Las privatizaciones en el debate público español, 1996-2000.

Abstract

Between 1996 and 2000 an ampie operation of privatization took place, that reduced substantially the seize of the public sector companies in Spain. This process held a central position in the defence of its governmental achievements by the Partido Popular, and was presented as the axis of the great Spanish economic reform at the turn of the century. In this text a general visión of the media treatment of privatizations is presented, in order to introduce some reflections upon the impact of the sales and the discourses produced to justify them on the public opinión and on what we can cali «political-economic culture». To do so, the article gives, to start with, a general approach to privatizations in Europe between 1981 and 2000. In the second place, press articles on the general sale of companies and public participations after 1996 are analysed. In the third place a brief consideraron of public opinión changes and their relationship with opinions in society is undertaken. Finally the text deals with the the policy of privatization from the previously developed points of view, underlining the asymetries between the initially announced aims and the subsequent discoursive defence of the overall process.