Critique

Abstract

Consideration of the performance of the nationalised industries answers some questions, at least in an approximate way, but prompts others. Some of these are linked to matters that have recurred in earlier chapters but have remained implicit and, having been given a fuller context, need to be made more explicit. The questions are mostly of two kinds. There are those which relate to the nature of the achievement of the nationalised industries, in particular to the discrepancy or the correspondence between aims and results, and to the difficulty of deciding, in an environment of ambiguity, which aims it is most appropriate to relate to which results. And there are those questions which seek explanation of the level of achievement and of the persistence of particular characteristics within it. If these latter questions can be so defined as to seek general answers applicable to all or much of the field, and if they can be directed to a body of evidence wide enough to suggest answers of extensive (even if less than universal) range, so much the more useful they will be.