Britain relies mainly on American aid to restore its economic development.
The main policy of the United States is the Marshall Plan.
The characteristics of economic model: from excessive state intervention to liberalism, the proportion of state capital has decreased and private capital has been strengthened again; The degree of economic planning has declined, and the role of the free market has increased; State intervention has weakened and free competition has strengthened.
The transformation of "more markets and less * * *" has become the trend of British economic development.
World economic structure after World War II
(1) The evolution of Britain's "world factory" status: ① Establishment: Britain had the earliest industrial revolution and the strongest economic strength; Britain has a vast colony.
By the middle of19th century, Britain had become the workshop of the world.
(2) During the transition from 65438 to imperialism in late 2009 and early 2000, capitalists were unwilling to adopt new technologies and equipment; The economies of the United States and Germany are developing rapidly.
By the end of 19, Britain had lost its monopoly position in the world industry.
(2) The United States mastered the world economic hegemony (from the early end of World War II to the end of 1950s): ① Reasons: During the transition to imperialism, the total industrial output value of the United States jumped to the top in the world; The two world wars made America rich; Other imperialist countries weakened in the war.
② Establishment: In the early post-World War II period, the American economy dominated. It established its leading position in the world economy through the Bretton Woods system established in 1944, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade established in 1947 and the Marshall Plan implemented in 1948.
(3) In 1970s, the world economic structure changed to multipolarization: ① Reasons: the rise of Europe and Japan.
(2) Multipolarization: In the early 1970s, the monetary system of the capitalist world centered on the US dollar collapsed, and the capitalist world became a tripartite confrontation among the United States, Japan and Western Europe; Developing countries demand the establishment of a new international order. Exporting countries and producing countries of various raw materials are organized, and a number of newly industrialized countries and regions stand out.
Britain has the typical characteristics of public-private mixed economic system.
After World War II, Britain vigorously developed the state-owned economy during the Labor Party's administration, from1July 1945 to1June 19951March 1979 and1March 1979 respectively.
According to statistics, the labor force of state-owned enterprises accounts for 8.11%of the national GDP, and investment in fixed assets accounts for 20% of the total domestic investment in fixed assets.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the status of British state-owned enterprises rose significantly.
198 1, the largest 10 companies (enterprises) in Britain are ranked according to turnover, and there are 3 nationalized companies and 6 state-owned enterprises according to the number of employees.
State-owned enterprises are mainly concentrated in the following departments: British Post Office, National Coal Bureau, British Railway Bureau, British Aerospace Company, British Airport Authority, British Port Authority, British Freight Company, National Automobile Company, British Transportation Bureau, British Iron and Steel Company, British National Petroleum Company, British Manufacturing Company and Electric Power Commission.
The development of British state-owned enterprises has not replaced the leading position of private enterprises in the British economy.
In particular, the large-scale privatization movement carried out during Margaret Thatcher's administration privatized hundreds of large state-owned enterprises such as natural gas, oil, power supply, coal, aerospace, automobiles and telecommunications.
By 1989, the total assets ratio of state-owned enterprises had decreased by 45%.
By the end of 1990, the proportion of state-owned enterprises in GDP had dropped from 1979 to less than 5%.
At present, British state-owned enterprises are mainly distributed in postal services, municipal transportation, nuclear fuel industry and civil aviation.
Although the proportion of state-owned economy has declined, Britain is still a mixed property right structure.
2009-09-03 09: 271July 1945, the British Labor Party unexpectedly won the general election. The Labour Party won 398 seats in the House of Commons, while the Conservative Party won only 209 seats.
Therefore, the Labor Party formed a separate cabinet, which was founded by Labor Party leader Clement? Attlee's first postwar Britain as Prime Minister.
As soon as the Labour Party was founded, it was determined to carry out a series of reforms to revitalize the postwar British economy and improve social conditions.
The main contents of the Labour Party's reform are nationalization of enterprises, economic planning and the implementation of the welfare state system.
In terms of nationalization, Britain not only nationalized telephones, telegrams, subways and power stations, but also nationalized coal mines, railways, electricity, gas, canals, docks, hospitals, the Bank of England, aviation and steel industries.
The way of nationalization is that the state compensates the original owner.
The first purpose of nationalization is to use the power of the state to maintain the normal operation of the entire British economic mechanism and promote the recovery and growth of the British economy after the war; The second is to help adjust various relations in Britain's domestic economic life and strive for social equality as much as possible.
Related to nationalization is that the Labour Party has implemented a certain degree of economic planning.
Attlee pursued the policy of state intervention in economy from the beginning, and actively guided and regulated economic development by controlling finance, finance, trade and some production.
The welfare state system is the most influential of all the reform measures of the British Labor Party in the early postwar period.
1946 In August, after the efforts of the Labour Party, the British Parliament passed the National Insurance Law.
On the basis of previous relevant laws, this law further provides a social insurance project from cradle to grave, stipulating that all employees who have been employed but have not reached retirement age must participate in insurance in order to enjoy allowances and subsidies in case of unemployment, retirement, pregnancy, work injury, illness and death.
In June, 1946, 1 1, the national health care law was passed, and British residents enjoyed free medical care from then on.
In the same year, the Housing Law was passed, stipulating that local governments were responsible for raising funds to build houses to solve the problem of post-war housing shortage; At the same time, limit the rent and protect the interests of tenants.
65438+May 0948.
The national assistance law was promulgated, which stipulated that poor people who could not pay social insurance premiums for various reasons could get * * * relief.
All the above social insurance and welfare subsidy funds come from three aspects: insurance premiums paid by insured employees, insurance premiums paid by business owners and national budget allocations.
After the war, the welfare policy of Labour Party greatly improved the life of ordinary British residents.
1948, Attlee announced that Britain had established a welfare state.
The economic and social policies of the British Labor Party greatly promoted the recovery and revival of the British economy in the early post-war period.
Compared with other western European countries, Britain reached the pre-war economic level earlier in 1948.
Marshall Plan enabled Britain to get $654.38 billion+$200 million from American aid to Europe. The Labour Party used this to enrich the foreign exchange reserves of the Bank of England, stabilize the British financial market, make up for the huge fiscal deficit, and make the British economy embark on the road of recovery faster.
By 1950, the British economy has reached an annual growth rate of 4%. For this reason, the Labour Party won the general election with 1950 and remained in power.
Although a year later, due to the unsatisfactory internal and external policies of the Labour Party, the Conservative Party returned to power through the general election, but the reform achievements of the Labour Party have not been denied.
195 1 year,1year, the conservative party formed a new * * * party with Churchill as prime minister, and since then the conservative party has been in power for 13 years (during which Churchill, Aidan, Macmillan and Homer successively became prime ministers).
The Conservative Party basically accepted the reality of nationalization except for terminating the nationalization plan of the steel industry and domestic transportation originally planned by the Labour Party. At the same time, the continued implementation of welfare policies has only reduced the national medical expenditure of some countries to some extent.
Churchill * * * also ended the state's strict control over economic life in wartime according to the reality of Britain's economic recovery after the war, and made Britain's economy develop better.
In the early 1950s, Britain's economy was prosperous and its gross national product ranked second in the capitalist world.
Although in the second half of 1950s and the first half of 1960s, compared with the rapid economic development of the Federal Republic of Germany, France and Japan, Britain's economic development was relatively slow, but its economic growth remained at 2% to 3%.
The transformation process and experience of British state-owned enterprises
1. The wave of privatization of state-owned enterprises originated in Britain.
Britain is an old capitalist country. After World War II, the British economy gradually declined.
In order to improve economic competitiveness, Britain has carried out various forms of reform of state-owned enterprises for several consecutive periods after the war, and its basic measures are privatization of state-owned enterprises and shareholding system reform.
Its practice gradually influenced most countries in the world from the late 1980s to the early 1990s, forming a so-called wave of privatization.
2. The reform of state-owned enterprises in Britain is mainly carried out by formulating privatization policies.
Its development has gone through two stages:
The first stage (1979-1986): mainly privatize enterprises that are not too serious in losses but can still make profits, including oil companies, natural gas coastal facilities, aerospace companies, telegraph and telephone companies, railways, hotels and national truck companies.
The specific measures are: (1) public listing of enterprises; (2) sold to private enterprises as a whole; (3) Employees hold shares internally.
Generally speaking, the scale of transformation at this stage is relatively small.
The second stage (1987-199 1 year) mainly involves state-owned enterprises with serious losses, as well as public utilities and natural monopoly industries.
Including: natural gas companies, airlines, airports, steel, water supply, shipbuilding, electric power, national bus companies, etc.
Different from the first stage, the second stage is mainly to sell state-owned enterprises to private enterprises, while others take the form of publicly listed shares and employee stock ownership.
Judging from the scale of the transformation, this stage has nearly doubled compared with the first stage.
In order to ensure the stability of the whole transformation process, Britain has taken a variety of related supporting measures.
The most important of these are:
Special equity arrangements and care for employees and scattered minority shareholders' rights and interests.
The so-called special equity arrangement refers to: * * temporarily retaining part of the state-owned equity.
Its purpose is to prevent some industries or private enterprises from taking advantage of the privatization of state-owned enterprises and taking bad practices of malicious acquisition or merger of state-owned enterprises. At the same time, it is also to limit the individual managers of enterprises to take the opportunity of privatization to turn public into private, take the opportunity to expand their personal interests and lose state-owned assets.
The so-called care for the rights and interests of employees and scattered minority shareholders focuses on reasonably determining the employee stock ownership plan, which generally allows employees of this enterprise to hold about 10% of the total shares of this enterprise.
On the whole, the experiences worthy of recognition and reference in the reform of state-owned enterprises in Britain mainly include: (1) making the big small and treating it differently.
* * * According to the specific situation, the loss-making large enterprises themselves are divided into several small companies according to the specific profit and loss situation of each department and treated differently.
Because the loss of a large enterprise does not mean that all its departments are losing money, the advantage of differential treatment is that limited funds can be used for those departments that are in urgent need of transformation due to losses, thus reducing the cost of transformation of state-owned enterprises and increasing the opportunities for enterprises to turn losses into profits.
(2) gradual implementation, relatively stable.
The whole transformation process is implemented in stages and steps; Attach importance to feasibility study and preliminary preparation; In actual implementation, it is easy first and then difficult, from small to large; The forms of transformation are eclectic: comprehensive use of various forms such as overall sale, internal acquisition, stock listing and state-owned private enterprises. At the same time, pay attention to the mutual connection and matching of various reform measures.
Due to the feasible policies and effective measures, 10 for many years, British state-owned enterprises have generally improved their economic benefits through privatization, among which the 40 largest state-owned enterprises in Britain have all turned losses and their profits have increased substantially.
At the same time, * * * also got rid of part of the financial burden, and the fiscal revenue and expenditure improved significantly. Through the sale of state-owned enterprises, * * * directly earned a total income of more than 60 billion pounds.
The income of employees in state-owned enterprises has also increased substantially, and the stock income has enhanced their awareness of participating in enterprise management, and the management mechanism of enterprises has also been improved accordingly.
In addition, the shareholding system reform has also been supported by all walks of life and the general public in Britain, which shows that the number of public shareholders has increased greatly, from 3 million to 6.5438+million.
The problems existing in the privatization of British state-owned enterprises are as follows: (1) Due to the massive layoffs of enterprises, the unemployment problem is unprecedented.
The high unemployment rate has brought many social problems such as workers.
(2) How to effectively supervise and manage the privatization process of state-owned enterprises, especially how to prevent private monopoly from harming public interests after privatization of natural monopoly enterprises, is a big problem worthy of attention.