University of International Business
Term paperby discipline Management
"Forms of Ownership"
Almaty, 2010.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1. Property and socio-economic relations. The theory of property rights.
1.1 The history of the ownership and development of its forms.
1.2 Property as an economic category.
1.3 The theory of property rights.
CHAPTER 2 Forms of ownership and their classification.
CHAPTER 3 Changeofownership
3.1 Change of ownership is an essential condition for the formation of the market.
3.2 Ownership in transition economies
CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
INTRODUCTION
The property is among the most important and complicated problems of economics and economic theory. History of economic life during periods of increased social activity tends to redistribute objects and property rights. Economy is primarily farming. But, where is the economy, there should be a master. Each economic entity, every resource, every product must have its master. From an economic point of view the master is a person who induces an object in the economic processes, seeking to use it in the best way to extract more value from it. Where there is an economic activity, there is always a problem of ownership. Property relations permeate the entire system of economic relations and escort the man from the moment of his birth to leaving in another world. Everywhere we constantly come upon one common fundamental question: Who owns the economic power, who assigns the material conditions of human existence, the owner of the land, factories, and spiritual wealth?
The social nature of these relations is an expression inherent to the society in the economic relations of property. Today we are ready to sue the state, which has assigned and squandered our labor savings, does not pay us wages, pensions. In this respect civilization has not moved far from the animal world, where everyone defends their environment, claims a particular "piece" or territory. It is recognized that the question of ownership is probably one of the most important issues determining the generation, the existence and the development of human society. On how and by whom it was raised, addressed and regulated in a given time, including the present historical period, the sustainability, prosperity, and often the very existence of any society for that matter, and each individual member of society depend.
Factor of limiting the life of wealth and economic resources requires not only a certain order of their distribution, but also establishing some rules of control over them. Final goods and economic resources, if limited, can not be equally accessible for disposal, use by absolutely all members of society. If this were so, then the society would come into mess.
As soon as the man has picked up a stick, it becomes not only an instrument of labor, but also in his private club, his property. Weapons defense and attack, objects of labor, fire, shelter, clothing, and household goods gradually go into possession of an individual or a group, or a tribe.
Ownership is ensuring the right to control economic resources and life benefits for the set of economic actors. In households, there is a point of view that property is the relationship between the man and his possessions, control over it. Aspirations of a man to property ownership are considered at the same time as a born instinct. However, in economics the dominance of the social, and not natural, basis of property is increasingly recognized. And in this sense we can, to some extent, recognize the approval P. Proudhon: "Property is a theft" - because no one would argue that if one person is the owner of the thing, then others are denied the opportunity to have it in their possession.
In every historical epoch, property as an economic category reflects the entire system of socio-economic relations. Forms of ownership and its variations correspond to the prevailing socio-economic system at all levels. The issue of ownership is extremely multilateral and with each new stage of development of economic thought new aspects of this problem are discovered.
So, do we need private property or not? We can not reply this question instantly, we need to understand in more detail the advantages and disadvantages of different forms of ownership. Thus, the aim of this work is to study, review and analyze ownership structure: its social, legal and economic aspects; as well as studying diverse forms of ownership, mainly private and public, as the main form of ownership; analysis of property development and interaction of public and private property.
CHAPTER 1. PROPERTY AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC RELATIONS. THEORY OF PROPRIETARY RIGHTS
1.1 The history of the ownership and development of its forms
Property as an economic relation is formed at the dawn creation of the human society. Labor and its division between individuals, tribes have a significant influence on the emergence and development of forms of property. Possession of means of production has become one of the determining conditions of life, and production of necessary means of existence. At the same time, productive work made it possible to obtain economic product to a greater extent than was necessary to ensure the simplest necessities of life of the period. There is accumulation of the property; its type emerges in the form of wealth.
The emergence of the rich and poor, the desire to expand their holdings generate a war for possession of the territories, wealth, property, property begins to pass from hand to hand. Growing populations have more and more land, natural resources, engaged in production. As a result, all that is available to the man is segregated, captured, appropriated, divided, i.e. becomes the property.
The emergence of states contributed to the birth of public property. In this way the diversity of ownership in the form of personal, family, tribal, state was developed. Tribal, and then the inter-state wars, capturing and inheritance of wealth gave birth to the ugliest forms of property - slavery and serfdom, the objects of which are people.
In the era of feudalism subsistence is tightly bound by ties of land ownership, means of productions, and the cattle to the owning feudal lord. Under capitalism, the means of production becomes the property of the owner of capital. Private property blossoms, the relationship between subjects and objects of ownership increasingly divide into the ownership, disposal and use. In the future, private property is modified. There is a joint-stock form of ownership. Along with the ownership of land, natural resources, buildings, equipment and other real estate property, the role of gold and jewels, cash, securities constantly increases. The problems of intellectual property on a spiritual product, and ownership of information emerge.
The ongoing revolutions in certain countries transform, convert forms and property relations. In particular, the socialist revolutions try to abolish the private ownership of means of production, replacing it with the public, state. But an economy based on the overwhelming dominance of state property is ineffective. As a result, the modern economic world that has become basically the world market economy is based on private property and on the feasibility of coexistence of different forms of ownership.
1.2 Property as an economic category
Representations of the property have been forming in science and life for thousands of years, while ownership has become, above all, the official target of legal institutions and philosophy. For a long time the property as a special social relationship was the immediate object of law (especially civil law), but with the further development of social production the property along with legal became also the determining economic category. The concept of property relations includes on one hand relation of an owner to their belongings, i.e. property relationship between subject and object. The subject of property (the owner) is the active side of property relations, having objects of property, possessing, controlling and using them. It should be noted that the property can not be subjectless. As to the orphan objects, things that did not have or have lost their owner, then they cease to be property.
The object of ownership is a passive side of property relations in the form of objects of nature, matter, energy, information, possessions, spiritual, intellectual property, wholly or in some degree belonging to the owner. Often the object of property is called simply the property.
In fact, property can not be imagined without individuals or groups considering their specific things, conditions and products of production as theirs, and others as belonging to strangers. From that it obviously follows that the property is the individual's attitude to things. In this case, since this is the attitude of different people to the same concrete thing, then there is evidence of ownership as the relationship between individuals about things. Being legally settled by state, they take the form of ownership, which include the authority of the owner to possess, use and dispose of property. In the more complete definition of the deployment of property as an economic category, various economists used different static or dynamic bases in this category, its main manifestations in the everyday practice, its class and historical character and so on. From my point of view, the most functional thing to do, in terms of the present study, is to determine the owner of the thing through the main manifestations of the economic domination: the possession, use, and disposal.
In the most general form the ownership can be defined as the relationship between economic agents regarding the attribution of economic resources and consumer goods. Also in the most general terms we can say that the appropriation of economic resources is the primary determinant in regard to the appropriation of consumer goods. Consequently, in any society or any country the rich and poor stratification of the population stems mainly on the different attitudes to economic resources as belonging to one or others.
It is possible to understand the essence of property, if we consider it in conjunction with all other economic relations of society: the production, distribution, exchange and consumption of goods. It is exactly the property that fully reflects the socio-economic character of the epoch. All existing economic systems differ in their attitude, especially in the ownership of the means of production. There are several historic property types, characterized by different methods of connecting the producer and the means of production and distribution of products of the social product among the members of society. It is accepted to distinguish the primitive, slave, feudal and capitalist types of property. Until recently, the socialist type of property was also highlighted, for which, apparently, there were not sufficient grounds. Socialism actually was built in none of the countries that were once part of the socialist community. Direct producers in these countries were still exploited, the reunification of the means of production with production workers in fact did not occur. The type of property under totalitarian regime (sometimes overtly, but in many cases disguised) that appeared in these countries, intricately combined the characteristics peculiar to ownership types of earlier ages and now existing.
Thus, the property as an economic category is defined as the relation of individuals or community of individuals to things as belonging to them, which is expressed in the ownership, the use and the disposal of property, as well as in addressing the impact of all other actors in the sphere of economic domination, into which the power of the owner extends, that is to say, the public attitudes on the ownership, control and disposal of the thing.
1.3 The theory of property rights
In a society with the state legal structure the economic relations of property inevitably receive legal consolidation. This is expressed either as a system of legal rules governing these relations and the Institute of ownership, or in securing some measure of legal authority for a specific person who is the owner of the thing. In the first case we speak of ownership in the objective sense, in the second sense we speak of the subjective sense or of the subjective ownership.
Ronald Coase was at the root of property rights. According to his theory: "the property is not resources, not factors of production, and but a set of rights or share of rights to use resources." Contents of property rights comprise, belonging to the owner, authority to own, use and dispose of the thing. These powers, as well as the subjective right of property in general, constitute legally supporting behavior capabilities of the owner; they belong to him as long as he remains the owner. In cases where the owner is unable to effectively exercise these powers, such as the arrest of its property for the debts or where the property unlawfully was held by another person, he does not lose either the powers themselves or the property rights in general. To disclose the content of property rights, it is necessary to define each of the powers belonging to the owner. Let's start with ownership.
Competence of ownership is the legally backed possibility of economic domination of the owner of the thing. It concerns the economic dominion over the thing, which does not require that the owner is in direct contact with it. For example, leaving on a long trip, the owner remains the owner of his apartment and the belongings located in it.
Possession of a thing may be illegal. By law possession is called legal, if it is based on any legal basis, i.e. the legal title of ownership. Legal ownership is often referred to as having title. Illegal possession cannot have a legal basis, so it has a title. Things, as a general rule, are in the possession of those who have a right to own them. This circumstance makes it possible in disputes over things to use the presumption of legality of actual possession. In other words, one who has the thing is expected to be entitled to its possession until proven otherwise. Illegal owners in turn are subdivided into honest and dishonest. The owner is conscientious, if he neither knew nor should have known of the illegality of his possession. Owner is unscrupulous, if he knew about it or should have known. In accordance with the general presumption of conscientiousness people participating in civil rights and responsibilities, we should act upon the assumption of good conscientious of the owner.
The division of the illegal owners in those with conscientious and without is important in settlements between owners about the income and expenditure, when the owner claims his thing by the court claim, as well as in deciding whether the owner can buy property right of ownership by prescription or not.
Competence to use is the legally backed possibility of extracting useful properties from things in its personal or industrial use and for production purposes. For example, a sewing machine can be used for clothing not only for one’s own family, but also on the side for a fee. Competence to use is usually based on the entitlement of ownership. But sometimes you can use the thing, and not owning it. For example, musical instruments rental studio delivers instruments for rent with the condition that tool use occurs indoor of the studio, for example, at certain hours and days. The same is true when using the slot machines.
Competence of orders is the legally secured possibility to determine the fate of things by making the legal acts in respect of the thing. There is no doubt that in cases when the owner sells his thing, lends it, pledges it, transfers it as a contribution to a business entity or partnership or as a donation to the charity fund, it carries out the disposal of the thing. It is significantly more difficult to legally characterize the actions of the owner in respect to things when he or she destroys the thing that has become useless to him or her, or throws it, or when a thing is by its properties designed for use in only one act of production or consumption. If the owner deletes something or throws it, he disposes of a thing by making one-sided deal, because the will of the owner is directed for abandonment of property rights. But if the ownership is terminated as a result of single-use of the item, the will of the owner is not directed towards the termination of the right of ownership, but towards extracting useful properties out of the things. Therefore, in this case there is an exercise only of the right to use the thing, but not the right to dispose it.
Disclosure of the content of property rights is not completed by defining powers belonging to the owner. The fact is that the powers of the same name may belong not only to the owner, but to another person, including the bearer of the economic management right or of the life inheritable possession right. It is therefore necessary to identify a specific trait that is inherent to the specified competence exactly as authority of the owner. It is in the fact that the owner uses the powers vested in him at its discretion. As to the property rights, the exercise of the right at discretion including disposal means that the power (the will) of the owner is based directly on the law and exists independently of the authorities of all other persons in respect of the same things. Authorities of all other persons are not only based on the law, but also are dependant on the authority of the owner, affected by it. Ownership has the property of elasticity. This means that it has an inherent ability to recover in the same volume as soon as the connections of limitations no longer exist.