Among the countries which adopted planning shortly after World War II are France, the Netherlands, and Norway. Public Enterprise Limited government ownership and management of the means of production has long been advocated, especially for certain public or merit goods. Even Adam Smith recognized the need for government to perform such functions as providing postal service and operating toll roads and port facilities. Wholesale government ownership and management, however, is a 20th century phenomenon. It, like national economic planning, originated in Russia as part of that country's industrialization drive.
Many western countries engage in public enterprise.
The postal service, once the sole domain of the federal government, was down-graded to government agency status in 1971 and has much competition from private couriers. Conrail, which was created from the old Penn Central Railroad after the latter's bankruptcy, was privatized or sold back to the private sector in 1987. Prior to the twentieth century, it used tariffs, imposts, and customs duties to both raise revenue and control imports. The list could go on. In fact, the extent of regulation had become so pervasive that 1980 ushered in a decade of backlash against overregulation.