Private property is always subject to the legal specifications of the legal code of each nation, but broadly speaking, it has the following characteristics:
It is subject to free trade. Anyone can buy or sell private property as long as said transaction is made in accordance with the provisions of the civil codes and ordinances that regulate the matter.
It is individual. Private property can have only one owner at a time (unless it is a company, which several shareholders own, but each one owns a limited number of different shares).
It’s free. Each owner of private property can do with it whatever he wants, within the framework of the laws.
She is strongly protected. The capitalist system, in general, protects private property through laws, organizations and actions that prevent anyone from appropriating someone else’s property and that provide reparations for those whose private property is violated by third parties.
- It is perpetual.The lordship over private property does not expire over time and can be transferred in the event of the death of the owner to his close relatives or to whomever he decides during his lifetime.
Other forms of property
While the existence of private property raises the possibility of an individual or a group of them taking over (alienating) the movable or immovable property available in society, other different forms of possession arise as an alternative, especially by the leftist sectors of society, committed to the socialization and democratization of goods considered scarce.
These other forms of property are:
- Public or social property. That which belongs to the State and institutions that do not have an owner.
- Community property. That which belongs to a community or an organized social cooperative, that is, to many individuals committed not to personal enrichment but to community benefit.
Private property assets are not alienable under any circumstances without the express will of their owner (except in cases of nationalization or nationalization carried out by the State for the common good), and doing so in any way constitutes a crime punishable by law. Many consider the protection of private property one of the tasks of the forces of public order and the State.
Differences between private and public property
Private property is distinguished from public property in that while the former belongs to natural or legal individuals, the latter is part of the patrimony “of everyone”, that is, that held by the State or public institutions. This public heritage, such as squares, national parks, or the government house itself, belongs to all inhabitants equally.
Privatization
Privatization is the process of converting part of public assets into private assets and selling them to a new owner who will manage them as he sees fit. It is a frequent process in insolvent States in need of capital, which offer part of their assets to the highest bidder in this way.
Nationalization or expropriation
The opposite process to privatization is called nationalization: the forced sale of a private asset, which is purchased by the State and becomes public. This process is standard in most authoritarian States and especially in governments with a socialist tendency, which seeks to increase the number of State assets.
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