With the arguable exception of the disastrous British Leyland experiment in the 1970s, even the Europeans never went this far. Not in post-war France, when Charles DeGaulle nationalized Renault SA in 1945 to punish its founder for alleged enemy collaboration, a stake that has diminished to 15 percent over time. Not in Germany, where the state of Lower Saxony owns 20 percent of Volkswagen AG and its minister-president sits on VW’s supervisory board alongside representatives of labor.
