This book suggests some of the ways in which levels of development shape public sector reform and privatization in developed and developing countries, showing that conservative as well as socialist governments were committed to increasing the state's guiding role in the political economy.

General Context -- Introduction: Analyzing Privatization in Industrial and Developing Countries -- The New Life of the Liberal State: Privatization and the Restructuring of State-Society Relations -- Economic Rationales for the Scope of Privatization -- The International Spread of Privatization Policies: Inducements, Learning, and "Policy Bandwagoning" -- Advanced Industrial Countries -- The Politics of Privatization in Britain and France -- The Politics of Public Enterprise in Portugal, Spain, and Greece -- Public Corporations and Privatization in Modern Japan -- Developing Countries -- Capitalism in Colonial Africa: A Historical Overview -- State, Economy, and Privatization in Nigeria -- The Politics of Privatization in Africa -- Nicaragua's State Enterprises: Revolutionary Expectations and State Capacity -- China and Privatization -- The Political Context of Public Sector Reform and Privatization in Egypt, India, Mexico, and Turkey -- The Politics of Privatization in Brazil and Mexico: Variations on a Statist Theme -- Chile: Privatization, Reprivatization, Hyperprivatization -- The Politics of Economic Liberalization in India