State Capitalist Property, economic relations involving the bourgeois state’s total or partial ownership of economic enterprises. It emerges as a result of state construction financed from the national budget and the nationalisation of private enterprises (see Nationalisation, Capitalist). State capitalist property appeared under pre-monopoly capitalism, when the state launched its first steps to regulate the economy. At that stage, capitalist governments began to build and buy enterprises, particularly in the infrastructure, whose operation was essential for the country’s economy but unprofitable for private capital to run. Under monopoly capitalism, the amount of state capitalist property and its share in the nation’s wealth have markedly increased. In certain countries (France, Great Britain, Italy, Austria) this was largely the result of capitalist nationalisation, while in others (the FRG, the Netherlands, Sweden, Japan, and the USA) it was achieved exclusively through state construction and by buying controlling block of shares of private companies, which found themselves on the brink of bankruptcy. The amount of state capitalist property differs from country to country: in France, for instance, the state owns over a third of the stocks of industrial and transport firms, while in Britain, the figure is only about a quarter. Much of state capitalist property is comprised of enterprises involved in the infrastructure, most of which are unprofitable (e. g., railways and motor roads, the post and telegraph services); the state finances these enterprises’ construction and maintenance, thus creating conditions for multiplying monopoly profits. Another area of state capitalist property is the state enterprises in raw material and energy industries, where large investments are needed and the turnover of capital is slow. Some countries are developing the newest industries, such as nuclear power, within the context of state property. Part of state property consists of shares of mixed private and state companies. Profits from 339 state enterprises are usually lower than those of private ones, because the bourgeois state maintains low prices for the products and services of the state sector, and monopolies benefit by this policy. Bourgeois governments are extensively utilising state capitalist property in their economic policies. For example, if conditions become complicated and private capital reduces investments, the state usually increases its own investments, thus trying to prevent a crisis. State capitalist property is also instrumental in state structural policies: new state enterprises are often built in those industries or regions with an insufficient influx of private capital. State capitalist property has become a channel through which the national income is redistributed, and an instrument of the state (government) regulation of the capitalist economy. National income is also redistributed to the advantage of the monopolies through the setting of low prices for raw materials and electricity, and low tariffs for state transport operations. Small consumers pay far more than large consumers for commodities produced and services provided by state enterprises. At the same time, state enterprises pay monopoly prices for the commodities and services they buy from private enterprises. State capitalist property gives rise to sharp political struggles. The monopoly bourgeoisie’s attitude to it is contradictory: on the one hand, representatives of finance capital are interested in the state paying them huge sums of money in compensation for unprofitable enterprises and industries, re-equipping and maintaining them through national budget financing; on the other, however, the growth of state property threatens the very existence of private property, for it graphically shows that not only individual enterprises, but entire groups of industries can function without capitalists. The attempts by the monopolies to reprivatise the most profitable state enterprises and increasingly use state property for their own selfish interest are opposed by democratic-thinking people. The communist and workers’ parties allied with other progressive forces are doing a great deal to extend state property by nationalising key industries, introducing democratic management of the nationalised enterprises, and using them to tackle vital economic problems.