ABSTRACT
The study of public enterprise has focused almost exclusively on developments of the post-Industrial Revolution period, and has been concerned with exploring several main themes. The theory of the evolution of public enterprise organization formulated by leading US scholar Harold Seidman postulates that, in a first stage, advocates and designers of public enterprise systems believed that the ordinary machinery of the state was all that was required. Where the enterprises are arranged departmentally or municipally, staffing and financial regimes again usually follow those of the relevant central or local government service. The earnings of public enterprises go first to covering their operating expenses, and then to payment of essential outgoings such as interest on loans and taxation. Surpluses are then applied variously to payment of dividends, to building up financial reserves, and to reinvestment in the enterprise itself, such as acquisition of new technology or enlargement of facilities.
