In Economics, '''government monopoly''' is a form of Coercive_monopoly in which a Government agency is the sole provider of a particular good or service and competition is prohibited by law. It is usually distinguished from a Government-granted_monopoly, where the government grants a monopoly to a private individual or company. A government monopoly may be run by any level of government - national, regional, local; for levels below the national, it is a Local_monopoly. The term '''state monopoly''' usually means a government monopoly run by the national government, although it may also refer to monopolies run by regional entities called "states" (notably the US_states). == Examples == In many countries, the Postal_system is run by the government with competition forbidden by law in some or all services. Also, government monopolies on Public_utilities and Railroads have historically been common, though recent decades have seen a strong Privatization trend throughout the Industrialized_world. ==See also== *Nationalization *Government-granted_monopoly *Coercive_monopoly *Natural_monopoly *Monopoly Category:Market_failure