This book confronts some of the most important questions related to liberalization, regulation, and the role of the nation state in an increasingly international economy. In the face of powerful transitional pressures for change, to what extent are states able to maintain stable institutional frameworks? Do different domestic structures generate dissimilar patterns of policy-making and economic performance? How important are past institutional choices to subsequent reform? The author addresses these questions through a study of the transformations of a strategic economic sector, telecommunications, in Britain and France over the past three decades. It analyses the theoretical strengths and weaknesses of various models of public policy formation and, the role and reform of national institutions and the continuing role of the nation state.