ABSTRACT
The global electricity supply industry has cycled between state-centered and marketmediated models of governance since its inception in the 1880s. Initially funded and operated by private players with little government oversight, the industry soon experienced a prolonged trend of increasing government intervention that culminated in a series of nationalizations between 1945 and 1978. During the 1980s and 1990s this trend reversed, as dozens of countries implemented “neoliberal” reforms intended to restore the role of the market – and reduce that of the state – in the industry’s operation. Though it is too early to be certain, the tide may once again be turning.
