Nationalization of electricity and oil in core and periphery: Norway versus Mexico

The aim of this thesis is to find the historical differences of nationalization in a peripheral and in a central country. I will look at and compare the development and the processes of nationalization of the petroleum and hydropower industries in Mexico and Norway and how these differed from a world system perspective. The question of nationalization of resources and the countries' respective history in this field are oftentimes invoked in discourses in both countries. The latest examples thereof were the debate about the need to join the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER), a regulator that all EU members are part of without most even being aware that their country is participating in it, but that in the case of Norway's decision to join it in spring 2018 lead to massive campaigns involving trade unions and environmental organizations, and which the Norwegian Labor party have a large internal debate on whether joining an organization that regulated energy trade would have negative consequences for Norway1. In Mexico, the theme of oil is one of the favorite themes of newly elected President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador. He promised that he would stop any privatization efforts of either electricity or petrol sector should he win. Given that the question seems so important to each country, one has to wonder why the outcome is so different