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Essential Reading... 2010-02-15

Reviewer: K. Hookey

A quick and concise run through why corporations can't be trusted and the evil that they can do (I think it's only 167 pages long). I also recommend "Greed, Inc." by Wade Rowland, which covers much the same ground.

Must have primer on history of the modern corporation 2009-10-25

Reviewer: Jean Lingelbach

This is an easy to read,interesting look at the history of the modern corporation. If you work for one I would suggest you read this book as it will explain a lot of the "why" your corporation makes the decisions it does.

Must Read for anyone dealing with large companies 2009-08-30

Reviewer: A. J. Kindsvater

I have provided many friends and business associates with this book. I read it several years ago and it covers the actions of large corporations. Having dealt with large automotive companies for over 45 years I found this book very interesting as it explained why large corporations do what they do. It will not make you happy but it will give you great information and understanding about how corporations think and make decisions.

it's Happening 2009-08-12

Reviewer: Patty Miller

this is an excellent expose of how business has taken over American life and politics.

Interesting but badly flawed 2009-01-03

Reviewer: P. Brooks

This is a well written work but shallow in analysis. Joel Bakan does identify part of a real problem but offers the unoriginal and tired solution that more regulation is necessary. He misses the point that so-called deregulation of corporations and so-called privatization has been largely illusory and deceptive. Those words have been used to cloak a vast shell game where regulation and oversight have been used in a cosy government-corporate tango to favour the big political, corporate, and financial muscle. You cannot separate the oligarchical interests of big politicians and big bankers and big corporations. A single word describes it: CORRUPTION--albeit often subtle.

No amount of extra regulation helps. In fact, quite the reverse. The more regulation, the more corruption flourishes. Big corporations cope easily with regulation and, by extension, corruption. The small family business and the consumer suffers most.

Bakan gives a passing nod to this but weakly responds that at least the ordinary person has an occasional democratic vote at the ballot box.

It is painfully obvious that democracy (in the sense of governance truly representing the bulk of the population) has failed in the West. The citizen is ignored, even on major issues. (Iraq war? Banker Bailout Scam?) A few weeks before election time a left-right glove puppet charade is conducted. Big corporate funded and very wealthy identi-candidates are sold via the corporate media, while real candidates who might effect real change are censored, sidelined, and denigrated.

Bakan makes passing mention of a much better way the citizen can vote - with their pocket books and with boycott. But he denigrates it by saying no one can be expected to vote against their self-interest. Huh? Is voting for a generally corrupt politician who 'might' do some good for you on one out of a thousand issues, and who 'might' stand up to the financial blandishments offered by Big Business, a better bet than refusing to buy the products of a rogue corporation.

Bakan makes no mention of the real solution--Common Law (CL). Perversely, the very laws and regulations that he is proposing have been steadily diminishing this option. He of all people, a Professor of Law, should know that. For instance, Bakan gives an example of a man whose white shirt is soiled by fallout from a polluting smoke stack. He says we need regulation to stop that kind of damage to the interests of society and individuals. Well, sir, we've had the remedy for centuries. The principles are well established and the remedy is simple. Why neglect CL? One reason might be because corporations and lawyers--and Law Professors--love confusion and the importance it gives the practitioners of regulatory law. They can hide behind thickets of legislation. They profit, the costs are passed on to poor taxpayer and consumer.

Governments everywhere are turning to statute law and regulation to undermine Common Law precisely to protect corporations. It also makes legislators look important and appear to be 'doing something'. The American, British, and Australian governments have all recently passed, or are proposing to pass, laws protecting Big Pharma from claims of negligence and liability from any damage caused by drugs - even if the companies know of them in advance and fail to warn victims. Similar non-liability laws are increasingly applied to protect Corporates. It is a self -fulfilling cycle: The more government interferes, the more the market is destabilized and so the more excuse to interfere. Mr. Bakan wants to give more regulatory powers to these sorts of regimes?

Finally, Mr. Bakan rather stresses the evil pathology of corporations. True, consequences of corporate actions can be evil. Regulation and government protections enhance this pathology. Robust application of CL would diminish it.

He strongly criticizes Risk/Benefit analysis and quotes a harrowing example, implying that there is no place for Risk/Benefit analysis where there is possibility of harm to the public. Well, sorry, but we can do nothing in this life without accepting an element of risk and knowing that some of that risk is going to come home somewhere at sometime. In the British Government Health Service Risk or Cost Benefit Analysis costs the lives of patients every single day. It is a hard fact that you cannot spend millions of pounds to extend the life of a patient for a few weeks - or even a few years. The particular case Joel Bakan examines could not be excused, but--once again--application of rights under Common Law pulled the company back into line, whereas relying solely on Government regulation would likely have failed, and possibly have facilitated a cover-up.

I have long puzzled how to deal with the corporate failings that this book highlights. I did not find any answers here. In describing the Big Corporation Mr. Bakan might just as well have been describing it's pathological crony-on-steroids, Big Government, whom he believes should be given more power. The diagnosis is flawed and the course of treatment proposed would make matters worse--much worse.

The one star reviews by Mr. Manheim and Richard criticize this work from a different perspective. I commend their views as true and very perceptive.

Still, The Corporation is worth reading.