commanding heights
Positions of control
Commanding heights are elevated positions that offer strategic military advantage—hilltops or ridges from which forces can observe and control surrounding territory.
The phrase now primarily refers to the dominant sectors of an economy: heavy industry, banking, transportation, energy.
The government retained control of the commanding heights while privatizing smaller enterprises.
The metaphor suggests that whoever controls these key sectors controls the economic landscape.
- railroadsTrain transportation systems
- energyPower to do work
- privatizationState sells public assets
- peakUtmost height attained
- towerTall slender edifice
nationalization · transportation · dominance · highways · socialism · capitalism · private enterprise · state ownership · public sector · state control · central planning · mixed economy · vantage · Lenin · leadership · deregulation · control · interventionism
commanding heightsmargins
Edges of a page
periphery · small business · cottage industries · grassroots · backwaters
commanding heightsthe bottom
Lowest part underneath
powerlessness · the periphery · the masses · dependency · weakness
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