!!!Gemeinwirtschaft

Enterprises, State-owned, in Austria: serve the public economic 
interests; formerly also summary term referring to all enterprises run 
by the Federal government, the provinces or the municipalities as well 
as to the cooperatives. In a different sense, the German term 
"Gemeinwirtschaft" refers to an economic system similar to a planned 
economy, with special regard to publicly owned capital goods. 
Especially on the municipal level many important public duties can 
only be carried out by means of enterprises serving the public 
economic interests. The market economy tries to minimize the number of 
such enterprises and prefers privately organized enterprises.

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Since the 16%%sup th/%  century enterprises serving the public 
economic interests have existed particularly in large municipalities 
(such as brick factories, cemeteries, baths, etc.) The following 
enterprises have been put under municipal administration in Vienna: 
the water mains network that is supplied with Alpine spring water, gas 
works and power stations (after 1900), tram network and undertakers. 
During the 1%%sup st/%  Republic  Community Housing was of great 
importance. In the 2%%sup nd/%  Republic this activity has largely 
been organized by co-operatives serving public economic well-being ( 
Housing Promotion). Today all major municipalities are provided with 
local utilities (waste disposal, lighting, etc.), public baths and 
recreation areas. In recent times there has been a tendency towards 
privatization, especially in the field of waste disposal. The 
importance of  nationalised industry, previously part of the social 
economy, for the municipalities has diminished due to large-scale 
privatization. Special legal entities are used to guarantee publicly 
owned enterprises a smooth transition to market economy conditions, as 
in the case of the "Oesterreichische  Bundesbahnen" 
(Austrian Federal Railways) and the postal service ( Post und Telekom 
Austria AG). Local government law of the Austrian provinces allows the 
municipalities only business activities that serve public economic 
well-being or the public interest.

!Literature
R. Gruenwald, Handwoerterbuch der oesterreichischen 
Gemeinwirtschaft, 1984.


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