Debate the merits and problems of oil nationalisation for Iran - Essay Example

This paper will analyze the various merits and problems that faced Iran as a result of nationalization of its oil industry. Structure of the Paper The basic structured in a manner that its initial page provides a cover page detailing basic information on the paper such as the name, course and institution that the writer attends. A concise thesis statement follows there after and provides a brief highlight of what the paper is essentially all about. The main body of the paper is characterized by an adequate description of the turbulent nationalization of the oil industry in Iran, This is followed by a detailed outline that Iran stood to actually gain from the Nationalization of its oil industry as well as the eventual demerits of the country’s oil nationalization program.

All the different sections and subsections of the paper have been adequately outlined by preceding relevant headings. These headings serve to provide a brief overview of what that particular section of the paper is all about. What is Nationalization? The concept of nationalization can broadly be defined as the general process where by a state or government takes into public ownership the overall running of a private industry or assets that had previously been perceived to be private. Although the concept of nationalization is usually seen to refer mostly to the taking over of private assets by the government, in some instances, it can also be seen to refer to taking the taking control of some of the assets that are normally controlled by the lower levels of a given government.

When this form of nationalization occurs, it usually results in lower government assets such as municipalities being effectively owned and operated by the state. History of Nationalization Concerns as to the effects of nationalization were seen to be largely prevalent during the most part of the twentieth century. This concern was mainly as a result of the increased and aggressive nationalization of most of most of the industries in Europe by the various socialist and communist governments. During the 1960s through to the 1970s that there was the emergence of a myriad of newly independent governments all over Africa, Latin America and Asia that sought to take over the operations of the foreign-owned business enterprises that operated in their countries.

During the process of nationalization of various industries, there always emergences various questions relating to the establishment of if there was adequate compensation paid out to the owners of the previously private industries during the nationalization process (Schaffer, Agusti and Earle, 2009, p. 606). Soon after the concept behind communism started dying out late in the 1980s, most of the governments that had initially taken to nationalizing their various industries were seen to run these industries to the ground due to several factors.

In a bid by most of these government to try and redeem this situation, most of these governments took to trying to sell nationalized assets to various private sectors organizations in a bid to try to privatize these assets by transferring the various assets that were owned by the government to the private sector’s control. This privatization of the previously nationalized business enterprises was basically a reversal of the nationalization-expropriation process. (Schaffer, Agusti and Earle, 2009, p. 606). The Iranian Oil Industry Oil was initially discovered in Iran in 1901 when William Knox D’