From Private to Public Electrification:
A Study of the Context, Factors and Policy Process that Led to Nationalization of the Palestine Electricity Corporation By: David Levi-Faur Forthcoming: Cathedra [Hebrew] Abstract The electrification of Palestine under the British Mandate (1918-1948) was mainly carried out by the Palestine Electricity Corporation (PEC) - a vertically integrated nation-wide private monopoly that had exclusive rights for public supply from the British Government. Against the industrial landscape of Palestine at the time - characterized by a small and under-capitalized businesses and dated technology - the Palestine Electric Corporation represented a superior trajectory of industrial development. However, about five years after the establishment of the Jewish state, the privately-owned PEC was nationalized by the Israeli government. This paper examines the policy processes that led to the nationalization of the corporation with a view to clarifying the reasons for this important policy decision. Its analysis of the those processes which rests primarily on primary historical documents, reveals the difficult national and international environment in which privately-owned capital-intensive industries operated in Israel and the under-privileged position of the right wing interests in the shaping of Israel's economic policy at the time. In addition, its findings further help to serve undermine power-centered and socialist-centered explanations for the growth of state-ownership in the Israeli economy. |