Nationalization
Nationalization is the process of taking a private industry or private assets into public ownership by a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to private assets, but may also mean assets owned by lower levels of government, such as municipalities, being transferred to be the state. The opposite of nationalization is usually privatization or de-nationalization, but may also be municipalization. Industries that are usually subject to nationalization include transport, communications, energy, banking and natural resources.
Renationalization occurs when state-owned assets are privatized and later nationalized again, often when a different political party or faction is in power.
A renationalization process may also be called
reverse privatization. Nationalization has been used to refer to either direct state-ownership and management of an enterprise or to a government acquiring a large controlling share of a nominally private, publicly listed corporation. Nationalization was one of the major means advocated by reformist socialists for transitioning from capitalism to socialism.