To criticize is relatively easy. To provide an alternative approach toward explaining some facts is much more difficult. Still, I hope that once again the readers will have the patience first to become acquainted with some of the traditional approaches toward the subject of state-owned enterprises and criticism of them. For only then can one understand the alternative viewpoint pursued here. But I must immediately admit that the facts presented in this chapter cannot carry the weight of my arguments, which also draw support from a number of studies dealing with a wide variety of subjects, among them the role of the state in particular [see Brenner (1983, 1985)].

There have been numerous studies written on the origins of state-owned enterprises, many of them with little, if any, appeal to the facts. What can one learn from such studies? Not much. Although some ideas may turn out to be just fine, in the absence of reliance on facts, one is quickly lost in, oy, again that pompous, technical vocabulary.

Before surveying some of the traditional approaches, a few facts about state-owned enterprises across countries and time will be presented. This evidence will serve to cast doubt on a number of approaches that have been proposed to deal with the subject of state-owned enterprises, to narrow down both the possible departure points and the contexts in which the subject may be illuminated, and lead toward the approach suggested here.