Some Notes for a Theory of Mixed Enterprise

Abstract

The previous chapter has identified the type of mixed corporation with which this study is primarily concerned as public and private participation in the equity capital of corporations with some share in the direction of the destinies of the enterprise. A comparative survey of mixed enterprise throughout the world revealed that there was a marked tendency to treat the phenomenon as merely a variant of public enterprise. This tendency was especially marked in the Anglo-Saxon countries where the tradition of the non-economic, guardian state was strong. India stood as an interesting approach to the mixed enterprise because the framework of its industrial policy called for an equality and mutuality of economic effort as between the public and private sectors. In short, the Indian dualistic approach is, at least on the theoretical level, an attempt to make the mixture more a partnership of equals. The present study takes India’s fundamental conception as a point of departure and seeks to explore the advantages and disadvantages to the participants. Assuming a mixed corporation in which public and private enterprise is participating on terms approaching a relationship of equals, what a priori conclusions can be drawn?¹ This chapter offers a first approach by utilizing formal economic theory.