GDP. It is more difficult to calculate the relationship between public and private sectors in their contribution to the total economy. The matter is of particular relevance now, however, as most of the former ‘socialist’ countries (as defined by the USSR), including the former USSR itself, are changing. They are moving from a situation in which the public sector was dominant, and a command economy, with central planning, formed the basis of management, to a market economy and to one with at least a substantial private sector. In the case of some industrial countries also, including for example the UK, France and Sweden, there have been moves to privatise some activities in the 1980s and early 1990s. In the UK in about ten years, approximately 10 per cent of the total capitalisation value of companies was transferred from public to private ownership, including utilities such as telecommunications and electricity, and industries such as steel. According to Riley (1993), between 1985 and
OECD1 selected countries Other selected countries Japan 16 India 18
1993, state-owned companies worth about 300 billion US dollars were sold off in some fifty countries, reversing a trend that began in the 1930s when capitalism ‘failed’ in the depression. One way of showing the influence of the state in the economic life of countries is to express central government expenditure as a proportion (percentage) of total GDP. Unfortunately, data are not readily available for many countries of the world. The data in Table 1.3 do not therefore give a comprehensive overview of the subject but they are sufficient to give an idea of the contrasts between countries.
