The process of economic globalisation has led to important changes in business strategies and in economic policy, whose traditional approach based on the intervention of public administrations has gradually been replaced by another paradigm that has found its reference elements in liberalisation, the defence of competition and privatisation.
It is true that central administrations have found in privatisation a path that has allowed them to focus their attention on the genuine mission that corresponds to the executive power. But it is also true that many sub-central administrations have chosen the figure of the public company - and also the public foundation - to solve problems that, on many occasions, can be efficiently tackled by private companies.